More Septic ?'s

[Overlord66]

I posted the other day about our septic system but I put it in the wrong forum and didn't get any responses.

Last Saturday night a toilet flap must have gotten stuck on the basement toilet. I have all of our pumps hooked to a monitoring system that shows current draw when they are on. So Saturday night our cistern pump ran for 2 hours straight. Based on how much water we normally use in a week and our last water delivery I estimated that the leak drained 500-700 gallons extra into our septic system.

Before this happened our effluent pump that pumps gray water to our drain field 300 feet away and 20 feet uphill would only run a few times a day. After a shower or a load of laundry it would take a hour or more before the pump would activate.

Ever since the leak the effluent pump runs almost immediately. The pump cycle is the same but it is running much more frequently and after doing a load of laundry will run several times even if there is no or minor water usage.

Do we need to get the solids tank pumped or will it eventually even out again?

 

[Garage Dog]

I have been dealing with septic tanks and drain fields for 40 years and even installed one years ago, so I have some personal experience, but not an expert by any means.

My general response is that running that much water through would have little effect on the system other than straining the capacity of the drain field itself until the unusual volume of water in the field had time to perk and/or evaporate.

There are many previous threads on a septic systems and I thought many of the responses contained way to much misinformation.

There are a few members who are knowledgeable but you have to know enough to filter the responses you get.

GJ member "Click" was in the business and you could try to PM him with specific questions - seemed open to helping others here in previous threads I read.

You can try for an answer here, you can also try calling the company that pumps your septic tank and ask for their advice.

Good Luck

 

[pstnbly]

It sounds like a control issue (float hung up, bad float, depending on the control scheme) or a bad check valve allowing effluent to drain back, or ground water infiltration.

Regardless the cistern (lift station or pump chamber) needs to be accessed to see what's going on. Watch a cycle or 2 you will either see what's going on or you can report back.

If water is still coming in from the septic tank and does not stop after a short while when all water is thought to be off in the house, you either still have a leak or ground water is infiltrating the septic tank.

Disclaimer: Never enter the lift station H2SO4 will kill you.

 

[Clik]

X2 on that. Good advice Pstnbly.

 

[Overlord66]

The float is fine and the pump cycle looks good. I've watched a few cycles and ran a couple of manual ones as well. Through all off this the pumps run time has stayed constant at 10 minutes. There is no check valve in our design due to the distance between the lift station and depth of the pipe. We've always had a few inches of water flow back into the chamber after the pump ran.

I'm beginning to think that there might be a obstruction in the distribution box. The water is getting to the field but it seems like a larger amount than normal is coming back into the chamber. The pump is eventually getting rid of it but it is taking more cycles than normal.

Is it possible that when we over whelmed the drain field with all of that water from the leaking toilet we ended up flushing out the drain field pipes causing the debris to back flow into the distribution box?

 

[Clik]

You need to open your distribution box and watch it when the pump kicks on.

Ten minutes seems like a long time for a pump to run. How much effluent does it discharge in one cycle.

I think you mentioned that you have 20' of head. Even if your pump is rated for 20' of head you have to figure in friction loss etc. Some people skimp on pump size and end up with a trickle on the outfall end. They waste their savings on elec as their pump uses most of it's energy churning.

If you have plenty of flow to the distribution box but find it filling up, then you have to determine why.

A post hole digger used in various areas around the drainfield wil tell you if the field is saturated. I your test holes come up dry (no standing water) then you most likely have a stoppage in the pipe itself.

 

[Bobdog]

Dig up the box and see what's going on.

 

[White 99]

At work we were having a problem with the pump not pumping up the hill very well and taking a long time to run. Found a worn through or cracked pipe after the pump. Found it with a couple of guys looking down into the tank to see what happens while one guy went to turn on the circuit breaker. I was busy somewhere else during the discovery phase. I guess some of those pumps have pretty good pressure.

 

[Clik]

They are not designed for anymore pressure than the weight of the column of water they are rated to lift, generally speaking.