Otherwise it was the good old septic tank that had to be maintained. The first house was an old house where the privy was outside and it originally drained into the ditch. When I say old I am talking about 18th century. Even our London house had an outside toilet, although thankfully this was the house with the main line sewage system. Don't even want to think what it was like before the sewer was put into the capital in 1859.
For some reason or other it became my job to regularly supply the septic tank with a fresh supply of bacteria in the form of yeast. I used to be able to go to the bakers and purchase it. Every three months a fresh supply of yeast was flushed down the water closet. Up-to-date thinking has not proved or disproved this method of keeping a healthy system.
Good common sense can maintain a septic system very competently
Here are some of my tips that have proven successful for us.
Don't flush the stuff that should not get flushed.
Spread out the laundry over several days of the week.
Use the accurate amount of water and detergent for each load of laundry.
Don't have your rain run off, guttering and drainage drain directly into the septic tank.
Scrap the plates into the waste bin or compost instead of down the waste disposal.
Don't overload the water supply into the system.
Or don't use the washing machine, dishwasher and drain a bathtub all at the same time. Leach field failures are incredibly common and you will probably need professional help.
Being kind to the septic system keeps the system healthy and relatively maintenance free.
Avoid planting trees in the leach field. Roots will interfere with the drainage system.
Be very careful of the chemicals and additives you add to your system. If you have a problem, read the
labels and make sure you are using the correct additive for the problem.
Regular pumping will remove the solids (and is usually more frequent on systems with unhealthy or dead bacteria) this allows you a chance for an checkup of the condition of the tank.
One of the things I avoid is allowing drippings and fabric detergents to accumulate in my septic system. This is easy to do. Grease and fats are disposed of in the regular garbage. Detergents are another matter. If you are going to use a laundry soap, Read the label and use the correct amount. Clothes do not get cleaner with two scoops. The alternative was my discovery of the laundry pure system, this eliminates the need for any laundry soap or detergent, also a side benefit is you don't use hot h2o any more (a significant saving) It was a large purchase at first but now after a year or so the laundrypure has paid for itself
several times over.
So I only use cold water to wash clothes in nowadays and have eliminated the use of detergent of everything but a few of Mike's car maintenance clothes. These are quite disgusting and should be thrown away. The laundrypure is a NASA space science appliance that hooks inline with the cold h2o. The water is subjected to uv rays and mixed with ozone causing natural peroxides to be formed. The peroxides act as the cleaner and lift the dirt out of the fabric. The process happens on the wash and the rinse cycles so your clothes are put through this process a few times. I am totally satisfied with the system. The septic tank has benefited remarkably from it. We have been in this house for three years now and the tank was cleaned when we moved in. Part of the disclosures was the tank "blocked" up all the time and we were semi prepared for problems. Well with the careful use of water and the lack of grease and detergents the tank has performed well. A few weeks ago we lifted the lid. The water level looked fine and there was very little scum floating on the surface. The lid went back on and I don't think we will be calling the pumping service any time soon.