Liberty Pumps287 1/2-Horse Power 1-1/2-Inch Discharge 280-Series Automatic Submersible Sump Pump with VMF Switch

If you're looking at a Liberty Pump, you're most likely also comparing it to a Zoeller Pump. First off, both are excellent choices and plenty of people in their reviews will tell you that they are far superior to what you'll find at the 'big box' stores. I wholeheartedly agree. Both brands offer several pumps on Amazon that are excellent values, given their construction, price, features and U.S. manufacture/assembly. Given all of that has been covered by others, I thought I'd focus on why I chose Liberty, and in the process hopefully point out some little-discussed points that differentiate two excellent brands. I do own a Zoeller M53 which has provided me with trouble free service for some time. I purchased the Liberty 287 because of its increased power (1/2 vs. 1/3hp) and corresponding water output. I've had a couple of close calls where the amount of water coming into my sump nearly exceeded the capacity of my smaller Zoeller pump and almost flooded my finished basement.1. Switch Design: Liberty and Zoeller use various switch designs including floats, etc. However, for for this discussion, I will focus on what appear to be the most popular designs from each respective manufacturer. The Zoeller Mxx series generally use a mechanical switch actuated by a float/rod/arm assembly. The Liberty 2xx series generally use a magnetic/reed switch actuated by a motor body-conformal rod/float assembly. In my research, I found several instances of switch failure on the Zoeller, either apparently caused by water intrusion into the switch housing or mechanical failure. My opinion is the magnetic/reed switch is a superior design because the switch housing containing a reed switch doesn't need to have a rubber seal/gasket to seal the switch arm, therefore eliminating this failure mode.2. Motor shaft: Deep in the specifications of the Liberty pump (available at their website), one will find that the motor shaft is specified as being manufactured from stainless steel. I could find no such material specification for the motor shaft for the Zoeller pumps. Why does this matter? Quite simply because corrosion and pitting of the rotor shaft can cause the shaft to seize in the motor housing, causing the motor windings to overheat and the insulation to fail. Also, pitting of the shaft can cause premature shaft seal failure through accelerated abrasion of the rubber or elastomeric shaft seals. Finally, in sumps where brine water discharge from a water softener is introduced, a stainless shaft may be the difference between a trouble-free pump and a failure. (the ideal solution in this situation is a bronze pump, which resists salt corrosion far better than the cast iron pumps reviewed here. Both Zoeller and Liberty manufacture bronze pumps).3. Bearings: Liberty specifies (again in the specification documents available on their website) that the motor shaft is supported by ball bearings. Zoeller references bushings made from the same material as the motor housing (cast iron). Generally, higher quality motors use ball bearings and in this case, where the pump may be used very frequently or infrequently, I think ball bearings are a superior anti-friction bearing to cast iron bushings.Other thoughts: Some may find that the cast iron impeller used by Zoeller on some models may be reason to purchase over the engineered plastic impeller in Liberty pumps, particularly if the pump is operated in environments with lots of particulates in the drain water (i.e. sandy or silty environments) In my application the above features that I've highlighted outweigh the potential benefits of a cast iron impeller.Again, both are excellent brands that represent the best that American manufacturing offer. Neither is a bad choice as both offer a wide range of products for a variety of applications. I do think the above features are tangible reasons to go with a Liberty pump over the Zoeller and reflect Liberty's focus on product innovation and improvement._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________UPDATE 12/2014_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The pump continues to operate flawlessly and impress me with its quiet operation. I've yet to have a big storm to test its abilities relative to the Zoeller but I'm quite happy with how well its performed thus far.Year 8 UpdateThe pump continues to operate flawlessly. In the spring, we often get a lot of rain and the pump runs as frequently as every 15-20 seconds. In the summer, it may not run for weeks on end. Still runs great.I now have the pump hooked up to a low frequency inverter-charger with 2 lead-acid batteries. When the power is on, it operates as normal with the inverter-charger passing through utility power. When there’s an outage, it switches to the inverter. Works great and the pump doesn’t seem bothered by the source of power. I also have a 12v backup pump but given the amount of water we sometimes get, I never felt comfortable relying on that as the sole backup.I have also installed a level sense system that reports water level, temperature, etc. as my pit is covered with a bolted-on cover.It’s a great pump. Sad to see that Amazon is reporting that it’s made in China (which was not the case when I bought mine). Hopefully an error.

I upgraded to this pump when I thought my old one was dying, due to the amount of time it was taking to pump out the water coming into the sump.This one went a bit quicker, but not as fast as it should have according to the pump curves liberty publishes.Finally discovered there was a couple of clogs in the 150' drain line that was causing the pump to go slow, and once those were cleared the pump times are back to where they should be.I haven't used this pump for long yet, but the initial impression is of a well designed, well built pump that will last. Time will tell but I've heard a lot of good things about the longevity of these. I also considered a Zoeller pump but went with liberty due to the better switch design, since my basement gets a lot of water year round, and the pump cycles every 2-3 minutes.This pump pumps more water faster than a Wayne 3/4hp pump I also tried when diagnosing the problem, and is more efficient in terms of its power usage. This is important to me, as I have a fairly extensive battery backup system to keep my pumps running if the power fails.As far as backup goes, this pump runs with a power factor of 0.9, according to my kill a watt meter. It takes 720 watts / 800 VA when pumping, and runs off a 1600W modified sine wave power inverter just fine. It's similar in efficiency to the Ridgid sp500 1/2hp that came with the house, and far more efficient than the Wayne pump I tried which had a power factor of 0.59 while running steady state under full load.Now that the drain line issue is identified and unclogged I am considering stepping down to the 1/3hp liberty pump, to improve my battery backup run time if the power does go out.For backup I'm currently using 4x 29dc batteries and a whistler 1600w inverter to run my pumps, on a two circuit auto transfer switch that senses power down and safely switches to the inverter power if necessary. This is much more robust than a separate 12v backup pump in my situation, as I already have two pumps and either one could handle the water on its own if one failed. This setup seems to work fine so far but it's just recently installed, and the inverter might be a bit overloaded if both pumps kicked on at the same time.For reference, my basement takes on about 4000 gallons of water a day into the sump pit this pump resides in (5.5 gallons every 2 minutes). This pump has a switch that I believe will handle the cycling, and also has a nice height differential between on and off. I measured the switch on level at a bit over 9", and the switch off level right at 4" from the bottom of my pit. The switch is a very clean design, not likely to hang up on anything if it's properly positioned, and does away with the crappy seals some other pumps have demonstrated as only "water resistant".

The pump was so easy to install. I can't believe how powerful and yet quiet it is.

Great pump! Very solid construction and I really appreciate that it is made in the United States (and not China, like most things these days). Time will tell how well it holds out, but in my basement during the spring and heavy rain storms it has worked perfectly.

Upgraded my Liberty 233 1/3 hp to this 287 1/2 horse due to increased flow of ground water this spring. Glad i did... Pumping 20GPM with 15' of head on 90' of hose so getting the job done with ease. Have a Liberty 442-10 battery back-up pump to take over if the power goes out or to assist if needed. Well built strong pumps to get the job done!

Liberty pumps are simply the best. Buy it and have the peace of mind you need with something so important. It's really amazing how quiet this pump is. We have the similar 1/3 hp pump in a bedroom in our basement and it's not a disturbance whatsoever.

La meilleure sump pump sur le marche. Ultra efficace et construction industriel heavy duty.Silencieuse mais fonction Depart/Arret plus frequent qu avec une corde a floteur electrique.