Sump pump setup

[Matt88s]

Anyone know how you setup a sump pump properly?

The pump on our septic went out recently, or so I am assuming as it seems to be backing up out by the tank. The pump has went out before but its been years. We had been using a hanging type pump that was of a good brand and lasted well but wasn't really meant to be a "sewer" pump.

When I went to get another pump they were out of that type but had just a regular sewer rated pump. Its a big cast iron thing designed to be set on a surface not hung.

Now my question is how is the pump situated? I've always heard they sit on a little shelf thus positioning them at the proper level and whatnot. However I'm not sure that I have that shelf, its an old septic tank, 20-25 years old. Are little shelf's standard, do all septic tanks have them?

If not can I just stack a few cinder blocks in the tank to get the proper height and set the pump on that? How much vibration is the pump going to put off, do I need to secure it to the blocks to keep it from falling off?

I really have no clue what I'm doing, however I'm going to be digging in right after I finish getting some pipe and supplies from the hardware store in town. Wish me luck, any advice or knowledge on the subject would be appreciated.

[journeyman Mick]

Matt,
most (all?) septic tanks in Australia gravity feed out to the trenches and it's only liquid, not solid waste. There's tertiary treatment systems that use pumps to spray the treated effluent out through sprinklers or into irrigation lines. Hopefully some of our US forumites will be able to answer your questions.

Mick

[RogerB]

Anyone know how you setup a sump pump properly?

The pump on our septic went out recently, or so I am assuming as it seems to be backing up out by the tank. The pump has went out before but its been years. We had been using a hanging type pump that was of a good brand and lasted well but wasn't really meant to be a "sewer" pump.

When I went to get another pump they were out of that type but had just a regular sewer rated pump. Its a big cast iron thing designed to be set on a surface not hung.

Now my question is how is the pump situated? I've always heard they sit on a little shelf thus positioning them at the proper level and whatnot. However I'm not sure that I have that shelf, its an old septic tank, 20-25 years old. Are little shelf's standard, do all septic tanks have them?

If not can I just stack a few cinder blocks in the tank to get the proper height and set the pump on that? How much vibration is the pump going to put off, do I need to secure it to the blocks to keep it from falling off?

I really have no clue what I'm doing, however I'm going to be digging in right after I finish getting some pipe and supplies from the hardware store in town. Wish me luck, any advice or knowledge on the subject would be appreciated.

Typically, you can set the submersible pump on a couple bricks or blocks in the sump. Make sure you verify how/where the suction is on the pump - you don't want to obstruct the suction. If your discharge piping is secured to a wall or some other surface, the piping should hold the pump in place. After you have the pump installed, fill the sump with some clear water and watch how it works. If it shakes, you may have to add some other type of anchors.

Good Luck!

RogerB

[Matt88s]

What a mess though. Instead of the balmy 65-70 deg days we had been having it was a cold 40 deg day and rained all day as well. I had the septic pumped before I started, they were going to pump the pumping station too for me but they had forgotten to empty the truck before they came out and they ran out of room. Then they got stuck in the yard trying to leave and had to call a tow truck to pull them out leaving a 60' pair of ruts in the yard.

I used the new pump to pump out the pumping station, found out the pipe for the old pump was 1.25" while the new pump had 1.5". So I dug and dug and dug and found it went from 3" to 2.5 where the check valve was installed. I also found that the joint at the check valve had a leak. So I thought and hmmed and hawwed and finally conversed a bit with one of the septic people who were still sitting in the yard waiting for the tow truck. We came to the conclusion that without draining the Lagoon first, that it would be nearly impossible to replace the check valve as there was probably 15-20lbs of pressure against it, and that it would be best to remove the pipe from the downstream end of the valve and replace it from there back with 1.5" pipe and perhaps try to tighten the joint a bit when I had it off.
Problem solved, everything figured out. So I grabbed the hacksaw and started sawing through the downstream end, saw saw sawCRACK... those darn threaded PVC junctions, so weak, broke right off, left me holding a check valve in my hand while the contents of a probably 20K gallon lagoon about 400" uphill from me hurtled itself out the pipe. I jumped out, ran around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find something to stop the flow with, grabbed one of my carving knives and tried to whittle a stopper, didn't work, grabbed the handle off of a file and pounded that in the pipe, that did work.

Sooo, with the Septic fellows doomsday warnings about trying to replace the check valve ringing in my ears I went back to the drawing board.

A new assembly was fitted up, liberal amounts of waterproof glue were applied, the pipe was frantically sawed through right in front of the file handle and took forever for a reason I didn't fully comprehend until afterwards when I was looking at a partially severed file handle . Once it was sawed through the new assembly was slammed in place and it held and worked much to my relief. From then on out it was mostly downhill, a few blocks in the pumping station to sit the pump on, hook everything up, its working, all done.

I learned a new saying that day though, I'm rather fond of it now, it goes like this "Well, it could be worse" and is best said with a dower expression while standing out in the freezing rain working on a septic system.

Cheers and thanks for your help fellows.