To feel panicked about this in a holiday cottage we have arrived at?!

[Ubghren]

Arrived at a holiday cottage this morning and there was a large sign saying septic tank so be careful with only flushing loo roll.

I know nothing about these apart from once reading that they can allow dirty water into the bath/shower facilities or into drinking water. Is this remotely possible due to a tank like this? I am so stressed and been worrying all day as have young dc.

It sounds like what you read was either a scare article or fake news.

Be sensible in the cottage. Do not put wipes/tampons/sanitary towels/kitchen paper/grease etc down the sinks or toilets. The same as what you should not put down on main drainage.

You’re fine, I’ve lived in houses with septic tanks all my life and it’s safe. We’re clean freaks as well so wouldn’t tolerate dirty water recirculating !!

You know how the taps are at the top of the bath, and the plug-hole is at the bottom of the bath? There's quite a gap, yeah?

The fresh water is piped to the taps.
The used water goes down the plug-hole.

The gap between, and gravity, means the used water cannot go back up the taps.

Your drinking water and shower water is from the mains.

Your drainage is not connected to the mains.

Why have your young DC been worried?
What have you been telling them?

Toilets eats Pee, Poo, Paper and Puke. End of.

There is pipework to a septic tank and pipework to a normal sewer. In both cases these will be totally separate to the water supply. Even if that pipework gets blocked or if the tank/sewer get too full, it won't get into the mains water pipes, but the pipes will back up and eventually leak somewhere. The only difference is that a septic tank is smaller and so will likely be full quicker if it gets too much junk in it. So yes, if you are one of those idiots who thinks that tampons, sanitary towels, paper towels, tissues and nappies should all be flushed down the loo, you're likely to get stuff that should be in the sewer like wee and poo leaking out into the garden around the septic tank, or even the bathroom, quicker that you would in a house on a mains system. However if you're a sensible person and only flushes wee, poop and normal amounts of used toilet roll, then you won't get any sewage leak, just like you wouldn't with a mains sewer connection.

OP I strongly suggest you turn around and head home.

I think the primary issue here is not so much anxiety as lack of knowledge. OP apparently does not know the basics of how water comes into and exits a house.

This actually doesn't surprise me. It's not taught in schools, as far as I know. A lot of people think "open tap, water comes out; flush loo, poo goes away", and they don't ever feel the need to learn more than that. It will be taken care of by someone else.

Now OP has seen a scary notice. Some of the words on it have reminded her of another story that she vaguely remembers about something bad happening, in which those words featured. Most of us don't encounter the words "septic tank" very often. (It sounds like a tank with a wound that's got infected, ewww.)

I suspect that this lack of knowledge is actually quite common, especially among people who were not encouraged to explore the workings of the world around them very much as children.

When I was 6 or 7 we went on holiday. There was a stream on the beach and all the kids would try to build dams to hold the water back. But the water always overflowed in the end, which made sense because there was more and more water arriving. But that got me thinking, how could a tap could turn water off and it then didn't overflow, or swell and burst the pipe like in cartoons. After all, there was a lot more water coming down that pipe too, wasn't there, so why didn't it work like the stream? I can't remember how old I was when I learned about how pressure works, but it was definitely quite a way along in science classes. And again, it wasn't explained in terms of domestic taps.

So I think the thread could be a bit kinder to OP. She has got to adulthood without really understanding how the water supply works, and she's reacting badly to being confronted with that lack of knowledge in an unfamiliar situation. None of that seems worthy of criticism to me.

OP I don't know where you read what you did but it's wrong. The water can't come back into the shower or bath. Just relax and enjoy your holiday.

Any drainage system could come back up into your bath/shower/sink/toilet/washing machine if it’s blocked by something that shouldn’t be down there.

No. Just no. No adult needs this much coddling. This is all ridiculous. She isn’t a child.

No risk to your drinking water at all. And no idea why you’d think it’d come back into a shower , it’s similar to mains drainage , just self contained.
Don’t use bleach ( messes up the microbes digesting the waste matter) and as the sign says toilet paper only.
Never had a septic tank problem in about 40 years of having them.

What you read meant it can back up in to the bath or shower - so if you put things down the loo that you shouldn't, it could block the pipes and cause dirty water to come up through the drain.

There is absolutely zero chance of it coming in to potable (clean/ drinkable) water.

How many times do people need to explain that this is ridiculous before you actually take note OP?

Dear God. Ask your parents to take you home if you are so upset by the thought of a septic tank 😂

We have one and our house is less than 20 years old. It’s totally fine.

We have a spetic tank in our house. And the main reason for cottage owners puts the sign about not putting anything else down the toilet is because it can block and stop the tank working properly. Exactaly the same is for the mains sewage. But when on mains sewage if things go wrong with it then the local water companies have to fix and pay for it. If things go wrong with the spetic tank then the home owner has to pay for it to be fixed.

We all drink and bathe in the water at my house and there is no way it could be contaminated. This includes having 3 babies (now young children) in the house

You’re best to pack up and leave and go back to the city and please leave us a lone in the countryside.

we have a septic tank. It’s fine never going to get grey water into the water system. Simple physics makes it impossible.

We've lived in a house with one for the last ten years and no issues at all.

FFS That’s nonsense. Not in anyway connects to the drinking water or able to go backwards into the shower - honestly, something a little bit different from your own house and people freak out. Just stay home.

How old is the property,? V old properties have had issues of hot water contamination with septic tank.

@Ubghren , it’s ok. Enjoy your holiday and try to relax.

Not RTFT. You shouldn't put anything other than loo paper, poo or pee down a loo. With a septic tank don't flush things like loo cleaner. Go easy on the bog roll - no big wodges.
The water won't come back up.

I don't understand how it could backup through the bath or shower plugholes unless waste water from the bath and shower drained into the septic tank?

Is such an arrangement common or even allowed? I'd have thought all that should drain into the septic tank is waste direct from the toilet, not used water from the bath, the shower or the kitchen sink.

The only reason there is a sign is because if you chuck wipes down the loo in a septic tank system the owner will then have to pay to get Farmer Giles out with a big sucky hose to come and unblock it again at some point down the line when it's discovered you have caused a blockage.

If you chuck wipes down the loo on a mains sewerage system it causes the same issue but Thames water or whoever will be responsible for unblocking it and the public pays via their water bills.

That's literally the only difference.

Oh come on for that it’d have to be derelict. Not a country holiday cottage. Stop trying to scare her.