Septic Tanks

Thats very true. They are no hassle at all - have lived in several houses with a septic tank without issue. Just get it emptied by a suitable company (quite expensive from memory, but not too often, so ok). No need to use any special products at all...

My parents have one, and they jsut use normal washing powder, washing-up liquid etc.

I do remember wanting to put hippos (water saving brick thingies) in the toilet cisterns when we did water saving stuff at school, but I wasn't allowed as apparently you do need to have a good flow of water through the septic tank. But my dad may have been talking rubbish.

In fact, several websites say you should limit the amount of water going through, so it seems he *is* talking rubbish.

And even with that they have no problems with theirs.

We don't put bleach based products through our septic tank as we were told by someone (not sure who) that the bleach can upset the organisms digesting in the tank - I don't know how true this is.

H has also insisted that we use washing liquid instead of powder as apparently the powder has insoluble particles in it which can clog up the tank - basically to avoid putting anything in which won't get broken down (e.g. tampons, etc).

I think it's been a couple of years since we had ours pumped out. It seems to work very well.

Ahh yes the non-bleach products ring true too, so a mixed response there from no special stuff required to what you've suggested, (liquid V powder) and I was aware that putting sanitry stuff down the loo was a no-no.

thanks for the info guys n gals.

We have one, but we've only been in this house for 4 months, so I'm hardly the voice of experience.

From what I've read, no sanitary products down the loo, no kitchen roll or wet wipes (even though some of these claim to be safe for septics, it's not something I'm prepared to risk). Also try not to overload the system with water by doing lots of loads of laundry on the same day. I use eco-friendly cleaning products but that's also because we live by a river and I don't want the chemicals leeching into the river if I can help it.

But I have used bleach on occasion and H has sanitised all his home-brew kit and emptied it down the drains and the septic seemed to cope. So I think everything is OK in moderation!