Septic Tank Pumping, and why it’s important.

Septic system pumping and maintenance from Effingham Sewer Service.

An average home with two baths and three occupants can produce about 250 to 300 gallons of wastewater per day. That is a lot of flow for an on-site septic system to treat and process. This is why regularly pumping your septic tank is perhaps the most important factor in maintaining your septic system. A neglected septic system can quickly become an expensive problem. Septic tank pumping is a basic maintenance that should be done regularly. On average, septic pumping is done every 2 to 5 years, depending on multiple factors. In other terms, when the sludge and scum levels reach 30% of the tank’s capacity, it’s time to pump your septic tank. Understanding how your septic tank and the system operates, proper septic tank care, adequate septic tank pumping frequency, and other septic maintenance tasks, will contribute significantly in maximizing the life of your system and will ensure its healthy working condition throughout.

You should have your septic tank pumped when you observe any of the following:

  • Total depth of scum + sludge layers equals 1/3 of the actual depth of the septic tank

  • The bottom of the septic tank outlet baffle has less than 3 inches of clearance from the base of the floating scum layer

  • The bottom of the outlet baffle is less than 6 inches away from the top of the sludge layer at the tank’s bottom

For a septic tank pumping to be effective, the settled sludge and floating scum layers need to be removed from the tank and not just the liquid effluent. The main objective of pumping a septic tank is to remove the solids (sludge and scum) from the septic tank and thus increasing the tank’s effluent retention time. Just pumping out the liquid effluent is not beneficial to the system. In fact, leaving the solids behind means that the actual remaining tank volume available for wastewater treatment is less.

Times to Plan a Septic Tank Pumping:

Before family reunions, large parties, or any special occasions that can bring a high volume of toilet use, kitchen use and laundry.

This is to ensure that the system performance is at its optimum for you and your guests. It makes sense to pump the tank after heavy usage, too – though pumping it beforehand reduces the chance of a sewage backup into your building during the big event when several people are present!