mobile mud pump cleveland tx

Anyone familiar with septic tank pump outs?

Septic Tank Issues

Ran into some issues with our sewer pump out last night. Problem seems to be on the suction line from the tank to the pump. Took a small garden hose and pushed it into the line till it hit something solid. Not sure if it’s a plastic elbow, check valve or plug. I can hear it hitting in the tank and almost sounds like plastic. I took a garden hose with adapters to the hose size the pressures the line up with hot water. I couldn’t see anything coming into the tank at all. After that I rigged up fittings to a small air tank and put some pressure in the line and again no bubbles in the tank at all. Swapped out pumps just to see if that would help any but ended up with the same problem. Suction line was full of water when I took it off and we tried priming the pump a couple times. Flushed water through the pump housing and the ball check valve seems to be ok. Had the tank pumped out about 6 weeks ago. Seemed to be working ok after that till now.

Sounds like blockage from the tank going out.

It was pumping out ok. I could hook up the garden hose just to make sure.

One other thing I forgot to mention was I hooked up a shop vac to the suction line and couldn’t pull any water back. Really thinking the issue is in that line but not positive. I don’t want to start pushing to hard to get through the line or put to much pressure on it till I kind of know what’s on the other end of that suction line in the tank.

Are you pumping out thru the man hole opening?

Pump is located in the basement with a line coming from the tank into the house. From there it’s pumped out to a pipe about 100 or so feet from the house. Tank has a divider in it.

Is the soil pipe going out to the tank frozen?

I don’t think so, there’s a frost line inside the tank about 2’ or so down. There’s no ice in the bottom of the tank at all and the lines coming from the basement are probably 7-8 feet underground so they shouldn’t freeze. Can push the garden hose in about 10-12 feet before it hits that plug, elbow or what ever is in there. South outside edge of the tank is about the same distance.

Hooked into the hot water line on the house and ran water out to the pump out just to make sure. Got a steady stream out there so that rules that out. Thinking it has to be either a plugged suction line or it’s sucking air. I took all the fittings off the suction line tonight again and put a heavy layer of grease on them then tightened everything up again. Not 100% sure the pump is priming though. Filled it and the lines as full of water as I could but no luck. Might have to rig up a t with a extension on it and a valve to add water while the pump is running. Maybe see if that helps any.

Is it a cement tank? There been a few that I know of in the area that are starting to crumble inside and plugging the line from tank to the pump. I guess they don't last forever. Can you switch it over to a submersible pump?

Yes it’s a cement tank. Was installed when the house was built in 74 if I remember correctly so not new by any means any more. Didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when they pumped it out but it’s awful dark in there and I don’t typically get any closer then I have to lol. Don’t think we could tie into our existing lines with a submersible pump. Would have to dig in new lines I think. It’s not backing up into the house that’s the only positive right now. Just have to watch the water use for the short term till it’s fixed.

At the far we had a very similar system. Pump was in the basement though so there wasn’t any thing on the other end of pipe except a screen. The outlet would freeze all the time unless you covered it with a bunch of straw. The last 25 years. Dad just let the sewage pump onto the lawn with a sump pump thrown into the tank. As for your problems either screen or if you have a foot valve out there it is plugged or not working. Impeller on pump could be shot also.

What activates the pump, float controls in the tank? Is the tank level normal? I don't like messing with tanks at all unless you have problems in the winter, they hold a lot of heat in use, any chance of stuff freezing up after vac truck cleaned it out?

Thats about the age of these tanks that were giving trouble. I guess they ran the camera through the lines and they said you should see all the crap blocking the line. My guess is it's really plugged up or the line has collapsed. Unless you have a check valve on the tank fitting that is stopping your flow going backwards. If the pump out side of the tank is full it should be gravity flowing to your pump I would think and should be no air in it. Too bad you can't get at the outlet fitting on the tank itself and go from there. Do you have a long snake to run backwards through the line and see if you get any pieces of crap to come back?

I had a similar problem almost 20 years ago and I think it was that the suction line had frozen inside the tank. I had not put a layer of straw bales over the ground where the tank is and that is what I blamed it on. Had also had the tank pumped out by the septic truck earlier that year so there was not enough "organic matter" in the tank to hold the heat. Those things combined are what i think caused the suction line to freeze. We had to take the lid off and lower a sump pump in to the tank to take the level down and give me time to thaw the line. Seems to me I had to run a lot of hot water into the drains and finally got the line open enough for the basement pump to work. Since then I don't get the septic truck in to pump it out nearly as often.

It has a float in the tank. We hadn’t planned on pumping it out this winter but the neighbor was having issues with his and the truck was only a mile away. It had been close to if not more then 3 years since it had been done so it was kind of overdue. I don’t think it’s froze as there’s no ice in the tank at all except for the very top of the tank near the lid. All the liquid at the bottom is still liquid. The line is burried pretty deep so it should be below the frost line. We do have a second set of lines that dad put in when he had the tank installed. Mom pushed the garden hose into liquid this morning so that’s my next trial. Cut the lines and hook up to the spare suction line and see if that works. Wish I knew where and how the suction line went into the tank. I don’t know if it comes up from the bottom or through a elbow from the top.

All the new systems have to have a mound here now too. Brother has a acreage in a hamlet and the new builds all have a system like you talk about. So far he hasn’t had any issues but it’s only 12 or so years old too.

Can’t seem to find any volunteers to help either.

We normally have a pretty good snow cover overtop the tank but it’s been kept a pretty clean this year so far. Was working good up till this last cold snap so it does make you wonder. Just seems like such a stretch for it to freeze that far down in the ground though. Especially when there’s no ice inside the tank that I can see. I thought about running the hot water into the line but it’s full of grey water from the tank so don’t really want to flush all that back into the basement either.

We used to have a snake here but it seems to have disappeared. Hunted high and low for it when the neighbor was having trouble with his. Might make a trip to town tomorrow for supplies and see if we can’t get something going.

If it's a surface discharge system it should drain back to the tank each time it finishes pumping, can't really see any benefit of check valves or I would think you would be freezing up way more often, still think something has froze after the cleaning or some blockage being disturbed in the tank, good luck tomorrow sounds like your not backing up yet or everyone is on outhouse orders