Hello everyone at Doityourself.com This website is great and I'm beginning to find a forum for everything. Amazing isn't it!

Anyways I'm here for a reason and am looking for a bit of know how and guideance. Here's my perdicament! Btw thanks in advance for thoes who take the time to read! Also I did a search and found nothing that helps me.

We had a septic system installed at our summer cottage a few years back and have been having some problems with out septic Holding tank. Heres how our setup works. All of our drains from the shower, sinks, and the toilet drain into a holding tank which then when filled up enough pumps up to a underground weeping bed. I don't know the size of the holding tank off hand but it's a fair size and about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide would be my guess and it is few feet underground with a lid. Theres a Pump that sits in the bottom of the holding tank I've just described and it has what seems to be a pressure switch attached to it which the pump plug pigge backs onto and goes into the power outlet.

The problems we've been having latley are that the pump doesn't shut off at all. The conclusion I've come to is that the pressure switch that controls the pump must be toast and just stuck in the on position. When the tank fills up the pressure increses to a certian amount. the switch then activates under the pressure and turns the pump on pumping the sewage/waste up the underground pipe to the weeping bed. But the pump doesnt shut off so this poses a problem as we dont want to burn out the pump so we have to unplug it. So even with the holding tank completly empty it still runs .I was wondering if anyone knows that these switches do work that way and if the conclusion I've drawn seems practical and from what I can tell is the problem. I Do have some pictures of the pump and switch I will attach to this thread when I get them. Thanks soo much to anyone and everyone!

 

let me see if i can help. i'm more of a well/pump guy but we do have a septic tank license. i've worked on a few only for family and myself. i only work on septic tanks and drain fields when i HAVE TO. the sump pump that is in the bottom of your tank does not run on pressure. it has a float switch that is also in the tank. whenever the fluid in the tank reaches a certain level the float raises strait up and switches the sump pump on, to pump the fluid out into the drain field, until the float switch falls upside down and it switches the pump off. from what you say about the pump piggybacking, i hope you mean that the switch plugs into the outlet and the pump plugs into the back of that switch plug. if so, i would say that your sump pump and float switch are not built in together. your float switch is probably hooked to the drop pipe in the tank that your sump pump is hooked to, and they are only hooked together at the outlet. some sump pumps have a float switch built into them, which i'm not crazy about because rather than changing the 40 dollar float switch when something like this happens, you would be changing the whole pump and switch combo.

either way you are gonna have to dig. whether it be 6" or a couple of feet, youre gonna have to get the lid off of that tank. prolly gonna have to chisel some b.s. cement from around the lid to be able to lift it. when you get the lid off, you will know for sure whether or not your sump pump is actually pumping the fluid down correctly. you are most likely gonna have to change out that float switch. you can pick one up at a hardware for about 40 bucks (its just a float that is hooked to a long wire that plugs into an outlet with a female so you can "piggyback" the pump plug in the back). take out the old float switch and put in the new one with the same length of wire so that the switch goes up and down like it should. you'll know what i mean when you get in there. make sure that wire and float cant get hung on anything as it goes up and down (i wouldnt rule out that yours might just be hung up. either way, after all that work you might as well spend the 40 to just change it out). then plug it in and "piggyback" the sump pump plug back into it.

now before you cover it up, i would take a water hose and fill that tank up and let the pump cut on and pump down and cut off a few times to make sure its working properly before i covered it all up. then put the lid back on it with a little hand-mixed cement around the lid to help cut down on the surface water getting in.

anybody feel free to correct me on any of this, as i said i'm not really a septic tank man. you do this though, it will probably cost you no more than 50 bucks and a couple hours of bust-ass, but you will save yourself several hundred dollars, and its pretty satisfying to know you didnt need to call a pro to do it. it could be a good little project for a sat. or sun. afternoon. this is a pretty nasty job, but hey, if its your place, then its your nasty!, which isnt as bad... at least thats what i tell myself to make me feel better about it

 

Thanks for the reply, The lid has been off and this isn't the first problem! Lol The first one was the Pvc fitting that went fron the pump to the pipe that runs underground up to the what i know as a weeping bed. That thing broke and was a mess to say the least, I'm gonna have to have another look to make sure it's not a Float switch and I've even had the thoguht of making it a flot switch cause theres one in the shed 20 feet away from the holding tank. Whatever switch it is.. pressure or float the pump will piggyback into it. Thanks for the advice tho I will consider installing that float switch, And before when testing that pvc valve fitting I did fill it up with water just for a test pump A GREAT idea. Thanks again.

 

i use a float switch in mine, although i'm set up a little different. the only thing i have in my tank is a float switch. i use a small centrifugal pump above ground with a couple of pvc swing check valves in the suction line that runs the water to my drain field, or weeping bed. guess it could be an eye soar having an above ground pump but the only thing that could go bad in my tank is the float switch.

 

Very Good Idea!, I've just googled How to hook up the float switch properly and I think it will work. Thanks soo much you may have saved me from these terrible septic problems. Btw, I'm in Canada, I noticed when I registered I couldn't Pick a province Anyways Thanks again for the insight and this website is A Very good Idea and it's too bad I didn't find it earlier.

 

youre welcome. dont work too hard!! good luck