Still Learning New Things

 

I grew up in farmhouses with septic tanks but upon leaving the farm, I thought I had left them behind as well. But when we moved to our current house, in city limits, just barely, it had a septic tank instead of being attached to city sewer. As I would come to find out over the years, many areas on the edge of town are like ours with septic tanks. Also, unlike any septic tanks I was familiar with, it had an additional stage where it pumps air into the "liquids" to help promote bacteria growth and digestions of solids to supposedly make the sand filter last much much longer than normal systems.

Part of the transaction of buying the house required an inspection of the septic system because it was more than ten years old as required by state law. It passed inspection and so we moved into a house with a septic system more than ten years old (exactly how old I have since forgotten) in good shape but of which I had no knowledge of how it worked or its function. 

Shortly after moving in, a fellow from Wisconsin showed up to check on our septic system. I was hesitant but he assured me that he had a fully paid three year contract to do so and it wouldn't cost me a dime. Everything looked great and he said that he checks them twice a year and would be back in six months. Six months later he came back but this time found a pump needing replaced costing me several hundred dollars in parts and labor, not included in the contract. Another time he worked on it again replacing something and again charging me lots of money. Yet another time he checked the main tank (as part of the contract) and told me it needed pumping and then three months after I did have it pumped, he arrived and told me the same thing. When I told him I just had it pumped, he mumbled about how something must have gone wrong, rechecked it and said everything was indeed fine. 

Anyway, by the time my contract ran out and he hit me with another contract for a large sum of money for the next three years, I had decided to part ways with him and told him so. He lectured me about how septic checks were state law (they aren't) and that I would regret the decision as he stormed off.

Since that day, eight years have gone by with not a single problem.

A few days before our vacation, I was filling up the water container in the greenhouse, right next to the aeration tank in our system, and noticed that the pump motor wasn't audible. There is an alarm system in the house to let me know when this happens but it wasn't working at some point back when the maintenance guy from Wisconsin had tried unsuccessfully to fix it. Since I can hear the whine of the motor when I'm near, I have never worried about the alarm. But I knew that I needed to fix the motor or it could cause problems with our system by plugging up our sand filter much quicker leading to much more expensive repairs. So I made a note to remember that and left on vacation.

Back from vacation I lifted the cover and saw the above mess. I'm not sure how all that dirt got in there. I checked and found power was going to the pump motor but the motor wasn't turning and was hot to the touch. I got the model number and spent a couple hours trying to find someone who fixes or replaces those things but everyone said it was a specialty system only worked on by "some guy from Wisconsin". I was starting to catch on. I googled the part number and found the motors readily available online from a dozen stores so I ordered one and it arrived three days later at my doorstep.

Making sure to keep everything the same, well except that I used actual wire nuts instead of wads of electrical tape the Wisconsin guy had used, I swapped out the pump motor one morning while it was cool. In doing so, I figured out what had caused the problem. The circular tin on the left of the photo above and below (I apologize for my thumb on the one below) is the cover for an air filter for the air intake to the pump. It was completely caked with dirt to the point that there was no possible way for air to get drawn into the pump. Hence, the pump had essentially sucked itself to death and seized up. Who knew? I certainly didn't and it was a costly mistake. But the new pump in place with the air filter cleaned out, works great and now that I think of it, isn't whining nearly as loud as before. I have made a mental note to check on the filter once a year from now on and keep it clean so perhaps I can get another ten years, even more, out of my septic system.