private sewage treatment system

[Offtothesticks]

Headed to the sticks to live in a house with a private sewage treatment system. Can anyone help with cleaning product suggestions? Have heard ECOver doesn't work well and its expensive. Grateful for any help :)

Over the past 11 years all the houses I've been in have had a septic tank. We don't use anything different, that being said we also don't use excessively. The toilet gets a toilet bleach clean once a week. We don't leave anything in it ( the clip on or stick on the side of the bowl things
Only issues we've ever encountered were in a very old house that people had thrown tights, clothing and baby wipes down and so had clogged the pipe for the drain away
And the current house we're in where we can't even find the access to get it emptied plus it was unused for 7 years so needed a boost with some enzymes

Only thing I don’t use in mine is bleach and if do have to, it’s rare, it’s still has to pumped once a year for sludge removal. I don’t Ecover anyway. I use a mix of products no specific brands

Hello Off.
We have a treatment plant under our drive and have had no problems. Presumably you are, like us, very close to a stream or river? If so, I hope that you are aware that you will need to have it serviced and have the tank emptied at least once per year. Our little chalk stream is tested periodically by the EA.
I use all sorts of cleaning products except biological washing powders/liquids as they're best avoided for a whole raft of reasons.
And Ecover is great btw!

We have one of these systems and we just use ordinary cleaning stuff.
The only thing we're fussy about is what gets flushed. Loo paper is made to disintegrate in a treatment plant. Anything else is binned rather than flushed away.

But don't let anyone put anything like cotton wool or cotton buds down the toilets.

We have one between five houses. One neighbour looks after it for us. We can use any cleaner, but he did tell us that someone (not us) had flushed condoms down the loo and they had blown up like balloons in it 😂

Like others used no specific products except going easy on the bleach.

We had a septic tank with reed beds etc, it just worked and we never thought about it once the novelty wore off. Apparently you could drink the water which came out the end but we never got round to testing that!

We have a sewage treatment plant and also use normal cleaning products except bleach.

Exactly same as PP, ordinary products but very little bleach.
We are advised by the guys that empty it if we are using too much of anything and can adjust accordingly.
It has meant having to do our own cleaning (1st world problem, I know!) as I’ve tried a number of cleaners who, despite me specifically saying no bleach when hiring them (and them agreeing!) cannot help themselves and use bleach/bleach based cleaning products excessively.

Had a septic tank for 40 years. Don't have any problems with it. Tend not to use bleach, but have on the odd occasion. Apart from that I just use regular cleaning products. It's not difficult.

HUGE thank you to everyone for all for your help. Was feeling overwhelmed by people online saying all the things you can't use!

One more question, I've got some boxes of non-bio Persil washing powder (bought in Tesco sale). Can I use that in the washing machine or is it going to block the pipes and kill off the bacteria as I read elsewhere :/

Hi @Offtothesticks do you know where your ‘grey’ water drains to? Our kitchen/utility water doesn’t drain to the sewage system so don’t have to worry about washing powder etc.

That should all be fine. I've been using it for 20 years without issue!

20 years with a septic tank, only toilet paper goes down it, no tampons. We use non-bio washing powder and Smol cleaning products . Apart from that I haven’t given it a second thought in about 10 years.

We've had a tank for years. A small amount of bleach down the loo won't hurt , it's the anti bac cleaning products that will kill the helpful bacteria in the tank, so no anti bac cleaners or hand wash.

I just use whatever washing powder/liquid/tablets are on offer.

Thank you Everyone. You've all been so helpful, I really appreciate all your comments.