We bought a 37 year old house last month and the sump pump goes off every 10 minutes. There was an 8 hour electric outage and we were nervous that the basement would overflow. On the contrary, the water never rose in the sump pump pit! We were relieved and baffled at the same time.
We are now wondering if we should raise the pump higher in the pit so that if water does raise, the pump will do the job when it's necessary and not every 10 minutes.
Someone mentioned that we may want to leave the pump where it is because the water may be right under/side of our foundation and as a precaution to prevent damage to the foundation, the pump is precisely installed as low as the house. Is that true? Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

What is feeding into the pit? Are your exterior footer tiles feeding the crock, or do you have interior tiles? If your drainage systems are dumping water into the crock, then as soon as the water level rises higher than the pipe, the flow will stop. Water rarely over flows the crock. What happens is if the tiles feeding the crock are not flowing, then the water backs up and builds up to the point where the water is higher than the foor and seeps in at the cove where the floor and the wall meet.
My thought is if it aint broke, why fix it.

If you only had a few more inches of water in the pit and it did not come anywhere close to the bottom of the cement floor area. Just re-adjust the level of the switch so it does not come on as often. No need to raise the pump.

Thank you. I will try the switch tonight. Will it pose a problem in the long run to have groundwater about 15 inches under the basement floor in the sump pit? Should I be concerned of mold, dampness, or any other problems? Thanks as we're new to all experiences with the sump pump.

Yes the water will rise to the new level at which time the pump will run and remove the water should the switch at the new location require it.

The poster said that the water did not rise much more during the power loss in the house and never rose any higher which as you know would be the normal water table height. It is apparent that whoever set the pump in the beginning set the switch to low in an attempt to pump out water that will always run into the crock in an attempt to reach the normal water table height. By setting the switch slightly higher then the normal water table height you’re simply now waiting for the water table to rise above normal levels before turning on the pump to remove it.

So why would you want to keep attempting to pump out the water that has found its normal height and is not entering into the basement? Doing so would only cause the pump to turn on and off all the time and short cycle. This is what is happening now.

Yes there are many opinions on many of the topics in this forum. Many of these opinions or answers are based on the fact the person that answers them did not understand what the poster was asking. This is apparent you did not. Had you read it and understood the posters question you would have seen why I said what I said.

As far as doing water proofing you do not know my company, nor about my knowledge. Do not make a comment on someone you know nothing about. If you have been here a long enough time you will begin to realize what the questions really are that people are asking. Oftentimes they do not really know how to ask a question and you need to read between the lines to help them.

We looked at the pump and it seems like the floater/switch is at its highest mark. It seems like someone installed the pump too low in the sump pit. I guess the only other option we have is to raise the pump higher (re-establishing pipes) unless other options are available. Thanks for your help!