To remove water from garage pit.

[owista]

Many years ago I dug out & lined a pit in my garage. I used Visqueen membrane before concrete base & brick walls. It has sprung a slow leak & I have from time to time to remove about 6 inches of water. I am trying to use a centrifugal pump for an initial lift of 2 feet or so but the pump,ex.washing m/c would appear not to work unless it is already flooded with a head of water (ie duplicating original arrangementis of said m/c) How do I overcome this. I cannot immerse the electrics in water so what do I do? Calculating off volume ther's 40 gallons & a bit too much for a bucket & carry job. Thanks Jeff.

[incitatus]

Try a different pump. The classic approach to this is to dig a small sump in the centre of the pit and use an immersible sump pump to do the lift. You can use fountain pumps for this. If you want to stick with the washing machine pump, it should work provided you prime it. Many of these pumps only work while there is water inside the pump mechanism. The head of pressure just supplies motivation t push this water into the pump. If you include a small priming pump in your setup (you can get one from most scrapyards...diesel cars have them) and prime the pump first you should be OK.