Around seven to ten years for a pump that runs occasionally, and considerably less for one that runs continuously through a wet season. Duty cycle is what decides it, not age. The pump that fails is almost always the one nobody has tested since it was installed.

How hard a pump works here

The middle home in Madison was built in 1979, and the shallowest mapped seasonal water table sits 0 inches down. Housing of that period is now old enough to be on its second pump, and a table at that depth means most pumps here are cycling after storms rather than running continuously — which puts them at the longer end of the range. The switch is still what fails first, and a bucket of water tests it in two minutes.

The reasoning behind that

A sump pump is a motor, a switch and an impeller. The switch usually goes first, and a switch that has stopped working looks identical to a pump that has nothing to do.

Duty cycle is the variable. A pump cycling a few times after a storm will outlast a pump running most of the day for six weeks every spring by years. Where a pump runs hard seasonally, plan on the shorter end of the range.

Testing takes two minutes: pour a bucket of water into the pit and watch it start, run and stop. Do it before the wet season rather than during it.

Two things extend the life meaningfully. A pit lid keeps debris out of the impeller. A check valve stops the column of water in the discharge line falling back into the pit and making the pump lift the same water twice on every cycle.

A battery backup is not about lifespan. It is about the storm that causes the power cut.

More on this: Basement Waterproofing and Interior French Drain in Madison, WI.

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