PigletJohn - sewer help please!

[shanghaismog]

I´m driving myself mad going round in circles with this as every professional in this area keeps telling me the opposite thing (depending on what they´re trying to sell me I suppose...).

Which is the lesser of 2 evils... sewage treatment plant (not septic tank) or rising mains with macerator pump?

We can fulfil all criteria for siting of the treatment plant and discharge etc. Rising mains is a long twisty convoluted journey to the mains.

I would love yet another opinion on which to go for - decision time is really soon... Has anyone got any experience of either? Thanks

We have a sewage treatment plant - a Klargester. Most of the time it is easy to maintain, just needs emptying once a year, and servicing. Sometimes a new belt is needed to keep it turning (ours snapped last week, but I had a spare one and my neighbour helped me fit it, just because I wasn't strong enough to get the belt onto the cogs by myself.) As long as it is working it doesn't smell, you just need to be careful not to use bleach, or too much washing powder/other cleaning fluids, and no one must put wipes/tampons etc down the loo - not that they should anyway. I think you have to have a certificate that enables you to discharge water, but as it is all treated etc it is not a hazard. I believe it is a good thing to be responsible for your own sewage waste, and it means you only pay for water, not water and sewage with the water board (although of course you do pay for the emptying of the tank, servicing etc separately, and the cost of the electricity to run it, which is supposed to be minimal)

I think the general view of macerators is that they are trouble - they either break or block.

We've got a klargester too,it works just fine,no smell,i believe it's a legal requirement to get it serviced once a yr only prob.we've ever had is with the pump packing in,cost about £300 to get a new one fixed,other than that it's a good system.

don't know about small plants.

Don't get a poo-mincer pump.

Great, good to hear from people who have them. Tell me honestly, is there any smell??

Mine doesn't smell,the only thing is the (large) lid has to be accessible,but I'm going to cover it with decking that can be lifted off when service is needed,see if you can find someone local & go and have a sniff look.

I would contact your local water authority (or environment agency) to see what you can do. We have a septic tank and soakaway but this had to be authorised. I am not sure what the current views are on soakaways but ours has worked perfectly for 26 years. We have it emptied every year so it is perfectly maintained. If this is not possible, the Klargester might be the up to date solution. Our soak away went through a significant amount of clay to get to the chalk which acts as the filter. We have no smell other than emptying day! Maintenance is the key to an effective system.

The only time there is a smell is if the Klargester breaks down (so is not turning and therefore not treating the sewage), or very minimal smell when being emptied and that dissipates almost immediately. Even when you open it up to inspect it there is not a noticeable smell - ours is about 10 metres away from our back door (which is at the front of our house, so is the door we use all the time) and you honestly would not know it was there.

If you can find someone who has one locally, do as Gooner suggests and go and have a look. Our neighbour was really interested to look inside ours and see how it worked (once I had got over my embarrassment at asking him to help with my sewage system) - you can see some brown sludge if it has not been emptied recently, but you only see that through two small holes, as it is held in the lower part of the tank (and it looks like smooth slurry, not actual lumps of poo), otherwise you just see the motor and belt, and the disks which circulate the water in the system.

I find that in our village it is the houses with septic tanks that need emptying that smell.