After my brother discovered the rag stuck in the back valve on the septic pump, he made sure to give the valve a once over. It was in good working condition – once it was no longer filled with cloth! – so everything was put back together as it was, instead of being replaced with the not-quite-what-he-wanted new parts and pieces he’d found, after much running around in the city.
Once it was all together, the pump was working great again. It now runs so quietly, I can barely hear it when I’m sitting at my computer, which is pretty much directly above it. The filter, now that the pump was working right, actually filled more than we can fill it when we prime it, with water completely filling the dome shaped cover.
With all the troubles we’ve been having, I’ve been paranoid about it, and frequently go down to check when I hear the pump running.
Which is why I was there to notice that something had changed.
The water level in the filter was dropping, ever so slowly.
Each time the pump ran, instead of filling completely, there was space in the dome, and when it stopped, the level would be a little bit lower than before.
At one point, while watching it until the pump stopped, I saw it was low enough that I decided to prime the filter again. Once I filled the filter with water and closed it up again, I saw air bubbles coming in from the inflow opening and watched the level go down. !!! I filled it again and saw the bubbles again, but the water level stayed high enough to completely cover the inflow opening.
I told my brother about it, thinking maybe we need a new O ring after all, though it did seem well sealed when I opened it to prime the filter. As we messaged each other back and forth, he said that with the filter, there’s no way another rag or large object could be blocking the back valve again. He suggested I see how it’s flowing out of the ejector and compare it to the video he’d taken when we first got it going again. The problem with that is, even though the pump takes longer to empty the tank now that it’s pumping the fluid all the way out to the ejector, in the time it would take me to bundle up and walk over there, the pump would be done emptying the tank. The alternative would be for me to play with the bypass wires on the switch and have someone turn it on manually, after I’ve already gone out to the pump, and I really don’t want to do that!
Today, after we finished our running around, I was at my computer when I heard the pump start running while my husband was in the shower.
Which is when I heard that too familiar vibrating sort of noise.
I went down stairs to check. In the filter, I could see that it was mostly drained. There was inflow, but it wasn’t enough to fill even the bottom half of the filter while the pump was running.
I stopped the pump, primed the filter, then turned the pump on again.
The filter immediately drained, but there was no inflow anymore.
!!!
Priming process repeated. Pump turned on again.
This time, while it did drain quickly again, there was enough inflow that the water level reached high enough to cover the inflow opening, but that was about it. It never completely filled. I kept watching until it stopped, and even took some video to send to my brother.
While my brother is right that there is no way something large could get through the filter and block the back valve again, something occurred to me.
When we discovered the rag stuck in the back valve and my brother cleaned that out, neither of us thought to check the pipe from the filter to the valve. There’s a short length from the filter, which was still attached to the filter, then a short pipe with an elbow at each end that joined that filter outflow pipe to the back valve. That section with the two elbows was what my brother was originally going to replace with a new brass back valve, removing the one in the pump completely. What he hadn’t been able to find was the part he wanted that would attach to the pump where the original back valve is. The closest he could find was a steel piece, which would eventually corrode, but absolutely no one had the threaded piece he needed in plastic. So he was quite happy to be able to put the original parts back on again, which meant he could also return the parts and pieces he’d bought but never used.
So while it’s possible there might be something going on at the ejector, I think it’s the back valve again. I think it’s more likely that some sort of crud inside the pipe came loose, now that the water was flowing full power again, and instead of being washed away, got stuck in the valve.
Now, in theory, I could take that section off myself and check it. The problem is, I really don’t have the right tools for the job – my brother had to use his heat gun to warm up the plastic so he could get it apart, then put it back together again, for starters.
At this point, all we can really do it keep monitoring it. If it really is just a piece of crud that came lose and got stuck in the valve, it might just eventually get washed away.
Whatever the cause is, it’s very frustrating. It was working so well, then suddenly this is happening again!
At least, with the heat tape on the ejector, we know that shouldn’t freeze up again! The pump running with low flow again could potentially cause that to happen.
*sigh*
I was really hoping we were finally done with the septic system problems!
At -27C/-17F, with a wind chill of -38C/-36F, my brother spent hours, here – most of it outdoors – getting things done.
The first thing was the no-longer frozen ejector.
When he arrived, he headed to the barn to get some stuff and I went out to join him. Along the way, I looked towards the ejector and got quite a surprise.
The tarp was gone, the sawhorse over the ejector was half knocked over, held in place only by the extension cord for the heat tape (safely secured), and the blue jugs from the liquid ice melter scattered in the snow nearby.
I don’t think my brother ever found the tarp. That part isn’t a surprise, considering the winds we had yesterday!
When we got to the basement, things there went quickly. The bypass wires on the switch was hooked up so that we could turn it on and off manually, rather than rely on the pill switch in the tank. The only difficult part was moving the emergency diverter off the pump without making too much of a mess. We knew there would be fluid in the pipe and I had a bucket ready, but there was just no way to get the diverter off and moved over the bucket without spilling at least some all over.
