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The primary problems with septic systems is no one has
ever found a way to make them last indefinitely. From
the moment the tank is built, a septic system is
literally a crap shoot, and there are few things more
inconvenient than having your bathroom out of order! But
if it's built correctly, drained properly and used with
a certain amount of gentle attention, your septic system
should last for decades with only minimal maintenance.
A septic system consists of a large tank that is buried
in the ground some distance away from the house, a drain
field for gray water, and pipes that lead solid waste to
the tank. The tank acts as a holding and storage
facility for solid waste, and the drain field sends
liquid waste percolating through the soil, which cleans
it naturally by the microbes in the soil (which are
similar to the microbes used in Drainbo) and eventually
returns the water in a pristine state back to the water
table. When the septic tank is full of solid waste, the
homeowner calls a company that brings a large truck to
the house and pumps out the tank. Because the majority
of household waste tends to be in the form of water
(shower, laundry and dish water as well as the water
used to flush toilets), the tank fills up slowly, and
only needs emptying every year or two, depending on the
size and usage of the household.
Most homeowners have their tank pumped in the spring
or fall once a year or every two years, when it has
filled up with sludge. The septic system is the
digestive tract of your home: water leaches out through
special perforated pipes into the drain or leach field,
which prevents the tank from filling up too quickly. The
right balance of bacteria in the septic tank means that
solids are broken down even further and turned into
liquids, with the solids remaining significantly
diminished in size. If you use a bacterial cleaner like
Drainbo on a regular basis, the billions of bacteria
added to the tank will keep diminishing the solids in
the tank. You can keep your septic tank running along so
smoothly you may not need to have it pumped for
years—even a decade or more!
The septic leach field, or drain field, also needs
attention for your septic system to remain virtually
maintenance free for long periods of time. The
perforated pipes (leach lines) that send water into the
leach field can become clogged with material over time,
which prevents water from moving out of the septic tank
and into the drain field. When this happens, the tank
fills up very quickly because the water has nowhere to
go and must sit in the tank. If you put a bacterial
drain cleaner into your septic system once a week, the
bacteria continue to live in the water that enters the
tank, and as the water moves out through the leach
lines, the bacteria take up residence along the length
of the pipe and in the holes. With the bacteria
digesting the solid waste that would otherwise plug the
holes, your leach lines remain free and clear, allowing
water to move out into the drain field where it
percolates through the soil and returns to the water
table as pure water.
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