"Pete C." wrote:
Larry Caldwell wrote:

In article ,
(SMS) says...

Is there SOME way to reroute this RO waste water away from the septic
system? I hate to think of it all going in there.

It's good for the septic system.

Excess water is NOT good for a septic system. �Many rural people have
dry well disposal of gray water to keep it out of the septic system.

Everything that goes into a septic tank has to sit there until it is
thoroughly digested or settles out. �That process can take days.. �Any
solids that go into the drain field will eventually plug the drain
field, requiring expensive system replacement.

Water in a septic system aids the bacteria in digesting the solids. If
there is "excess" water going into a septic system it simply flows out
to the leach field. The water flowing out does no carry solids into the
leach field, solids only go into the leach field if the system is
undersized or the bacterial action fails for some reason (rare).

The amount of reject water added to a septic system be an under counter
RO filter system is minuscule under any normal usage, comparable to an
extra shower or load of laundry. It will not in any way harm a septic
system that is in normal operational condition.

The very *best* a typical residential RO filter can do is produce one
quart of filtered water per hour or 6 gallons per day, which means
under the most extreme usage the most grey water produced is 18
gallons per 24 hours (which never happens - the most any typical
family of four will consume is like 2-3 gallons of filtered water
which produces less than 10 gallons of grey water [slowly] over 24
hours). Any septic system that is tipped over into not functioning
zone with the addition of only 18 gallons of water per 24 hours is
seriously broken to begin with. No under sink style RO is capable of
overloading any functioning septic system, no way, no how... in fact
if the septic system is so marginal then 18 gallons of grey water
dribbled in over 24 hours can only help to improve the system (RO grey
water dribbles out slowly, no greater rate than 3 quarts per hour or 1
quart in 20 minutes - on a good beer night I can **** at that rate).
Only solids can harm a leaching field... if the field can't handle 18
additional gallons of water over a day then it was very seriously
broken prior to installing the RO and needed to be remediated... that
means no one in your residence bathed or flushed and your neighbors
knew you by your stench.