Sewage pump doing something funny

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Shadly

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2015
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Location
,
My septic is higher up than the house, so we have a sewage extractor system. I recently sealed it, and I noticed it doing something funny: Water has started seeping out from the vent collar on the basin lid.

This doesn't happen continuously as if the pump was not working and the basin was overflowing. It only happens when the pump turns on, and only after the pump has been running for a little while. Since I took the lid off and put it back, we've taken several showers, flushed the toilet several times, etc. The pump has turned on several times, and the basin is not continuously overflowing; just that little bit (like a cup of water) seeps out.

I sealed it with some waterproof silicone and it seems to have stopped, but I'm worried that there is something more serious wrong with the system. Do these systems kick up a lot of water? Maybe the pump is just propped up at an angle, and it is throwing water up at the lid when it kicks on? Is there any reason why water would go up the vent a short ways?
 
Sometimes they drill a hole in the discharge to prevent air lock. It acts like a pump primer. when the pump kicks on it sprays water out of the small drill hole. could be what's happening.

maybe the float level needs to be adjusted.
 
I'm pickin up what Mr David is layin down. Those would be my two guesses without looking at it.

Be warned....don't open the lid and turn the pump on before you know where the hole is. Some dummies like to drill the hole so it damn near shoots out of the tank. It's usually only 1/4" it you still don't want to take that in the face!
 
OK, what you are saying is that on the pipe leading out to the septic, not the vent, there is a small hole. When the pump kicks on, it squirts water from this small hole as it pumps out. This hole is obviously below the lid and just squirts water back into the basin. Am I understanding you correctly?

This makes sense to me, since, when I last screwed around with the lid, I pulled the discharge pipe up a little, so that it stuck out of the lid more. The pipe barely has enough room for the fern-co to catch it. Maybe I elevated the hole enough so that it is squirting right at the coupling for the vent?

I could check to see if the float was not doing its job by running the water until the pump kicked on, unplugging it immediately, and then looking down the stack. Do you agree with this course of action?

And, yes, the whole septic already caught me as someone used epoxy to glue the PVC down after the check valve...not fun...
 
Last edited:
OK, what you are saying is that on the pipe leading out to the septic, not the vent, there is a small hole. When the pump kicks on, it squirts water from this small hole as it pumps out. This hole is obviously below the lid and just squirts water back into the basin. Am I understanding you correctly?
Correct. The hole is normally drilled down near the pump where the discharge is screwed into the pump.This makes sense to me, since, when I last screwed around with the lid, I pulled the discharge pipe up a little, so that it stuck out of the lid more. The pipe barely has enough room for the fern-co to catch it. Maybe I elevated the hole enough so that it is squirting right at the coupling for the vent?
Normally the pump sits on the bottom of the sump. How do you pull up the discharge with out pulling the pump off the bottom?
I could check to see if the float was not doing its job by running the water until the pump kicked on, unplugging it immediately, and then looking down the stack. Do you agree with this course of action?

And, yes, the whole septic already caught me as someone used epoxy to glue the PVC down after the check valve...not fun...
is there a rubber plug about 2" dia that the power wire passes through the tank lid. sometimes you can pop that out to see inside the tank.

sewage-ejection-package-typical-installation.png
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top