Thanks for the info. Next time the plumber is here, I'm totally going to ask him what he recommends. I hate not having a disposal!!
I got a dog -lol! Really, I went from, a disposal to none and it was a minor adjustment, but I am fine without it. Unfortunately the dog now needs to loose about 10 pounds....
I grew up in a house on a septic and had no clue that you were not supposed to flush tampons. When we bought this house, I learned that it was better not to flush. So, now that it is MY house, I don't flush tampons, which I hate, and I changed to one ply TP from the deluxe 2 ply Charmin. To offset this loss, I upgraded our paper towels to Viva. We also compost and I do miss the disposal-mostly because I am afraid of "sink gunk". Whenever possible I have DH clean out the sink and when I have to do it, I grab a lot of my Viva paper towels to prevent any possible contact! I wash multiple loads of clothes, take long showers and run the dishwasher at the same time with no issue.
How much does it cost to pump? We haven't done this, but our house is only 6 years old.
The last house I lived in with septic, we also didn't have trash service - we had to take it to the dump, which was only open Wed-Sat, 9-1, so if we had plans on a Saturday morning, our nasty rotting trash full of food had to sit around another week (we didn't have a garage and no matter how good our trash cans were, the raccoons got in them. It stunk (litterally).
Our new house has a trash compactor - but again, I am worried about having all the stinking food in the compactor, and then trying to figure out how to get into thing to clean the presser.
I'll definitely stick to not flushing tampons. We use 1-ply TP (we've been using the really plush stuff the previous owner left and we've already clogged the toiler ). I try to space out my washing during the week anyways.
I would second the use of the Rid-X treatments, I've had 2 friends who had a plumber recommend it to them. I signed us up for the Amazon.com subscribe and save thing so we get it sent to us every month. That way I don't forget (and it's cheaper than our local store). Also, avoid the anti-bacterial cleaners because they will just kill the good bacteria you are trying to colonize in your tank. They don't do anything that regular soap and cleaners do anyway, it's pretty much all marketing.
Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement. -From a bumper sticker I saw once
I think pumping costs may be a bit regional. We paid about $100 three years ago. We should get it done this fall again (old system) as a preventative measure (last 2 times we pumped when the tank backed up)
Tara and Terry: May 13, 2006
Elizabeth Vittoria: December 21, 2007
grew up in a house with well/septic - We flushed tampons with no problems. My mom has lived there for over 35 years and never had it pumped.
My current house is also on well/septic, no problems. I run the washer, dishwasher and shower all at the same time and have never had issues. I've never even heard that running too much water at once could cause problems. I also have a disposal. As far as I know it's never been pumped. I don't flush tampons mostly because of habit. Our last house (in town) had tree roots in the sewer line. Tampons would get stuck and back up the system.
We have well and septic. Our system is a relatively new one that is supposed to be more eco-friendly (less nitrogen) since we are one block from a creek that dumps into the Chesapeake Bay. We pump out every 1-2 years. I limit major water use to either two washes of clothes or one wash and one run of the dishwasher per day. No antibiotic soaps. No tampons. We don't have a disposal system and no complaints there (county law actually prohibits a garbage disposal system if there's an on-site septic system).
We've had one septic-related issue (the pump shorted out) in 6 years.
Reply With QuoteWe also compost and I do miss the disposal-mostly because I am afraid of "sink gunk". Whenever possible I have DH clean out the sink and when I have to do it, I grab a lot of my Viva paper towels to prevent any possible contact! I wash multiple loads of clothes, take long showers and run the dishwasher at the same time with no issue.
). I try to space out my washing during the week anyways.
