Septic Tank Maintenance; How Often To Pump ?

[DwightFrye]

I have been in my house almost three years now. It was built in 2018 as a second home but the previous owners were only here a few times. I'm thinking it may be about time to do some maintenance or preventive maintenance on some of the household systems.

The house is 2 bedrooms and the septic tank is 750 gallons. I live alone so there is not a tremendous amount of waste going into the tank. How often should I have the tank pumped out ? The plumbing is working fine with no signs of backup but I'd rather do some P.M. than have an incident.

 

[IndyIan]

Earlier is better than later! Your system can work fine for a while, despite being full and starting to put solids into the field.... I'd do it this year and ask the guy how full it was? You might be able to stretch to a longer interval if it wasn't close to full.

 

[vwmaniaman]

I get ours pumped at 5 year intervals. Just wife and I but we do have lots of company. Daughters house has never been pumped till this year when it backed up. It had been in use over 40 years. got it cleaned out and working again. I would never wait that long. Last time I had it pumped it cost over $500 bucks. But if you have sewer it'll cost you over $100/yr too.

 

[JohnnyG]

I had an aeration system without a drain field. Three bedroom, but just the wife and I most of the time. It would have likely gone 10 years without pumping. The aerator was a bit more maintenance of course, but not hard for me to do at the time.
Keep in mind that if you plan on selling in the future, pumping is almost a universally required item.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I have been in my house almost three years now. It was built in 2018 as a second home but the previous owners were only here a few times. I'm thinking it may be about time to do some maintenance or preventive maintenance on some of the household systems.

The house is 2 bedrooms and the septic tank is 750 gallons. I live alone so there is not a tremendous amount of waste going into the tank. How often should I have the tank pumped out ? The plumbing is working fine with no signs of backup but I'd rather do some P.M. than have an incident.

We are two persons in a similar situation. The tank will fill to the top with grey water quickly. This is how a leach field works. Nothing enters the field until the tank is full.
The service is only pumping/vacuuming sludge off the bottom. Though they will usually pump the whole tank dry and wash it down.

I run my washing machine effluent into a dry well - not the septic; that helps immensely.

We try not to put bleach into the septic to keep the bacteria alive.
My toilet paper also goes into a wastebasket. So we are good for 5 year and even then there is only a couple nches of sludge on the bottom of the tank. Yes I watch - and smell the Septic Service pump it

You should be good for 5 years easily only if you do all the above.

Have it pumped and then you will get a good gauge of the next service interval. Many of the newer systems have filter baskets on the junction box entry to the leach field but you can service this yourself. Suggest nitrile gloves on and a N95 mask

 

[Andrew1972]

If no disposal (half interval if you have one ) this chart is pretty decent:

https://www.tricountysepticservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/septictable.jpg

We have 5 in home with 1700 gallon and follow it’s every 4 years and the septic pumper states it looks good.

The downside of 9 year interval for you is a tank or outlet baffle or something can break and no one knows. Once your leach field gets solids into it, consider it demolished.

 

[JTK]

It totally depends on what and how much you put down your drains. Multi-ply toilet paper is terrible on septic systems. It generates more paper pulp than the system can digest. Garbage disposals are also terrible for them. For two people being mindful of this, 5-6yrs between pumpings would probably be very reasonable.

It's basically a new system having been built in 2018, so that's a great thing. Is it natural drain or do you have a lift station? Kind of odd at 750g, but this might vary by location. In the People's Republic of NY, new systems have to be 500gal per bedroom.

Yours is mostly likely a sand filter system that will have an effluent filter inline between the tank and outflow to the sand bed. The filter should be checked and sprayed off with your garden hose during every pumping. There's typically 2 clean out lids on the tank, then another for the effluent filter.

 

[Zee09]

I do it every other year but the last 5 years it has gotten expensive.
Since its only me I may go every 3 years now.

 

[MNgopher]

Best bet is to get someone out to pump it, and then have them out again in 2-3 years assuming this pump doesn't show any signs of problems.

From there, you can work on setting a schedule based on how things look and if anything changes with your use.

 

[JHZR2]

My parents built a mountain house in the early 80s. They had their gravity system (no pump, gravity flow to the mound) pumped for the first time last year. So almost 40 years, but only weekend use for most of that, and rarely laundry, and nothing but paper products down the drain... Obviosuly those things would decrease the interval.

2/7 of 40 years is ~11 years equivalent Id estimate. Their system works great. Theyre very careful with it. YMMV.

 

[CB22]

I have been in my house almost three years now. It was built in 2018 as a second home but the previous owners were only here a few times. I'm thinking it may be about time to do some maintenance or preventive maintenance on some of the household systems.

