This homeowner decided that he wanted to install an RV dump. Now you have to be careful with RV wastewater. There are two things wrong with RV wastewater.
1. The septic system was designed to take wastewater at small doses. Not 250 gallons at a time. It really stirs up the tank and causes the sludge layer to become stirred up and carried out to the drainfield.
2. The little packets that you have to put in the toilet to control the odors are not septic approved. Now they may say “all natural” and “biodegradable” and that usually gives one a warm squishy feeling that it must be septic safe. But all of those packets are really low on the PH scale. Meaning acidic. You have to kill bacteria to control odor. So in effect, you are dumping 250 gallons of sanitized wastewater into your septic tank, effectively killing the bacteria. Let alone what’s happening in #1.
But in this case, the pictures show that the RV dump was placed incorrectly. He completely plugged up his drainfield. Drainfields can handle water only. No solids at all. So as it is set up at his house. Household wastewater flows from the house, to the septic tank, and exits to the drainfield. A correctly installed RV dump would be placed in-between the house and the septic tank. That way the RV waste would have some septic tank treatment, and solids separation before heading out the drainfield. You can see in the pictures attached that the RV Dump was placed between the septic tank and the drainfield.
Modifications to your septic system should be done by someone qualified. Or at least call us for a consult over the phone before an expensive mistake happens.
Repair pictures to follow.
Thanks for reading,
Ronnie
3 comments
Thanks for sharing the great information,by reading this blog i come to know the care that one should take with septic tank.
Yes it’s true Septic tanks are smaller as compare to. Here are some tips for those people,who use septic system.
I think they should never use detergent water and hard cleaners as they kill all bacteria in our sewer system as these bacteria are very useful to eliminate the public waste.
Thank you first call septic services, for having a great website in the Vancouver, Wa area.
This is some really good information about septic tank care. I liked that you pointed out that you should know the amount of waste your tank can handle. I am planning on moving into my first house this winter and I will want to not have to deal with sludge backing up. Thanks for explaining that it would be smart to get some of the waste removed.