Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers - Emergency Shutoff for Condensate Pump

I travel a lot.

And I want to put a dehumidifier in my finished basement.

The only place to drain is in my washing machine drain; however, there's no room to build a shelf above the washing machine to put a dehumidifier.

So I wanted to dump the dehumidifier into a condensate pump, which would have a hose that would run into the washing machine drain.

So far, so good. Right?

BUT, I'm worried that something will go wrong with the pump and it won't kick in, filling up with water, overflowing onto the carpet, and creating a worse mess.

Yes, there are times I'm away for six weeks or more.

So, I was thinking there must be a way to put the condensate pump in a plastic tub, say on a brick.

And have some kind of floating shutoff switch for the dehumidifier at brick level, so if water starts filling the tub, once it gets just below the condensate pump, it will shut off the dehumidifier.

I'm sure I can jerry-rig something with electrical tape and duct tape, but that doesn't sound particularly safe.

Anyone have any suggestions? Any pictures???!?

Thanks.

You could put the pump in a bigger say overflow pan. Then put a overflow cut-off switch in the pan

Thanks, Ed.

I'm Googling overflow cutoff switches now...

Is this the kind of thing I can assemble with parts from your average big-box "hardware" store (Home Depot, Lowes)?

Thanks for the help.

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ETA
I'm looking at a sales brochure for an EZTrap.... Is this (http://www.eztrap.com/documents/news_media/T6D1-eztrap_ad20.pdf) what you're talking about?

Is it fairly easy to wire it so that the dehumidifier shuts off? I would imagine this item only has two leads coming out of it?

Obviously, I'm only smart enough to figure out what I want, not how to do it!

Thanks for your advice.

The more complicated you make your pump set-up the more there is to go wrong..........Duct tape???

If you have a typical laundry sink why not when you go away just lay a piece of plywood over the sink and put the dehumidifier on top of it.
Or, just shut off the dehumidifoer when you are away.

A dehumidifier IMO often is just a short term fix for excess moisture.
You could look for a more permanent solution by locating the cause of the high humidity.

you have no floor drain at all in the laundry room or anywhere in the basement?


Also, not knowing where you are from, do you set your A/C up run at a higher temps? Also, how old is your a/c system?

It's ocean front, so I doubt there's much I can do for root cause.

There is no floor drain. There is no utility sink.

There is no AC.

The only contingent action I can think of is a dehumidifier.

I'd LIKE to be able to get to it more often, but work calls me away from home for weeks - months - on end.

Do you have neighbors that check the house while you are gone?

Most pumps I've seen are pretty dependable, and as little it runs, they do last a long time.

Yeah. I do have neighbors - and they check it so often that I need to buy a condensate pump and an overflow system!