My wastewater (whole house including sewage) system is of the aerobic type. Has a little compressor to aerate the liquid and at a preset time (1am) a pump kicks on to spray treated water out 2 big spray nozzles out in the edge of the yard IF the treated liquid level triggers a float actuated switch. Also uses drop in chlorine tablets. It's a Clearstream model to be exact.
I haven't had any problems with it till last night. I happened to be outside at 1am making sure the dogs were warm enough, when the pump kicked on. The pump is like a downhole well pump--submersible. The sprayheads are popup 'rainbird' type sprayers. Anyway, within a few seconds, the sprayheads froze up with ice. Temp was about 20 deg F at the time. Not knowing what kind of protection the pump has and not wanting to burn the thing up, I turned the unit off. The instruction booklet doesn't tell me anything about freezing weather precautions, and I haven't been able to contact the contractor that installed it--left several voicemails but I have not heard anything back. It is supposed to drop down near 20 deg again tonight, and this would make the 2nd night it will go without pumping if I turn it off again. I can turn just the pump power off and let the compressor keep running without a problem. I switched it to "test" a bit abo when the temp finally got above freezing and it sprayed ok, so evidently those few seconds it ran last night didn't hurt anything.


Do you guys up in the colder part of the world turn your pumps off when it is way below freezing?

I have an aerobic system for my house, but mine justs gravity feeds into the leachfield. The only problems I've had with mine was the aeration pump has crapped out. I'm on the third one in four years. All covered by the installer. I just call and they come out and replace the pump. Of course I haven't experienced any 20 degree weather. It is in the mid 30s today.

Do I have a what?

Sorry Don. Never heard of/seen/imagined such a system. Very interesting. Maybe its a Southern thing due to the colder weather. Very interesting though. I'm only familiar with anaerobic systems with leach bed.

[This message has been edited by Rainman (edited 01-10-2010).]

I just turned the pump to off. Turn it back on during the day and flip the swith to "test" to make it pump some tank volume down.
Can't use a leach bed here--100 yr floodplain, plus the soil won't support it. No perc. The water coming out is crystal clear, with no odor, other than a little chlorine--not quite as much as a swimming pool. They are a pita and expensive to install, but pretty much trouble free unless the compressor or pump goes out. Got a 5 yr warranty on the pump and 2 yr on the compressor, and 2 yr full service contract. Service contract is required by the state and county.

Thanks for reading.

Up here, in Iowa, the city's septic is under a glass dome.
It's been good for as long as I can remember.
Maybe think green house?
You might be able to harvest a smidge of free energy?
The plant here is into waste gas.

------------------
Ol' Paint, 88 Base coupe auto.
Turning white on top, like owner.
Leaks a little, like owner.
Doesn't smoke....... OK, we're trying to quit.

not a chance--too many bullets flying around here.

.

[This message has been edited by TXGOOD (edited 01-11-2010).]

Since I'm not hooked to the city sewer system, the state has the aerobic system listed as a water treatment system so I have to pay $200/year license fee plus have a service contract for the system. My house was permitted to be built just prior to the street getting water and sewer. Initially I had the well and septic. It was costly to have the required aerobic system put in. I did hook up to city water and that was ~$3000 as you had to pay an impact fee for street frontage. To hook up to sewer it would cost about $7-10000. Sewer impact fee is 2x higher than the water impact fee, plus I'd have to remove the aerobic septic system. No problem with leaching in Florida.

For those interested. The old septic systems waste water would flow into a holding tank and the excess water then overflows into the leach field. With an aerobic systems, the waste water flows into a holding tank which has an aeration pump, continualy blowing air into the holding tank. The aeration oxidizes the waste and the water comes out fairly clean. These systems are similiar to the public waste water treatment plants just on a much smaller scale except there is UV radiation or chlorination of the final water stream. The aerobic system have minimal oder and that oder, I find, smells "yeasty" if that is a word.

Thinking out loud here. I have an anaerobic system (I guess) with leach bed at my lake place. Of which when the septic volume holding tank overflows it drains into the yard (leach system I guess). When I worked in Houston, we had a holding tank with a grinding pump which transferred waste to the city system via a float valve. Once when the float valve failed it had an overflow function which deposited waste into the city system without causing backups to the property.
Perhaps you also have a similar overflow so you can disable the need to pump ?

Blake has that system. check it out with him.