Skifastbadly
Junior Member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2014
- Messages
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Hi,
This is my first post in this forum.
About 5 1/2 years ago I bought a house in the greater Seattle area which has a septic system. It's the first house I've ever had that wasn't connected to a sewer, so lots of stuff to learn, even if it is a *ahem* crappy topic.
The second winter I was here, it rained. I mean it RAINED, a lot even for the Seattle area. And my tank alarm went off, indicating that it was full. The tank I refer to is the 'grey water' tank, not the primary. Because of the lot layout, the drain field is uphill from the tanks, meaning instead of a gravity feed, the water is pumped to the field.
When I looked into this, I found that the pump was controlled by a float...which makes sense. The float senses when it needs to be pumped, and turns on.
However, here's the weird thing. In addition to the float, the pump also has a timer on it. Which can override the pump. In other words, whether the tank is full or not, the pump was set only to run a few minutes an hour, which was the primary cause (that and ground water getting in) to the alarm.
So, I don't understand why a timer would be required on a pump which already has a float to sense when it needs to be turned on. Is there some issue of the pump burning out in very wet conditions? Is this perhaps to prevent overpumping into the drain field? Does this make any sense?
Thanks in advance.
This is my first post in this forum.
About 5 1/2 years ago I bought a house in the greater Seattle area which has a septic system. It's the first house I've ever had that wasn't connected to a sewer, so lots of stuff to learn, even if it is a *ahem* crappy topic.
The second winter I was here, it rained. I mean it RAINED, a lot even for the Seattle area. And my tank alarm went off, indicating that it was full. The tank I refer to is the 'grey water' tank, not the primary. Because of the lot layout, the drain field is uphill from the tanks, meaning instead of a gravity feed, the water is pumped to the field.
When I looked into this, I found that the pump was controlled by a float...which makes sense. The float senses when it needs to be pumped, and turns on.
However, here's the weird thing. In addition to the float, the pump also has a timer on it. Which can override the pump. In other words, whether the tank is full or not, the pump was set only to run a few minutes an hour, which was the primary cause (that and ground water getting in) to the alarm.
So, I don't understand why a timer would be required on a pump which already has a float to sense when it needs to be turned on. Is there some issue of the pump burning out in very wet conditions? Is this perhaps to prevent overpumping into the drain field? Does this make any sense?
Thanks in advance.