Otherwise it was the good old septic tank that had to be sustained. The first house was an old house where the latrine 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 water closet, although thankfully this was the house with the main line sewage system. Don't even want to guess what it was like before the sewer was put into the city in 1859.
For some reason or other it became my assignment 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 lavatory. Latest thinking has not proved or disproved this method of keeping a healthy system.
Good common sense can maintain a septic system very effectively
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 exact amount of h2o and cleaner 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 h2o supply into the system.
Or don't use the laundry 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 carry off the solids (and is usually more frequent on systems with unhealthy or dead bacteria) this allows you a chance for an look-over of the condition of the tank.
One of the things I avoid is allowing oil and fabric detergents to accumulate in my septic system. This is easy to do. Grease and fats are disposed of in the regular refuse. Detergents are another matter. If you are going to use a cleaner, 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 water 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 technology appliance that hooks inline with the cold water. The h2o is subjected to uv rays and mixed with ozone causing natural peroxides to be formed. The peroxides act as the cleaner and lift the grime 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 considerably 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 h2o and the lack of grease and detergents the tank has performed well. A few weeks ago we lifted the lid. The h2o 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.