Which are good cleaners to use with septic systems?

[Dwight Gibb]

Do folks have suggested brand names of hand soaps, dish soaps, and laundry detergents which are relatively easy on septic systems.

I have two rental units and would like to give conccrete suggestions to my tenants.

Thanks very much.

Dwight Gibb

[David L. Martel]

Dwight,

Laundry days are a lot of soapy water into the septic tank. Better to dump it out on the ground rather than into a septic tank I can't imagine that any hand soap would be a problem unless someone has a hand-washing mania. Most dish detergent and many laundry powders have low levels of phosphates , which is considered to be a good thing so look for low phosphate soaps and powders since you will be dumping the phosphates on your property.

Dave M.

[Dwight Gibb]

Thanks for your suggestions!

Dwight

[Frank]

Guy that pumped mine suggested using only liquid laundry detergents. He showed me a fatty, crusty build-up of apparently fat and soapy products.

[Taxed and Spent]

you have a lot of fat in your laundry?

[Frank]

The layer looked like what you might see on a cup of cold gravy. Some sort of fatty build-up. I'd have to look up the chemical difference between solid and liquid detergents to give a good technical answer.

Most important thing is not to put anything down your septic that does not readily degrade. I'd include cooking grease and fatty leftovers but op was specifically asking about cleaning agents and that is what my septic guy had told me - use liquid detergents.

A soap and a detergents differ as carboxylate salts vs sulfonate salts. Soaps, I do know, scum up with hard water whereas detergents remain more soluble.

[Tekkie®]

David L. Martel posted for all of us...

To the OP check with your local municipality to see if gray water is allowed to be discharged this way. EPA used to approve but somewhere along the time they changed-so check.