The house is 2 bedrooms and the septic tank is 750 gallons. I live alone so there is not a tremendous amount of waste going into the tank. How often should I have the tank pumped out ? The plumbing is working fine with no signs of backup but I'd rather do some P.M. than have an incident.

17 years on septic, and I've done nothing to it, other than not flushing paper, and adding a cup of yeast every couple of months.

 

[MRC01]

Good advice above. I'll add that it also depends on how much fiber you eat in your diet. No joke.
When we used to live on a remote island with a septic system, I'd pop the septic tank lid once or twice a year to see how full it was and set the service interval accordingly.

 

[walterjay]

The Maryland Department Of The Environment has done a study and recommends a pump every two years. In your case since you are alone I recommend three years. Get it done and ask the pumper if it was very full of sludge and solids. That would be a good indicator of what to do in the future. Sort of like an oil analysis.

 

[JTK]

Having chatted with many a pumper truck operator and lots of people about septic systems, you can absolutely never get the system pumped and run it to the point it will no longer accept waste water. At that point, if you are lucky, they will be able to break the solid mass of goo apart with spud bars, shovels, your garden hose and be able to suck it out for a large up charge. Pouring additive products down your toilet can act as a laxative of sorts, which can "melt" some of the solids, which will then plug your absorption field, effluent filter, etc..

Like said, even with conservative use, the tank will eventually become a solid mass of non-digestible solids. Oil, wax, grease, hair, etc..etc., which is in most all waste water.

I've had pumper truck operators tell me they've encountered tanks that were nothing more than a solid ball of waxy, greasy, paper pulp so thick you could walk across it.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Public service announcement:

Just in case, check your local and state laws for any rule on how often you might be required to pump out your septic system. Really. Virginia has rules saying that septic systems in areas in the Chesapeake Bay watershed must be pumped every five years. But I don't know of any enforcement mechanism.

 

[ecotourist]

We have 2 people and a 650 imperial gallon tank. Since we moved here 6 years ago we've had a very competent specialist looking after our now 30 year old system. It was in poor shape originally but is now functioning well. We're obsessive about not putting excess toilet paper, fat or solids into the system (there is no garburetor).

He says pumping too frequently is not good for the system either. He says "Pumping the septic tank before solids accumulate to 25% or after 55% can have negative effects in the dispersal field area, so should be avoided. "

We have a filter at the outlet of the tank to protect the field. It has to be cleaned (meaning taken out and sprayed off) every 9 months or so.

Having measured the solids in our tank twice now he recommends pumping our tank every 5 - 8 years.

 

[GSCJR]

adding a cup of yeast every couple of months.

This is interesting, can you expand? The reason I'm asking is, I recently had to deal with sewage backing up from my basement floor drain and excess toilet paper appeared to be the problem. I cured the problem, but I'm looking for a maintenance plan. Thanks in advance.

Additionally, a product named Rid-X came up often when searching for a solution, but it seems to be a product intended for septic tanks, if that even matters.

 

[ecotourist]

.... I recently had to deal with sewage backing up from my basement floor drain and excess toilet paper appeared to be the problem. I cured the problem, but I'm looking for a maintenance plan.

In our last home we had new and very trouble free toilets. Except that one guest plugged the same toilet on 2 different occasions. On both occasions the toilet was full of paper. I know because I had to get it going again.

Might want to think about how much toilet paper people are flushing rather than looking for an additive.

 

[brianl703]

Public service announcement:

Just in case, check your local and state laws for any rule on how often you might be required to pump out your septic system. Really. Virginia has rules saying that septic systems in areas in the Chesapeake Bay watershed must be pumped every five years. But I don't know of any enforcement mechanism.

The Department of Health in Prince William County gets notified every time a system is pumped and they have a list on their website showing all the septic systems in the county and when they were last pumped.

Presumably, other counties in Virginia do the same thing.

 

[ecotourist]

We have 2 people and a 650 imperial gallon tank. Since we moved here 6 years ago we've had a very competent specialist looking after our now 30 year old system. It was in poor shape originally but is now functioning well. We're obsessive about not putting excess toilet paper, fat or solids into the system (there is no garburetor).

He says pumping too frequently is not good for the system either. He says "Pumping the septic tank before solids accumulate to 25% or after 55% can have negative effects in the dispersal field area, so should be avoided. "

We have a filter at the outlet of the tank to protect the field. It has to be cleaned (meaning taken out and sprayed off) every 9 months or so.

Having measured the solids in our tank twice now he recommends pumping our tank every 5 - 8 years.

Our septic system specialist is not affiliated with any "septic sucking service" (to quote Red Green) so his recommendation of a pump out every 5 - 8 years is independent of any profit considerations.