When you depend on a septic system to handle your household waste, you want to keep it working properly to prevent backups and problems with your plumbing. However, there are some bad habits you may have that could wreak havoc on your septic system.
Draining Grease in Your Kitchen Sink
When cooking ground meat in your kitchen, you may regularly drain the grease in the sink, running hot water down the drain to help it flow through the pipes a little easier. However, even if you run boiling water down the drain, the grease will still settle on the inside of your pipes and inside the tank.
If you consistently drain grease down your kitchen sink, it will severely clog your septic line and tank. As the grease solidifies inside the tank itself, it will take a long time to break down. During that time, it will build up, block the flow of sewage, and even interfere with the bacteria inside the tank that helps break down human waste.
Instead of draining grease off your meat in the sink, pour it into an old coffee can or glass canning jar. Then, you can safely discard it in the trash without contaminating and blocking off your septic system.
Using Your Garbage Disposal Too Much
When you wash your dishes, you may find it easier to scrape off the plates and pans in your sink and let the garbage disposal take of it for you. Since the disposal grinds up the food into small pieces, you may think that it does not interfere with your septic system.
However, along with any grease content in the discarded food, these food particles still settle in the septic tank and build up over time. Also, while there, this food can then attract other bacteria that are not normally a part of the system, throwing off the ecosystem inside the septic tank. These new bacteria could then overtake the beneficial ones, and lead to waste buildup because the new ones are more likely to eat the food than waste.
Instead of using your garbage disposal to handle all of your unwanted food, scrape the plates and pans off in the garbage. Then, if some food is still stuck to the plates, you can then use your garbage disposal to deal with this small amount.
Doing All of Your Laundry on the Same Day
If you have a busy schedule during the week, you may decide that it is easier to do all of your laundry on the same day. While this may seem more convenient, washing all of your clothes and linens within a short period of time can disrupt your septic system.
When a large amount of gray water flows into your septic tank all at once, the tank is temporarily flooded. After some time has passed, the system expels the water through the leach field, keeping the tank at an equilibrium.
However, if you wash load after load, the system cannot keep up with excess water. The water can then backflow through your pipes, as well as flood the tank to the point that it may start leaking. Instead of flooding your system once a week, try doing a small load each day to give your septic system time to keep up with the water.
Avoiding the above bad habits can help keep your septic system from clogging up. However, if you start to notice that your drains are slowing down, or if it has been a while since your septic tank was pumped, contact a service that performs residential septic tank cleaning, like Eckmayer Inc, to have them come out and perform any required maintenance on your system.
Share27 March 2018
Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Heather, and a few years ago, my partner and I got a very cheap property up in the mountains practically in the middle of nowhere. I knew we had to build, but there were many elements that I overlooked. I never even considered the idea that we wouldn't be connected to a town sewer system for example. However, I learned quickly as we built our septic tank. Through the process, I also researched a lot of alternatives to ensure we got the perfect septic system for our needs. If you are building on a new property and you don't have the option of sewer, this blog has everything you need to know about septic systems. I truly love to help others, and I hope these posts help you.
