Septic tank newbie.
Discussion
Whilst I didn't buy the house first mentioned in my OP I am buying another one now, again with a septic tank.
One further question, for those of you with septic tanks, do you use any special toilet cleaning products, or clothes washing detergent etc? I've read that too much bleach based products can affect the working of the tank.
I imagine there are companies that make septic tank friendly products but don't want to be wasting money on something that's totally unnecessary.
One further question, for those of you with septic tanks, do you use any special toilet cleaning products, or clothes washing detergent etc? I've read that too much bleach based products can affect the working of the tank.
I imagine there are companies that make septic tank friendly products but don't want to be wasting money on something that's totally unnecessary.
We never used anything special, except (repeating again) we were advised against putting the wet toilet/kitchen wipes that are available down the toilet. Again, unless it is a new system I would advise getting a survey done of the system as fixing can be expensive if it is the old brick type and something you can negotiate off purchase price. I say that from experience as we didn't and within a year had to replace the whole thing - root ingress is the biggest enemy on the old brick systems. Assuming it is all good they are really no bother at all.
I believe you MUST avoid bleach in the toilets/waste water as it kills the good bacteria that live in the tank and break everything down.
A few snippets also at http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/you-and-your-home/s...
A few snippets also at http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/you-and-your-home/s...
Had ours emptied for the first time (in 9 years of living here) last year. Only did it because I saw the bloke doing next doors, so I went and spoke to him about it. He had a look and reckoned it was pretty full (well he would say that I suppose). He did me a bit of a discount for cash, was still over £100, but that seems to be the going rate - he reckons the water board charge a fortune for him to empty his tanker out at the sewage works. I guess using a local friendly farmer just means it gets spread on his fields instead, so hopefully he's not too local!
It's saved me a lot of money in water rates though (about £400/yr), and has needed no other maintenance, so I've no complaints at all. Just be a bit careful what goes in it, and you should be fine. I just use the cheap thick bleach from the supermarket, says on the bottle that it's ok for septic tanks, although I try and only use minimal amounts of it. Cooking fat I generally try and soak/wipe up with kitchen roll and put that in the bin before washing in the sink.
It's saved me a lot of money in water rates though (about £400/yr), and has needed no other maintenance, so I've no complaints at all. Just be a bit careful what goes in it, and you should be fine. I just use the cheap thick bleach from the supermarket, says on the bottle that it's ok for septic tanks, although I try and only use minimal amounts of it. Cooking fat I generally try and soak/wipe up with kitchen roll and put that in the bin before washing in the sink.
They used to say that throwing in a dead cat was the best way to start a stagnant septic tank, and there are a billion things on the market that claim to do the equivalent. I phoned up the emptying company about ours, and he said basically the first dump you take into it has enough bacteria to start it going again after cleaning out!
Jambo85 said:
Don't know if there is any truth in this but I like to think homebrew sludge gets mine fired up!
Mine normally goes in the ditch but that sounds like a good idea 
We have a 3 stage concrete septic in the backyard. When we moved in we had it fully pumped out (£120) as the PO's records were pretty sketchy. Since then we had it done again at 30 months and there were no issues and level stays pretty constant.
PO had directed one small rainwater drain into the tank so we blocked that!
Each month one sachet of bio stuff goes down the loo (cheaper if you are in a French supermarket). We use cheap bleach occasionally and Tesc*'s pine toilet cleaner at 27p bottle and it's septic friendly (the big variety) if you use it sparingly.
As above no women's hygiene products and also avoid those non-biodegradable 'kitchen' wipes/kitchen roll/heavy quilted bog paper.
Just for your information, as it confused me before I got my head around it - it's quite hard to know when your tank is full - the level of fluid you see when you lift the lid, assuming constant use and no evaporation, should always remain the same, the 'waste' sinks to bottom and the fluid drains overs baffles to the borehole etc so the actual level in the tank is not indicative of whether it is full - it is the pile of waste (not visible through the crusty layer on top which should form) at the bottom that needs removing. As I said in previous posts, we used to empty ours every 12-18 months to be on the safe side.
