Hey guys, today is a good day to check the functionality of your sump pump. My house almost never gets water into the sump, in fact it's been about two years if I memory serves since it's ran a single time. However, with local rainfall amounts today, that sump was filling up and my pump appeared jammed! It was running but not sucking any water. And water level in my sump was rising!
I took apart the discharge piping and tested the backflow flapper valve, and after that everything worked. I suspect things were just jammed from lack of use and they needed bumping around. I'm so lucky I checked when I did.
So, take five minutes today and have a look. Would be terrible if your basement flooded due to equipment not working.
Also, princess auto has a good selection of sump pumps if you need a replacement or a spare. I have a spare on a shelf that I bought in June 2013.