should waste water from washing machine, kitchen, or bath go to septic tank?

[yyy378]

As titled, should waste water from washing machine, or kitchen, bath, go to septic tank?

[John G]

It happens that yyy378 formulated :

In My expirience that is GREYwater and the kitchen should go thru the Grease Trap and then it all should go to a soak line wherever but not to the septic tank which is biological magic box.

[David L. Martel]

yyy,

Putting too much water into your septic system may harm it. So, if your family generates a lot of gray water then you may want to direct it away from your septic tank. Check with your ag ext folks for common local practice. My washing machine does not empty into my septic tank

Dave M.

[Frank]

Been doing this for 40 years with no problem. Just had tank pumped and operator said it looked fine.

We were advised by one pumper several years ago to only use liquid laundry detergents to avoid grease buildup. He showed me the waxy layer on top of the tank.

Grease from kitchen would be biggest contributor and should be put in the trash, not down the sink.

We also learned recently that water softeners are not good for septic systems. I don't have one but neighbor that just sold his house had to do something about his. Maybe involved a separate drain field, I don't know.

[dpb]

That'll be up to the local Code people; most jurisdictions the required answer is "yes".

I noticed one other respondents mentioned a grey water french drain or the like and another worried about too much water for a drain field. In TN (owing in large part to improper grading by the installer so all water ended up flowing to one end of the field effectively reducing it's size by half) we did break thru the surface with the drain field eventually. While we were able to put in another field of the proper size (fortunately), at the same time we did the french drain and split off the washer. That solved the problem for the rest of the nearly 30 yr were there...

_BUT_, the rest of the story is that when we sold the house when returning to family farm, the inspection uncovered the diversion and the Code people required us to reconnect back to the septic system before the house could be inhabited by new occupants.

[Terry Coombs]

Short answer is "no" . Our gray water is going to a drainage field out in the woods eventually . Right now it just flows out on the ground and waters the weeds and wild flowers .

[Frank]

As other points out, local code may not allow this. Also codes change with time and what you did in the past and continue doing may not be allowed today. I know around here where systems included cesspool and even allowing chlorinated effluent to go into a creek would not be allowed today.

[gfretwell]

I am running all of that into my septic except the washing machine.

[bob haller]

i knowsomeone who lives in the city of pittsburgh, is still on a septic tank, and their washing machine and dishwasher drain water goes over a hill.

their home never got connected to the city sewer, the home sits below the sewer line, and would require either a 1.5 mile sewer line, or lots of excevation and a 20 grand lift station

[micky]

So the county insisted that water from the clothes washing machine go through the septic tank, even though there is no sepsis in 99.999% of all laundry? What is the point of that?

And even though both drain fields were on your own loand?

[KenK]

yyy378 wrote in news:mosv82$ef4$1@dont- email.me:

No. I did that once many years ago, Caused a lot of problems. As I recall, mainly perhaps septic overflow and backups, but might have been something else. In any event, I'll never do it again.