Frozen Septic Advice

[bueller]

Mine froze from the toilet to the tank. The plumber pumped in hot water in the line to open. It up. No problems with the actual leach field. They repositioned the gray water line to the septic line. Running the warm water a little keeps it open.

So they gray and toliet have different lines going into the tank? I assumed they were combined somewhere underneath the house before dumping into the tank. I sure hope I'm not frozen up there.

 

[wiscwhip]

I believe that depends on each individual setup, it isn't always a separate line, some join up before the tank.

 

[j-bird]

Talk about a diverse site..... you never know whats going to show up. MO was looking for furnace help, Foggy has potential crapper issues, and Bill was showing us his hemi not long ago.....oh and we also talk about deer and habitat too!

 

[QDMWRKS]

Okay guys, I am involved with septic installations. Different states have some different rules on the designs, but here are a couple thoughts on this: Septic tanks get heat not only from warm waste being introduced to the tank, but also from microbial activity within the tank. The tank is also in the ground, at least partially, below the frost line so it won't likely freeze solid. What can happen with a tank on a vacant house is a freeze on the top of the liquid like a lake freezing. The ice can plug the inlet and/or outlet pipes which are at the top of the liquid level. Deeper tanks, snow, leaves, straw can all help prevent this by insulating the ground. In this situation water will go down the drain, hit the ice, fill all the waste pipes and then back up into the house coming up in the drains. Running some hot water won't likely be enough to thaw this ice before the back-up occurs. Newer systems typically have the tank lids above grade. Open it and look inside. The pipe between the tank and house can't freeze up on a vacant house because there is no water there. A functioning drainfield on a vacant house won't freeze because there is no water there either (it has soaked into the ground). Mounds are trickier because liquid is pumped from the tank to the mound and then some of the liquid from each dose runs back into the tank again. The liquid is spending more time in a cold pipe and ice could build up with each dose. On a vacant house with a conventional system, if you look in the tank and it isn't frozen, you should be good to go. If it is frozen, I would not run water from the house. How to attack it would depend on the thickness of the ice.

 

[bueller]

Thank you much QDMWRKS!

 

[foggy]

Good Advice QDMWRKS......but I have something to add. My furnace will generate a small amount of water from the combustion process.....that goes down the drain. Maybe just a gallon or two each day. If this water from the house to the septic tank freezes.......it can block that pipe......then the whole system is stopped before the septic tank. This is a common problem in our area. Either the furnace or a water softener or some other low-trickle of water may cause a freeze between the house and the septic. Low use is a bumber on septics during the winter months. Hard to know from AZ.....until some alarm is sounded.

Thanks for all the info guys!!

 

[Jim Timber]

Set it up with a sump pump. So you'd have a collection tank that accumulates the condensate, then once it's full it'll trigger the pump to purge it. Rather than a slow cold trickle, you'd have a weekly single high volume discharge.

 

[foggy]

Set it up with a sump pump. So you'd have a collection tank that accumulates the condensate, then once it's full it'll trigger the pump to purge it. Rather than a slow cold trickle, you'd have a weekly single high volume discharge.

I think that is the way mine is set up! Thanks Jim.

Hmmmm.....now if I would heat that sump....... :)

 

[Jim Timber]

Doesn't need to be heated, just can't let it freeze.

Burying the container would do it if you had a crawl space.

If it was an issue though, you could put an aquarium heating pad under it, and set it up to run a few hours a day via a light timer.

 

[Jim Timber]

You could use an engine block heater too, but it'd need some protection from running when the tank was dry (element will burn out).

 

[QDMWRKS]

How far of a run is it between the house and the tank? How far below ground is the pipe between the house and the tank? The longer the run, the more time the water spends in the cold pipe. Deeper pipe stays warmer. If the pipe is deep and the run is not real long, it won't likely freeze your water you still have moving through when vacant. The pipe between is sometimes insulated during installation by burying sheets of foam insulation over it. As the frost moves down, it hits the insulation. Could do this retro.

 

[jwill1776]

I seeded native tall grasses over my septic tanks and mound, even in a year like this with little snow what snow we have blows around and gets caught up in the grass to help insulate.