In the old days, people used to throw out human waste into the streets. Most of them had no problem living like that and just accepted it as it was. Today, we live in a world that has advanced far beyond what our forefathers could have imagined. One of the most important developments is in sewage systems.
It’s not exactly as sexy as the others but it has significantly improved the quality of our lives. It basically takes care of all the dirty work for us. The sewage pump is one small part in that development.
What is a sewage pump?
Sewage pumps are mostly submersible pumps designed to move waste water from a low level area, such as the basement, to a septic tank or a sewer main. It pumps out sewage materials that contain human waste, sludge, and solids up to 2″ in diameter to keep your home clean and odor free.
How does a sewage pump work?
A sewage pit collects the wastewater flushed down from showers and toilets. When the water level goes high, the sewage float switch is triggered and the water is sucked by the motor-powered sewage pump and pushed up through pipes for discharge out of the building and into the sewer mains. These pipes lead straight into a central water treatment facility.
Some installations use septic tanks where the solids and scum are separated from the water by settling. Scum floats to the top while solids sink to the bottom and clear water in the middle is discharged to a field where it’s further treated.
What’s the difference between a sewage pump and a sump pump?
Both the sewage pump and the sump pump are usually found in a basement causing confusion to a lot of people. While they may look the same, it’s important to know that a sump pump is not designed to handle sewage or any amount of solids. It’s intended for clear groundwater only and will likely fail early if used as a sewage pump.
What are the types of sewage pump?
There are three common types of sewage pumps: the effluent pump, the sewage ejector pump, and the grinder pump. It’s in increasing order based on how much solids they can handle.
Effluent pump
The effluent pump is commonly used in pumping out gray water from a shower or laundry but they’re also used in moving out the treated water from a septic tank to a leach field.
It can pump out solids of up to 0.5″ in diameter and is sometimes used as a substitute for a sump pump when there’s a moderate amount of solids coming into the pit.
Sewage ejector pump
The sewage ejector pump is usually what people mean when they say they want a sewage pump installed. It’s capable of pumping human waste and can handle solids of up to 2″ in diameter.
Commonly used in basement bathrooms where the waste water can’t flow with gravity to the municipal sewer mains. It’s also popular for houses that aren’t connected to the sewer mains and have their own sewage system.
Sewage ejector pumps are optimized for high flow and can move a great deal of waste water compared to the grinder pumps. Power consumption, therefore, is not much of a problem making it a popular choice for a lot of residential applications.
Grinder pump
Grinder pumps are ideal for landlords and commercial applications, like restaurants, where you don’t have any control over what people flush down the toilet.
The pump has blades to macerate tough solids, like sanitation pads and other objects, that really shouldn’t be flushed down a toilet.
It’s a high pressure pump that’s also ideal for homes that are connected to a pressurized sewer system or ones that are far away from the main sewer line.
The blades grow dull after a few years and it’s also a lot more expensive than sewage ejector pumps but the trouble it saves could mean a lot to your time and business.