I hope Septic questions are OK...in a bit of an emergency! Help.

ballvalve said:

Sounds like re-piping that tanks is easier than moving the photo around.... OK- with 40 feet of head you need a pretty specific and expensive pump. Many cut off at 10 to 25 feet. You have to add in some height for friction also, so watch the pumps chart carefully before buying.

Take a look at a starite S.t.e.p pump, its made for cisterns, but would need to be in screened chamber. It should do the head easy for only $259 - its a submersible. Never used it but looks like a nice design and very cost efficient.

When that was installed, its was likely hard to find any good PVC checkvalves and unions.

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dude - your awesome. thanks for all the good advice.

Wife, highest maintenance, and cost.

House about the same

If its a Ford diesel after the non turbo 7.3 Internationals from about 2002 [?] forward, its a POS that will cause endless unfixable disasters. Absolute junk engine. Only buy the gas ones now.

Kid is the easiest and he gets to take care of the 8 geese and 2 chickens reduced from 15 by fox, possum, bear and skunk modification. The geese are low maintenance and now keep the few remaining chickens alive. Even bears dont want to mess with geese.

Believe it or not, I have the 7.3. thats not to problem. Everything else around it is breaking...course, its got 250k, so, not complaining too much - at least its not as bad as my chickens. I have spent over 500 bones on these ladies to keep them alive. At this rate, they will have earned their keep in about 250 years.

Latest update: I decided to just cut the PVC line and pull the pump out to at least get a look at the type of pump they installed. As brittle as the rest of that metal line looked, I didnt want to disturb that too much lest I break the line past the concrete and have to dig and splice.

Pulled the pump out and found it to be a Gould 1/3 HP WE3011. Looked it up and its a nice $450+ pump that can drive up to 30' of head. Here is the interesting thing about it...this pump, according to the mfgr, can run dry and not burn out. it also has an auto cut off that will shut the pump down in an overheat condition.

Further inspection of my area, I used google earth to determine that my pump sits at 4 meters above sea level and The highest point on the hill that the drain field is on is 8 meters high. That's only 15' of head max. The great news is that the Zoeller M98 I bought can drive up to 25' of head, so I am sitting pretty there I think for $220 plus tax.

The one thing that concerns me now is that the Zoeller has its own little float switch. Is this sufficient to engage the pump or should I also gang another piggyback manual float above that as well to keep it from cycling too much too early?

The plumbing supply said they didnt have any schedule 80 PVC stuff but that unless I was driving higher than 150 PSI which they said was not going to happen with this setup and/or running chemicals through the pipe, Sch. 40 stuff would be fine. They also mentioned that using spa type flexible PVC would negate any value of using sch.80 as that stuff is 'weaker than sch.40". Going with my military training to follow my last order - so, schedule 40 all the way it is!

As I began trying to untwist the remaining piece of PVC, it was stuck fast, then the whole assy, check valve and all turned a bit. So I went with it. I put on some goggles and gloves to prepare for a flood of backwash, and slowly started turning the whole thing off at the base. It came right off with not so much as a 1/2 gallon of effluent. When I inspected the check valve I noted that the flapper valve was jiggling around in there. The pump has been running, essentially without a check valve. Perhaps that is what killed it?

So what do you all think of the following plan: From the 1 1/2" pump inlet...using all Sch. 40 PVC...Attach a 1 1/2" male threaded adapter > 1 1/2 to 2" adapter > 2" length > flotec heavy duty sewage check valve - installed vertically ([url]http://www.home depot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh7/R-100180191/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)[/URL] > which will provide for relatively easy removal of the pump later if needed. > 2" Length > 90 deg. > 2" length > 2" Ball Type shut off Valve > 2" length > Threaded Female adapter screwed on to existing black (dark grey) threaded PVC adapter which goes into the concrete wall and presumably up the hill to the drainfield.

Couple last questions. The M98 Zoeller pump has a small white vinyl nut at the top. Do I remove this before installation. Tried to find something about it in the instructions but dont see anything. Also, the directions say to drill a weep hole in the PVC drain pipe between the pump and the check valve. Something about to bleed the air bubbles during operation but says to do it if installing their proprietary "zoeller unioncheck valve". Would this apply even though I am not going with that type of checkvalve?

Thank you all for your help with this. Home stretch!

I would use a Zoeller check valve if you can find it. [Graingers] Sta-rite and home depot are not a good combination. I was thinking mostly of the PVC union being schd 80 - most true values even carry them. Schd. 40 is fine for the pressure, but some unions are pretty cheesy in schd "40" .

I would cut off that 4" inlet about 5" or less from the chamber wall to gain some space.

Never mind the white nut, and if you use the attached float switch, it means you will have less gallons per cycle [more pump starts] than if you use a adjustable float switch. I would add an alarm float for when the switch fails which is a definite event.

The drilled hole is about air-locking, and a bit controversial. Drill a 1/8" hole at most. And the non functional check valve just meant a bit more run time.

ballvalve said:

I would use a Zoeller check valve if you can find it. [Graingers] Sta-rite and home depot are not a good combination. I was thinking mostly of the PVC union being schd 80 - most true values even carry them. Schd. 40 is fine for the pressure, but some unions are pretty cheesy in schd "40" .

I would cut off that 4" inlet about 5" or less from the chamber wall to gain some space.

Never mind the white nut, and if you use the attached float switch, it means you will have less gallons per cycle [more pump starts] than if you use a adjustable float switch. I would add an alarm float for when the switch fails which is a definite event.

The drilled hole is about air-locking, and a bit controversial. Drill a 1/8" hole at most. And the non functional check valve just meant a bit more run time.

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Great suggestions. Thank you. I get now what you meant by sch. 80 union. I just assumed you were saying to go sch.80 all the way. Learned so much by this project...which now...is DONE!

It looks good in my opinion. Ill add pictures just for future generations of dummies that commit the same foibles as I did - got too dark by the time I was done.

So I left BOTH of the nylon bolts on (saw the second one today) on the pump and did not drill a hole. As for an alarm float, working on that. Gonna use a "light float" alarm I think, just cuz I havent found an alarm yet. I disconnected the built in switch as well. Just left it in the on position, and will use the piggyback float as the switch.

Thanks again to all that helped. If ever in the Annapolis area, hit me up. Drinks are on me!