After the pipe to the ejector was put back, my brother and I fussed with our phones for a bit, so that we could communicate while he headed out to the ejector, then let me know to turn the pump on. We were able to make a video call, so when the time came, he had his phone set up so I could see the ejector.
The water flowing out of there was amazing! I’ve never seen it pushed out that far before (if I did when I was a child, I have no memory of it).
There was one odd thing about it, though. Instead of being pushed out in a steady stream, the bottom of the stream sprayed downwards, getting the stack pipe wet. My brother also saw water coming up from under the cap, which means the stack pipe was full, when it should have been drained by the venturi valve once water started to flow.
In the end, my brother found a piece of pipe he cut to create a little extender on the elbow piece.
He then dug around the barn and found bits and pieces to build a wind shelter around the ejector.
There’s a 1″ thick piece of rebar he hammered into the frozen ground to secure it, so the wind shouldn’t blow it away.
That rotten old sawhorse my brother dug out of the snow has sure come in handy!
All of this took at least a couple of hours, but we now have a working ejector again! No more emergency bypass draining the tank into the back yard!
The bypass is still there, though. I told my brother to leave it. I’ll take it out, put everything away and seal that opening up again, in the spring.
Then, before he left, my brother took care of a couple of other things, as well as going into their stored items.
Then he brought over one of his taller ladders.
Yup. He climbed up onto the roof to check the vent. The one warm day my daughters could have done it, one of them was in the city with me. The next day was the storm.
After clearing the area of snow, my brother ended up bringing a chimney sweep that’s stored in the barn to see if it was blocked. The non-sweep side could fit into the vent – and yes, it was quite blocked! I had a jug of hot water that he poured in, and the one jug was enough to clear it.
Meanwhile, I’d filled a sink with hot water to drain, so we could check if all was well.
All was well in the vent.
Not in the drain pipes!
The sink started to drain fine at first, and then it just sort of stopped. My daughter stayed in the kitchen to monitor while I went to the laundry drain.
Just in time to see the filthiest water coming out of there we’ve ever seen!
My daughter stopped the sink from draining. Thankfully, there was already a towel under the laundry drain, just in case, but it still took a while for the water to stop flowing. I was just heading out the door to tell my brother what happened when I heard something give, then gurgling as the water finally drained into the main pipe.
My brother thinks that the main problem is ice stuck in the pipe and suggested running hot water for a while. I suggested that clearing the vent knocked more gunk loose, too.
Thanks to the plumber installing the rubber connector in the pipe in the root cellar, this is something we can do ourselves. My brother had a few more things he wanted to do, plus take one last check on the pump (I had already taken care of the bypass and it was back to a pill switch trigger, instead of a manual trigger) before heading home. He told me that, as he was driving out here, he was seeing a vehicle in the ditch almost every mile of the way!
So we have had a major step forward, in that our septic system is up and running properly now – in fact, better than when we first moved here, thanks to getting that rag out of the back valve!
We had another step forward with my brother getting the ice out of the vent.
There’s just one step back, as our drain seems to be clogged again. We can use the kitchen sink, but it doesn’t take long before we can hear water backing up into the laundry drain.
That’s a job for this evening.
If all goes well, by the end of the day, we’ll be able to hook the washing machine discharge pipe into the drain again, and do laundry without running a hose out the door.
I am SO glad I was able to get the big shop done yesterday!
The temperatures were expected to go down over the next while, but still be just below average. Of course, the forecasts change constantly it still wasn’t by much.
Yeah, well… this is what we were at this morning.
Just in case the image isn’t loading for you, just after 8 this morning, we were at -31C/-24F, with a wind chill of -41C/-42F Our high of the day is still supposed to be -20C/-4F, which is actually our 30 year average low for the day, but the record low is -36C/-33F, so it’s still well within the norm. Will we actually warm up that much by this afternoon? I sure hope so, because we need to go into town! As it is, I cut my morning rounds down as much as I could, basically just making sure the outside cats had food and warm water, and that was pretty much is. I only counted 19 this morning. Most were in the sun room, but the ones outside were actually dancing around with their paws from the cold!
I’m really not looking forward to tomorrow morning. We have a vet appointment at 8:30 am, and it’s supposed to be about -28C/-18F at that time. Any wind chill on top of that will be brutal. We’ll be using the van for this trip because, for all the problems it has, it still handles the cold better than my mother’s car.
Speaking of handling problems, I finally got tired of one annoyance last night and did something about it.
I added string lights near my door.
This corner has the door to the old basement, and the door to my office/bedroom, and it is always really dark. It’s not too bad during the day but at night, even with string lights around the mirror hanging opposite my bedroom door, it is ridiculously dark. Usually, that results in tripping over or stepping on a cat at my door when I try to go in. Yesterday, it was an annoyance when I kept having to go into the old basement to check on things.
Also, those stairs really, really suck. And not just because my knees are shot.
