Posted: 5/13/2008 6:05:03 AM EDT
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Trillian and I are looking at buying a home. While walking through the basement, I was surprised to discover a large black garbage-can looking device with all the sewage drains in the house leading into it. It has a grinder inside that, in turn, sends the resulting sewage slurry out to the community sewer through a 1-inch hose. I have never seen a setup like this. I have always lived in houses with city sewers, and even the houses I've seen with septic systems have never had such a tank in the basement. What can anyone in the know tell me about the reliability, effectiveness, and (most importantly) SANITARY ASPECTS of such a system? Needless to say, we would HAVE to install a backup generator and battery bank. While I was going to do that anyway for SHTF scenarios, the ida that I can't use the damned bathrooms in the event of a power outage has me REALLY squirmy... All advice appreciated. ETA: This is a NEW home. The builder in this area has put these into ALL the homes he's built. This is NOT a DIY crappy job. |
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Occasionally you'll see setups like that in houses where the external sewer line is at a higher elevation than the house, or when the house is near the street at a very HIGH elevation (it can prevent "stranding" in the lines). Of course, NY has some pretty funky codes that we don't have down here, so maybe its something else. |
Sounds like a recipe for disaster if the city lines overflow. Do they make a check valve that can handle solids without clogging up or failing to seal? |
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Well, this house sits pretty high over the street, but lower than the main road a half-block over. While I can certainly see a concern if the city sewer blew up, the fact is that the connection between the house and sewer is only a 1-inch hose. I am assuming (dangerous, I know) that the hose has a check valve in it somewhere, or that the municipal yahoos have figured all this out somewhow... 
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Are you sure it's a sewage lift and not just a sump pump for foundation ground water? An 1-1/4" 0r 1-1/2" discharge pipe is normal size for a sump pump but a 1" forced main sewer line is unusual and unlikely. You pump would be a submersible and not a pedestal pump that the drawing shows. |
It is definitely a sewage pump. All the 2.5-inch drains in the house lead into it. There is no doubt. Interestingly enough, the setup is quite common in the areas of PA I've been looking in that have community sewers. Not a setup I'd pick myself, but there it is. Even the homes that have septic systems here have the septic tank underground, but then have a pump to lift the effluent into the dispersion field, normally found under a huge "turkey mound" that, for reasons that boggle the mind, is usually placed in the FRONT YARD and sticks out like, well, an obvious eyesore. "Welcome to our shit pile!" 
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