You'll see I posted on this thread last year, well I've now been in said house for 4 months or so, and have learnt a bit, the hard way.......
For bleach look on the back and it says whether safe for septic tanks or not.....basically the bacteria in the tank degrades the contents, so putting bleach in kills the bacteria thus stopping the process on which it's based. I use septic tank safe bleach, but less than I did when on the mains.
£80-£100 is roughly what you should be paying to empty. Stating the obvious but be careful opening rodding points/the lid etc, stuff can easily fall down. My best advice is to quickly learn where the man hole covers are, the difference between septic tank covers, storm drains etc. One thing I did was to insist the previous owners had it emptied before I moved in, once you've got proof ring said company and ask them the dates they've been out, it might, just might indicate issues etc if they've been out a lot.
The other thing is to google them, there are a variety of online videos explaining the process. When mine was emptied I looked down it to understand specifically how mine worked - but take a peg to put on your nose, the smell will remain with you for a while!!
For bleach look on the back and it says whether safe for septic tanks or not.....basically the bacteria in the tank degrades the contents, so putting bleach in kills the bacteria thus stopping the process on which it's based. I use septic tank safe bleach, but less than I did when on the mains.
£80-£100 is roughly what you should be paying to empty. Stating the obvious but be careful opening rodding points/the lid etc, stuff can easily fall down. My best advice is to quickly learn where the man hole covers are, the difference between septic tank covers, storm drains etc. One thing I did was to insist the previous owners had it emptied before I moved in, once you've got proof ring said company and ask them the dates they've been out, it might, just might indicate issues etc if they've been out a lot.
The other thing is to google them, there are a variety of online videos explaining the process. When mine was emptied I looked down it to understand specifically how mine worked - but take a peg to put on your nose, the smell will remain with you for a while!!
Edited by acme on Friday 13th January 13:07
Bebee said:
Who are these company emptying for £80/100? I can't get mine done for less than £180, Shropshire area
I think it depends where in the country you are and how the waste is disposed of. The proper way is that they take the tanker load to a sewage works and empty it there. I guess each water board charges differently, so there could be a big variation. Where I am we have expensive water rates, so it makes sense that the tank emptying is going to cost more as well. I'm guessing that if you just get a friendly farmer to do it, he isn't going to take it to the sewage works! Probably just goes in the muck spreader with all the other animal waste. mjb1 said:
Bebee said:
Who are these company emptying for £80/100? I can't get mine done for less than £180, Shropshire area
I'm guessing that if you just get a friendly farmer to do it, he isn't going to take it to the sewage works! Probably just goes in the muck spreader with all the other animal waste. 
t. 
Jon321 said:
Whilst I didn't buy the house first mentioned in my OP I am buying another one now, again with a septic tank.
One further question, for those of you with septic tanks, do you use any special toilet cleaning products, or clothes washing detergent etc? I've read that too much bleach based products can affect the working of the tank.
I imagine there are companies that make septic tank friendly products but don't want to be wasting money on something that's totally unnecessary.
We had a four cell septic tank constructed when we built our house in the Philippines. We used it for five years and never needed it emptied. It should self consume enough to basically never require pumping out.One further question, for those of you with septic tanks, do you use any special toilet cleaning products, or clothes washing detergent etc? I've read that too much bleach based products can affect the working of the tank.
I imagine there are companies that make septic tank friendly products but don't want to be wasting money on something that's totally unnecessary.
As mentioned by others, you dont want anything going down the toilets other than natural product. Bog roll is okay, it dissolves and breaks down, but try to minimise 'things with wings' from the ladies.
Our washing machine discharge went into an underground soakaway rather than the septic tank, as the large quantities of soapy bleachy water can play havoc with the germ-fest in the tank.
HotJambalaya said:
does it have a soakaway attached? I've never ever emptied mine, mind you I'm never there now, but a soakaway comes off the main tank and lets the ground absorb the liquids
That is what they call a 'leach field' or something similar. Our tank had a gravel bottom in the final chamber and a 15' length of perforated pvc pipe coming out the end underground, buried in course gravel, to also spread the, er, doings. They do say that it should almost be clear water by the time it gets to that pipe, but I'd rather not taste it.
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