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Ether Jones

wrote:

Pumping out a septic tank is CHEAP.

Is $140 cheap? That's the going rate around here, if the owner does
the digging to expose the access cover. It's all relative I guess.

One other thing to consider. There IS a downside to pumping the tank.
If there's a heavy rain when the tank is empty, and the soil gets
saturated from the heavy rain, the tank can actually push its way up
out of the ground, like a boat. Big time repair bill. Major $$$

An obvious way to prevent this is to run the water in the house to fill
the tank with water after it's pumped out. But at 10 gallons a
minute, it takes two and a half hours of constant running of your well
pump to fill a 1500 gallon tank.

Another thing to consider is that some tanks are not well designed to
keep scum out of the tank's exit pipe during the transition from empty
to proper operating level. At proper operating level they do a great
job, but during the transition they do not. Depending on the position
and design of the exit baffle, a lot of scum can get into the exit pipe
as the water level rises during use after pumping. Tanks with
down-pipes and on the exit are MUCH less susceptible to this problem.
So, if you are a frequent pumper, and you don't have a downpipe on the
exit, ask to have one installed.