Wayne

Wayne sump pumps keep a homeowner’s basement dry. A submersible primary pump runs the pit on its own, a battery back-up keeps pumping when the power’s out, and a portable transfer pump clears water already on the floor. The back-up matters most, because storms knock the power out right when the pit fills fastest.

Wayne started in 1928, when Norbert G. Berghoff founded the WAYNE Home Equipment Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to build oil burners for home furnaces. The company got into water pumps in the 1940s by buying the Zepher Pump Company of Decatur, Illinois. In August 1991 it moved to Harrison, Ohio, where it operates as WAYNE Water Systems and is a Marmon Holdings, Inc. company. The line covers sump, utility, sewage, well, lawn and pool pumps.

Primary sump pumps

A Wayne primary sump pump is an automatic submersible. The motor sits down in the pit, and the pump switches itself on when groundwater from the perimeter drain fills it. Wayne builds only submersibles for primary duty because they run quieter than pedestal pumps, and in a finished basement you’ll hear the difference at two in the morning.

Measure before you pick one: the diameter of the sump basin and the diameter of the discharge pipe. A tether float swings out sideways and needs a basin 14 inches or larger. A vertical float rides straight up and down, works best in a pit 11 inches or wider, and goes 90 degrees from where the water comes in. The most common mistake is a tether-float pump in a narrow pit, where the float hangs up on the basin wall and the pump never kicks on.

Then read the performance chart at your own lift. The height from the pit to where the discharge leaves the house runs anywhere from zero to about 25 feet; find yours on the chart’s horizontal axis and read the flow there, since a flow figure at zero feet is the best case. Wayne’s rule is that more horsepower is generally better, so on a deep basement or a pit that runs all spring, go with the bigger motor. Make sure there’s a GFCI at the pit.

How they’re built

The worry with any pump is that it’s cheap import stuff that quits in the second wet spring. Wayne runs its pumps through a rapid cycle test to 1 million pumping cycles, and every time a sump pump kicks on and shuts off is one cycle, which is exactly the wear a wet pit puts on a pump. The pumps are assembled in Harrison, Ohio, from foreign and domestic parts, and Wayne moved its well and transfer pumps, previously built overseas, to full assembly in the USA.

Battery back-up and combination systems

Wayne strongly recommends adding a battery back-up to the primary pump as a second line of defense, and that’s the right call for any basement with something in it worth keeping dry. The back-up sits in the pit beside the primary and keeps pumping through a power outage, a primary pump failure or rain that outruns the primary. Buying the back-up pump on its own, plan on the battery, a check valve and PVC cement as well, and if the primary is getting old, replace it at the same time.

For a new pit or a primary that’s already failed, buy a combination system. It comes fully pre-assembled and pre-plumbed with its check valves in place, so it drops straight into the pit, and the check valves are where a hand-glued back-up usually goes wrong.

In a basement that has flooded before, put in the battery back-up or a full combination system and keep the transfer pump on hand for cleanup.

Portable transfer pump

The transfer pump handles water that’s already where it shouldn’t be: it empties flooded basements, drains water heaters and flushes water lines. It’s a portable electric pump that sits on dry ground outside the water and runs ordinary garden hose on both ends. Wayne sells a repair kit for it and publishes how-to material on priming it and on changing its brushes and shaft seal. Keep it on the shelf by the water heater, since draining that tank is the job it’ll do most years.

Sewage, pool, lawn and standing-water pumps

Wayne’s sewage pumps come with automatic, manual, tether or vertical float switches, the tether and vertical versions made for tight spaces. The pool cover pump pulls rainwater off a pool cover on its own, the lawn pump waters gardens and grass, and the WaterBUG clears standing water around the house so mosquitoes have nowhere to breed.

Register whatever Wayne pump you install: registration lets you prove ownership after an insurance loss such as a flood.

Wayne lines at a glance

Line	Job	Specs
Battery back-up pump	Pumps beside the primary during an outage, a primary failure or heavy rain	Runs on a 12-volt battery
Combination system	Primary and back-up protection in one install	Primary pump, back-up pump, two heavy-duty check valves and fittings, fully pre-assembled
PC4 transfer pump	Empties flooded basements, drains water heaters, flushes water lines	1/2 HP; 1,600 GPH at 10 ft; 3/4 in. garden hose adapters on inlet and discharge; cast iron pump and motor housings; not submersible
WAPC250 pool cover pump	Removes water from pool covers	Automatic operation with iSwitch Technology

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Wayne pumps cast iron?

Some are, and cast iron is worth choosing for a pump that sits in water or runs hard, because it pulls heat away from the motor and holds up longer than plastic. Besides the portable transfer pump, Wayne offers a cast iron 1/2 HP pump rated at a maximum of 8,400 gallons per hour, and a pump with a cast iron volute that has its own priming port for filling it. Check the housing material on the box before you buy, since Wayne’s sump models also differ in what they’re built from.