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For Morton Grove pump purveyor, business is sump’n special
The Sump Pump Company, a new business in Morton Grove, grew out of Dave Bogot's plumbing business.
Updated: October 28, 2012 6:14AM
MORTON GROVE — To say that Dave Bogot is enthusiastic about sump pumps would be a profound understatement.
He gestures with his hands and begins to speak a little faster when he talks about a model of pump he is testing that allows a homeowner to check the status of the pump on the Internet. Many of his sentences begin with “There’s a funny story,” and continue with a tale about a sump pump, often one that failed that he did not install.
But Bogot’s ardor for sump pumps is likely a good thing for the owner of The Sump Pump Company, a new business in Morton Grove that grew out of Bogot’s plumbing business.
Bogot is owner of L. J. Brown Plumbing Company, founded in 1946 in Park Ridge. Bogot, who has owned the company for 18 years, moved it to Morton Grove five years ago and has been in a warehouse area off Austin Avenue for the past two years.
The plumbing operation was also in the business of installing sump pump systems.
But in February Bogot started exploring the idea of starting a sump pump only company. The September grand opening was attended by village officials.
“This was an idea I’ve had for a while,” Bogot said. “We focus strictly on sump pumps. There’s a lot riding on them.”
In case anybody isn’t familiar with the need for a sump pump, Bogot is happy to explain.
The pumps are installed in a pit in the basement of a house, connected to the home’s electrical system and designed to come on if the sewer backs up or the basement starts to flood.
Bogot said that while installing a sump pump is important, it’s more or less useless without a battery-operated backup.
Sooner or later, he said, the main pump will go out or the water will knock out the electricity.
“The message I try to tell people, you have to have a backup pump system,” he said. “Mechanical pumps wear out. All machines eventually have to have parts replaced to function.”
Bogot pulled a pump system out of a box, a C33 Combo. It’s his current favorite, a main pump and battery-operated backup on one platform with just one connection to the sewer system.
But at home he’s testing a new system that also features an Internet connection.
To demonstrate he logged into a website on a computer in his office and called up a page that shows the controls for his pump and provides information on its operations.
It allows him to control the pump and even run a test to make sure it’s working from anywhere he can access the Internet.
In addition, the device can be set up to send an email to a homeowner, as well as to Bogot’s office, if the pump starts operating because of flooding.
Bogot wants to be sure the new pump system works well before recommending it to customers, he said.
“I won’t recommend anything I wouldn’t have in my house,” he said. “I have to sleep well at night.”
