I was able to get my pump rebuilt for $350 (a fraction of the $1,550 cost of a new one) and pick it up only two days later. đÄźmptying the clearwell with a Simer M40P mini pump. To lower the high water level, I grabbed my Simer M40P mini-vac pump that I use when flushing my water heaters (itâs the best pump available for $90), ran an extension cord, connected a lawn sprinkler to the pump, then pumped the clearwell water to the sprinkler to irrigate a nearby brown spot in the lawn (courtesy of a record hot Seattle summer). After being treated by the sand filter, the water is clear, has no smell, and while itâs not advisable to drink it, thereâs nothing wrong with watering your lawn with it⊠as long as nobody rats you out to the county health department.
I removed the pump and float tree from the clearwell. The vertical float probably worked sometimes, and the pump has a built-in thermal protector that shuts itself down when it gets too hot, but eventually the pump had burned out. This bolstered my suspicion that the sand filterâs vertical float had repeatedly gotten stuck in the ON position â meaning it had just kept running when clearwell was empty. I have meters in my septic control box that count the number of times each of my septic systemâs pumps have turned on, as well as the number of hours theyâve each been running. Checking and comparing those two meters showed that my sand filter pump was turning on enough when compared to the septic pump, but that it had been running for considerably more hours. Hereâs what a âverticalâ float looks like: Thatâs a $1,500 pump, dead after 5 years.ÄŻurther investigation revealed the likely source of the failure: the ON/OFF switch for my sand filter pump was a vertical float switch, and that type of float switch is prone to get stuck in the ON position (corrosion on the center shaft is the usual culprit). I could hear it trying to work, but it just sat there whirring. Manually actuating the ON/OFF float in the clearwell revealed the problem: Hydromatic SKHD150M2 1.5 HP cast iron monster of a sand filter pump had failed.
Luckily, Iâd noticed the red alarm light on the control box in time, because the water level in the clearwell was just barely high enough to raise the alarm float - meaning my system probably could have continued to work for a few more days before causing any serious damage⊠especially if we were careful not to use too much water in the house. What Caused my Sand Filter Pump to Fail?Ä«ack to my story, when I looked inside my sand filterâs clearwell, the fluid level was high enough to trigger the alarm.
Like the septic pump chamber, the sand filter pump in the clearwell has floats to control the pump and trigger the alarm if the fluid gets too high. The sand filter pump in the clearwell then pumps the processed effluent out of the clearwell and into a drain field. The entrance to the sand filter is #3, where effluent comes out of the pump chamber and into the sand filter, then trickles down through sand and gravel until it collects and drains into whatâs called a âclearwell,â which is #4. In the above image, #1 is the septic control box and #2 is the combined septic tank and pump chamber.
#RED LIGHT ON SEPTIC SYSTEM FREE#
Something was wrong in the clearwell! How a Septic System WorksÄŻor those who might be less conversant in septic parlance, hereâs how a standard sand filter septic system works (for those who already know this stuff, feel free to skip down to the next section): I opened the lid on the clearwell, and saw that the water level was high enough to trigger the alarm float. The alarm float in that chamber was hanging down, telling me that wasnât the cause of the red alarm light. I removed the lid from my main pump chamber. But what caused greater alarm (pun intended) was the fact that the buzzer in the control box, which should have been loud enough to hear from inside the house, wasnât making any sound at all! The buzzer had failed, and because the septic control box isnât visible from the house, I had no idea how long that red light had been on. That light is triggered when one of two alarm floats (in either the main effluent pump chamber or the clearwell pump chamber) detects that the fluid level in the chamber is too high - which could mean a failed pump, failed wiring, or clogged septic lines. Last week, I was working in my back yard when I noticed that the big red light on top of my septic system control box was lit up. This entry was posted in DIY Home Theater & Automation Technology and tagged alarm monitoring DSC email relay septic alarm septic alarm monitoring septic buzzer septic pump septic system septic tank smart septic alarm smart things text wireless sensor Z-Wave on Jby Steve Jenkins (updated 2974 days ago)
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