Just ran a test with Charmin - according to their video it sinks to the bottom and dissolves on the bottom of the tank, which I thought was a good trait - in my test I took about 20" of paper and folded it into a 4" pad like they show on their web site, then put it in a bowl of water. Well ... it sank almost immediately just like in the video BUT after about 30 minutes it came back up to the surface! I would think this would be a very bad trait since then it can float up on the back side of the tank baffles and go directly into the drain field, I would think even if it stayed on the surface that would be better. I have been on a private septic system for over 40 years without a problem and we never used Charmin due to the bad reports about it in the past but my wife bought a pack because it said "septic safe" - well I don't think it is and told her not to buy it again.

 

You might be over-thinking this a bit.
How you described floating toilet paper is not how a properly operating septic tank works.

A septic tank will have a semi-solid layer of scum on top, mostly made up of fats from food and soaps.
This allows an anaerobic or air-less environment to happen in the tank which is what bacteria needs to break down solids.

Flush down that Charmin and don't worry about it!

 

That is what I was getting at - if the paper stayed in the scum layer it would be better than if it sank to the bottom and comes back up ... maybe on the wrong side of the tank baffles. Anyway, I am not buying it in the future!

 

I've never seen any brand of toilet paper cause trouble in a septic tank. I would not not purchase a brand because it floated to the surface after half an hour. How it acts in a bowl of water has little bearing on what it will do in the tank. It's not like it's a wad of TP is going to get into the septic tank and see if it can swim to the other end and sneak out.

 

DUH! Then why does Charmin's video make a point of it sinking??

 

So you buy it........

Mike NJ

 

OH NO!!!!! Pilot Dane is killing an idea I have held for many years . . . That the brand was not important, but the type was.

"For septic tanks, only single ply should be used since it breaks up quicker," is what I have heard for more than 50 years.

 

Nothing but the good stuff for me. I want quadruple ply made from the bums of baby clouds.

Earlier this week I had a float fail in my septic pump tank so I opened it up and had it pumped and got a good look inside. We use nothing but two ply (Costco brand) and no toilet paper bits made it out of our septic tank and into the pump tank.

 

I flush any type of paper that is on sale. One, two, three ply.... Even baby wipes go down. And of course the women of the house flush things also.

But the key is a fuctioning tanks baffle. The baffle I have is a tee. What I did was put a bristle brush down there. This way nothing gets out to the field.

Gravity Filters

Now with a tank with a baffle and if you have a tee you should put the above type bristle filter in. My tank dont have a internal baffle.

This pic I can see that paper may get by if you really stir up the tank by running too much water.

You need to know what tank you have and always try tp make it better.






Mike NJ

 

I don't think I've ever had a septic tank with a baffle in it. Always dealt with 1920's to 1950's technology. That was when a 50 foot long drain fields was extravagant and most were 25 feet or less.

 

The good thing it outlet filters are commonly available now and they are easily (once you dig down to the tank) added to an existing tank. It's the best $50 I spend on my rental houses.

 

The tanks I had never had ports, either. So they required lifting the lid to add something like that.

I did make a port in one by knocking a hole in the lid, then mortaring a piece of a busted concrete block on top to seal it. But that was so it could be pumped out.