how often should you clean septic tanks?

Question

my house is still just 3 yrs old and septic.

Answer 1

It is a function of how much stuff gets into the system that is can't digest. Plastics, bone, grease, etc.

A pretty good rule of thumb is about three years but it can vary from 2 to 5.

Ours us usually about 3 years but there are only two of us using the system most of the time.

Answer 2

RidX is NOTHING like Drano. Drano is a caustic substance that eats away quickly - think acid. RidX is a micro-organism that consumes solid waste in your septic tank - think caterpillars. They did get that you should use RidX monthly to help prevent system back-ups.

How often to clean? Too many factors affect the answer. Where do you live? What is your perc? What is the capacity of the holding tank? What type of septic system? How many people are using the system? Do you use organic detergents? Do you use bleach? See what I mean?

Answer 3

Depending on how much water you use? What type of water i.e. dishwater, laundry water, toilet water, etc.
How long your field line is and what it is laid in.
How often you treat it with enzymes like Rid X, Dr Drain or just plain old block of yeast.
Most packages recommend once month treatments, but once a week is better and will make it last longer between clean outs.
Several things you do not want to do and that is use bleach, Drano, Liquid plumber in a septic system.
For your laundry water run a separate line out. Good place is to trees you want to water.
The way a septic tank works is that solids go to the bottom where the enzymes eats them and digest them. In order words dissolving them into liquid form or Gray water.
The excess goes out the field line where it is absorbed in the ground and further filtered by the ground.
As long as you keep plenty of enzymes working the field line won't clog up nor will the tank itself slug up because it will all be turned to liquid by the enzymes.
Problems you can run into is field line not draining good. This can be caused by the soil not absorbing the gray water causing it to back up. You field line needs to be laid in sandy soild to work best for that reason. It can also be caused by the fill around the field line getting in and stopping it up.
It is best to lay your field line in a bed of gravel for that reason. Gravel gives you plenty of absorption and also prevents the field line from clogging up.
A poor field line lay and not treating the septic tank often enough is what gets most people in trouble with their septic tanks.

Answer 4

For average houseold of 4 regular size tank,2 to 3 yrs between cleaning or if you can lift cover &inspect sludge built up ,24in to30 of soft sludge is resonable any more ,time to get it cleaned out ,to be even saffer add septo bac twice a month.

Answer 5

it depends on a lot of factors, how many people live in the house, what type of soil surrounds it, etc. Contact your local government health department, they should be able to make a recommendation. Where I live in Southern NJ, they recommend getting it pumped every 2 years.

Answer 6

I have heard every 4 years. We found out the hard way 3 years ago... ( our 4th year in this house) We're due... Buy Rid X

Answer 7

it is most likely time, my guy says every 3 years, family of 3. here in SW Kansas it cost us $145 to have it pump out.
you should use something like rid-x every month, helps keep stuff ate up in there.

Answer 8

i dont know how often you should CLEAN them but they have that rid-x stuff like drain-o is for sinks, and your supposed to do that once a month.