Septic red Light faintly on but no siren- please help

[Derek Diggler]

Hello,
7 year old house. My septic alarm light is faintly on and flickering but no siren sounds at all. I’ve never had the septic pumped but there are only three of us living here and one is a toddler. The far liquid tank doesn’t look very full at all. I would guess less than half full. What could the issue be? Inside the box I switched it to manual for a few minutes and the pump was definitely working, but when I take it back to auto the dim red light is still barely on and flickering. See pictures and video. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[bud16415]

Not sure how your system works or if you have a grinder pump or just a lift station feeding a leach field or the more modern sand mound.



You can’t go by the level in the tank in the last section or last tank as to if your solids need pumped out. IMO 7 years for a couple people is time to think about it.



You have a series of floats in the last tank/lift station one high to turn the pump on and one low to shut the pump off. Those two could be built into the same float switch. You then have one higher than the high one that if the level reaches that it means your pump is not working and it turns on the red light and the alarm so you know to quit running waste in and get someone out to fix it.



Yours looks like it has a timer and maybe some other electronics and something is putting a little power to that light. IMO that could be something in that circuit is starting to fail inside the control box more than in the tank. This is just a guess based on you ran the level down manually and right after that the light was still glowing when you switched it to auto mode.



Sorry I can’t offer more. I have a grinder pump with a similar box and have had floats stick and such that send it into alarm mode and I can fix it with a long stick and smacking the float. This little bit of draw I just don’t know the cause.



We have some pros here and maybe one will be along to answer the question.

 

[Derek Diggler]

Not sure how your system works or if you have a grinder pump or just a lift station feeding a leach field or the more modern sand mound.



You can’t go by the level in the tank in the last section or last tank as to if your solids need pumped out. IMO 7 years for a couple people is time to think about it.



You have a series of floats in the last tank/lift station one high to turn the pump on and one low to shut the pump off. Those two could be built into the same float switch. You then have one higher than the high one that if the level reaches that it means your pump is not working and it turns on the red light and the alarm so you know to quit running waste in and get someone out to fix it.



Yours looks like it has a timer and maybe some other electronics and something is putting a little power to that light. IMO that could be something in that circuit is starting to fail inside the control box more than in the tank. This is just a guess based on you ran the level down manually and right after that the light was still glowing when you switched it to auto mode.



Sorry I can’t offer more. I have a grinder pump with a similar box and have had floats stick and such that send it into alarm mode and I can fix it with a long stick and smacking the float. This little bit of draw I just don’t know the cause.



We have some pros here and maybe one will be along to answer the question.

thanks for the response. I have a more modern set up with 3 lids.it’s really sandy soil where I live and I believe it called a LP system.

 

[bud16415]

Yes your first tank will collect the solids and would be the one you check to see if you need pumped. They will likely pump all the tanks but the first one will have the most build up.

Percolation soil testing was done first and sometimes too good of percolation is as much a problem as not enough.

I still don't know why your alarm light is getting some stray voltage. You might have to contact the manufacture.

 

[Derek Diggler]

Yes your first tank will collect the solids and would be the one you check to see if you need pumped. They will likely pump all the tanks but the first one will have the most build up.

Percolation soil testing was done first and sometimes too good of percolation is as much a problem as not enough.

I still don't know why your alarm light is getting some stray voltage. You might have to contact the manufacture.

Sending pics and video to manufacture to see what they can tell me about where the stray voltage may be coming from. Thanks for your responses.

 

[user 4883]

Tap on the relay and see if it shuts off.