The basement curtain drain sump pits contained two ancient sump pumps badly in need of replacement, so I got to find out what made their tethered switch floats rattle like that.
Having recently stood up the Main Workbench with its big vise, I could saw without compunction:
Which revealed an ordinary snap-action switch:
Further sawing exposed the rattler:
Those 1 inch steel balls now nestle in the Big Box o’ Bearings and I’m sure the snap-action switches will come in handy for something.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
2 responses to “Sump Pump Tether Switch Harvest”
Those switches are typically what fail in my basement sump pump. Decades ago I had a 1/3 hp (Wayne) pump that had a mercury switch (gasp) which never failed in probably 10 years of use. I then had to upsize it to a half hp pump due to a particularly wet spring one year but of course by then manufacturers had all been required to eliminate mercury switches.
The choice seems to be either a floppy tethered pod or a vertical sliding float. One of the old pumps had its tethered pod snagged on the side of the sump pit, so I figured a vertical float would get into less trouble. So far, so good.
But, yeah, mercury switches FTW.