Rid-X for Septic Systems?

[Wayne Boatwright]

Nice to use, essential, or unnecessary?

[Nobody You'd Know]

I've used it or a competetive product for years. Had the tank pumped for the first time at about 25 yrs of ownership; and the only reason for problems was an accumulation of cigarette butts plugging the outlet to the drain field.

The septic guy said he was amazed at how little sludge there was in the tank.

I've since switched to another product from Bio-Safe One in the NYC area.

My drain field had become "blinded" with grease; and the Bio-Safe cleared it when Rid-X couldn't.

Bottom line for me is: "Essential".

[HarryS]

You can get any answer you'd like on this subject. Some will tell you they've used it for xxx years without having to pump the tank.

I've had two septic tank installers tell me that it does reduce the amount of sludge that accumulates in the tank but at the risk of plugging your drainfield. They claimed that in normal operation, septic effluent is taken from approximately the center of the vertical height of the tank and goes to the drainfield. In a properly operating system, the center section of the tank will deliver the clearest water, which is what you want to go to the drainfield. The top layer of the tank will have the floating sewage and the bottom layer will be the denser sewage, along with the mineral matter that came from the fully digested solids in the sewage. When you have a tank pumped, what is being removed is primarily the mineral matter that has accumulated from the digested sewage. The septic installer's explanation as to why the Rid-X is not good for a septic system is that it causes solids in the sewage to break into fine particles and that many of these fine particles are suspended in the center layer and wind up going to the drainfield. When they get to the drainfield, they create what they call a 'biomat' on the surfaces that are supposed to absorb the liquids into the soil. Eventually, this can plug the drainfield.

This explanation sort of makes sense to me. I can't imagine how a 1000 gallon septic tank can hold 20 or 30 years of mineral matter accumulation when you consider that the mineral matter should only be allowed to accumulate in the bottom portion of the tank (to the bottom of the riser that delivers effluent to the drainfield). If you let the mineral matter (plus any solids in the sewage that is denser than water) build up to the bottom of the riser, you'd either get sewage solids going to the drainfield up through the riser or the riser would plug, which could allow floating grease and sewage enter the drainfield line over the top of the riser. Either situation would lead to plugging of the drainfield.

Harry

[Wayne Boatwright]

Oh pshaw, on Mon 02 Oct 2006 06:23:16a, HarryS meant to say...

Thanks, Harry. A lot of food for thought.

[Wayne Boatwright]

Oh pshaw, on Mon 02 Oct 2006 03:03:01a, Nobody You'd Know meant to say...

Thanks. I'll also take a look at that product.

[cbreeze]

Looking into purchasing the Bio One for my septic system. Being the untrusting skeptical I am, I am researching this product myself before spending $1400+ on the product. My systems does not appear to be as bad as some of the stories I have read but the sales guy insists that I need to start with his recommendations based on the info I provided (brown lines in the field - looks lie a football field) but no foul odor.

Your thoughts

Dennis C.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:

[Bob]

The last time I had my tank pumped out I asked the service guy the same question. He said some septic tank treatments do help, in fact they sold one they recommended. I asked if it was any better than Rid-X. He grinned and said "probably not".

Bob

[Ether Jones]

None of the above.

[Ether Jones]

That's because the RIDX kept it in suspension and it all went out into your drain field.

[stevelangler101]

responding to

stevelangler101 wrote: I cannot agree with your more. The biosafeone products work unbelievable well to say the least never seen anything like this before. Read my story below. I will never doubt again. Don't let any other company tell you they have the same thing either. I first tried the other product because I didnt want to spend the money but I am so glad I gave this co. a spin. Read my blog story:

I used to think like you that all septic tank additves were the way you described but recently I had experienced a totally different thing happened to me. I live in a house that is 43 years old in Connecticut. I have 3 kids and a wife. I had alot of friends over the years come by and visit my house. I have lived there for the past 15 years. Before me there was a family of about 5 as well. For 15 years I relied on pumpouts and used yeast or Rid x (along with other product ) which is basically the same thing except Rid x is bad because they add fillers. Anyhow, one day I noticed odors and backup inside my house so I pumped the tank like I had done for many years once every 3 years, The pumper and local officials told me never to add anything into the tank. When the pumper came this time he pumped the tank but run off came back into my tank from my field. So I ignored it even thought the pumper told me that my drainfiled was saturated, clogged and ruined. I asked him why and he didnt know. I did some research and called a co. which looked more reputable then the other co's which I saw online

a field tech there advised me that I needed to shock my system with their patented products that no other products would work. I was very skeptical and decided to wait. 2 weeks later the problems got worse there was a flood on top of my drainfield and black biomat shot up out of the ground as the biosafeone tech said would happen. I was very afraid of getting code enforced by the local health dept. which they would have mandated a new drainfield with a contractor which would have cost me $35,000, I did get three quotes from contractors they each tried to low ball me but I knew better they told me $8K for a new field but my neighbor Jim told me that was baloney that a new septic system would be about $35K. Contractors always quote low and charge high! I tried to first save some money with some cheaper septic products but nothing worked. Then I called back biosafeone is a desapate attempt to fix my septic system. Biosafeone was not cheap but turned out to be worth every penny!

I called back BioSafeOne to order biosafeone products after all of biosafeone's references that were given to me came back very positive but I was still skeptical because nothing else had worked at this point.Yet all the references spoke highly of the biosafeone products. So I deceided to shock my system using 11 pails of their BIO-112 Heavy Sludge Digester along with their 3 Yr. BOSS product and 1 Biocube . Within 2 weeks all the flood had dried up within 3 days all backups and odors were gone. I was totally amazed in shock!! I could not believe how well the products reversed 43 years of sewage buildup! Just goes to show you the big lie is dont add anything to your septic and everything will be fine just pump it. I found out later that my pumper was directly related to the replacement guy. He was mad that I didnt hire him too. How ironic. My conclusion is that it is one VERY BIG LIE and MISCONSCEPTION TO NOT ADD ANYTHING TO YOUR SEPTIC TANK TO MAINTAIN. Another big lie iis to just rely on pumpouts nothing could be further from the truth. The local government, pumpers and replacement people all profit when the system fails so they tell you this to expect your system to fail in time. The Biosafeone tech explained to me that when their BOSS product is used from day one total and complete digestion occurs of all incoming waste therefore nothing accumulates in the tank or field or pipes so obviously there is nothing to pump out and even better no big replacement bill. I totally refute all other comments on this page if you havent tried these biosafeone.com products then you really have missed something! Thank you so much Biosafeone for saving me a fortune ! You guys are great!

Nobody You'd Know wrote:

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[willshak]

stevelangler101 wrote the following:

Original message posted October 2, 2006

[Tony Miklos]

To stevelangler101,

Trust me, if you are an intelligent man, posting from that site will make you appear stupid. If you aren't intelligent, well that's why you posted from there. Read and study about "usenet" and "newsgroups" give it a month or so to learn a little. Then find the proper way to post and you will never let the homeownershrub make you look stupid again.