Septic pump testing???

Sep 20, 2011 7 Replies

Well, among the household items burned out by my power surge was my sump pump. Going undetected for a couple of day I discovered 6+ inches of standing water in my finished basement.



With that aside my concern is the condition of my ejector pump in my septic tank. Other than digging up the cover and manually activating the float switch, can any on you industrious readers suggest/recommend a method that I can use prior to or hopefully without digging it up?



Thanks


A few years ago I built an elaborate sensing system for my septic pump. It uses a current sensing circuit that activates a solid state relay. The relay operates a timer and a chime type doorbell that chimes three times when the pump is operating. This normally happens two times a day.

---MIKE---

In the White Mountains of New Hampshire (44=EF=BF=BD 15' N - Elevation 1580')

They actually buried the access plate? The whole point of the access is to be able to easily get at the pump.

There isn't much to troubleshoot. Verify there is power, verify the switch contacts are good and if it doesn't work replace the entire pump or possibly only the motor depending on the pump.

There are various commercial tank alarms that can also that can be purchased. At least in the nearby areas to here (we have central sewers) they are either part of a standard install or maybe a code requirement.

Plumber checked my well pump with VOM to find it was drawing way to much power, which was why it was cutting out, and needed replacement.

My field pump up system has an alarm. Came that way. I'm guessing it's code now. It's only 7 years old.

There shouldn't be a pump in your septic tank. Most likely, you have a separate tank adjacent to the septic tank, where the liquids are drained off the top of the septic tank into. From the effluent tank the liquids are probably pumped uphill to your fields. At some location you should be able to get to the place where the pump gets it's power. At that location you can hang an ammeter on the wiring to the pump, run some water, then see what kind of current the pump is drawing

There's newer tanks that are compartmentalized. Solids with waste water go into one side. Other side has pump. That's how mine works. Pump then pumps the water up to a distribution box at the top of the field.

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