"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
hr(bob) wrote:
My wife and I and 2 (now left the nest) children have lived in this
house for 46 years. City water, septic tank and leach field. I had
the tank pumped every few years when the kids were at home, now for
just the 2 of us, I have it pumped every 5 years. Never had sludge
build up anywhere near the outlet level, but we are very careful not
to flush anything that we do not believe is biodegradeable, like sand,
plastic scraps, etc.

Ny wife is thinking that it is time for us to get a garbage disposal,
to avoid having to clean carrot and potato peelings out of the sink,
etc. I am a little concerned about the added strain on the septic
tank and whether we should proceed with my installing a disposal or
not.

All polite opinions warmly welcomed, expecially if you have any first-
hand experience.

There's really no choice. You MUST humor the wife.

Actually, you have to humor your local government. Septic regs have
tightened a lot in the past few years, disposal units may or may not be
outlawed. Real Estate sales people may know what buyers want, but often no
little or nothing about building codes. Some areas require them, sale allow
them, some prohibit them, you don't want to sell a house that contravenes
the code and "could" cause problems for the buyers to blame on you.