The set of string lights I had on our Advent wreath got missed when the Christmas decorations were put away, so I added batteries and taped it around the basement door. It’s bright enough that I can now see the door handles, and even grey or black cats on the grey mat under my door (to protect the floor from their scratching).
As for why I kept having to go into the basement: noises.
Too many out of place noises.
Our well pump, every now and then, makes a vibrating noise when it starts. Of course, it stops by the time I get down to check it, and everything looks fine, but it really bothers me. At least it doesn’t make the grinding noise it used to. We have figured out that it would do that when too much water was being used at once, such as if the water for the shower was turned on too full. The pressure tank was being emptied faster than the pump could refill it, so it would start grinding. It means less water pressure while we are taking a shower, but that’s a small thing compared to burning out our pump and losing water completely. The vibrating noise is something else, though, and I can’t tell if it’s coming from the pump or the pipes to the tanks. Nothing has changed down there, though, so there is no obvious reason for it to start making that noise. It also seems to be a winter/cold weather thing, but I have no way to tell.
The pump has been going off more often, too. Even when no one is using the water, I would hear it start up. Some nights, I’ll be awakened because it’s turning on again. I’m the only one who can hear it, since my husband sleeps with a CPAP, which makes just enough noise to drown most things out, and the girls are on the second floor.
The problem is usually the toilet.
Ultimately, though, the source of the problem is our water. It is so full of iron and minerals, it’s messing things up. We’ll need to get a plumber in to fix the bathtub taps because the build up is getting so bad, the hot water tap leaks, even if only the cold water it turned on! When the plumber was here to clear the drain to the septic tank for us, he did take a quick look to give us an estimate, and he thinks he can fix it, rather than have to replace it, but we’d have to take off and replace the tub surround, since that’s the only way to access the taps.
It’s the toilet that is having more problems now. There must be quite a buildup inside the refill hose, as hardly any water flows through it, and it’s taking longer and longer for the tank to refill. The entire inside, which is lined with Styrofoam insulation, is coated with iron, which is also interfering with the flap. Sometimes, after flushing, the flap doesn’t seal right, so the tank keeps draining about as fast as the water is flowing to refill it, so the tank simply doesn’t fill. Unless someone happens to use the bathroom soon after and notices it – because there isn’t enough water to flush! – it’ll keep going for hours. Which is how I end up being awakened by the well pump going off repeatedly during the night! All that needs to be done is to give the lever a wiggle; the flap will settle in place and the tank will finally start filling. Looking at the parts and pieces, though, what I’d really like to do is simply replace all the innards. It’s all so coated with iron and minerals, that would probably be the best way to not just solve a couple of small problems, but keep them from happening again for a long time.
Which leads me to another little problem we’ve been having, thanks to our water quality.
The bathroom sink.
This still has the original tap and faucet set, from the mid 70’s or so. When the water flow starts to get bad, we usually just unscrew a piece from the faucet, give the parts a scrub, then put it back. If it’s really bad, we’ll soak the pieces in CLR for a while. The problem just kept coming back faster in between cleanings, though, and getting worse.
Last night, I had the pieces soaking in CLR again, but when I put them back, the flow was even worse than before the soak and scrub. I gave it some extra scrubbing, but that made things worse again, not better. I tried clearing the openings more directly but, again, it just got worse. When I put it back in place and almost no water could go through anymore, I had to do something more drastic! I took the part in question (I don’t know what it’s called) over to my craft table and tried to clear the holes with a pin. Which worked on one side, but not the other.
After much fighting with it, I managed to separate the pieces.
The grey piece at the top of the picture wasn’t too hard to clean. Especially when I was eventually able to get out the two other pieces inside. It was all so full of rust and gunk, each layer needed to be cleaned before I could get the next one out. The openings are large enough, the T pin I was using had no problem clearing them of scale and rust.
The real problem was the green piece.
The conical part you can see, with the fine mesh of holes, was still clogged. The holes on the bottom are even smaller, much fewer, and barely visible. I cleared them with a pin as best I could, but it was just not working well.
Eventually, I did get it to the point that the conical part started spinning around. Only then could I figure out where the pieces came apart. After much fussing – and the use of a tiny screwdriver – I was finally able to pop the conical part off.
Well, no wonder we were having problems!
Note that this is AFTER multiple soaks in CLR.
After wiping them down, I set the conical part aside to soak in CLR again, while I used the pin to clear the holes in the other part – holes that are much larger on the inside than the outside! Eventually, I got it to the point that I could see through all the holes when I held it up to the light. Not all the holes you see in the photo go all the way through. There’s just the circle of holes around the outer edge, plus another circle of holes half way to the centre.
Then I took the pin and cleared every last hole in the conical part.
By the time I was done and everything was put back together, it was 2am.
One of my daughters happened to be using the bathroom, so she put the newly cleaned part back together with the other parts and screwed it all back into the faucet for me.
Then we stood there and watched in awe over how much water was flowing through, as we let it run to make sure there was no CLR residue left. It hasn’t flowed this well in decades!
Now, if we could just get the toilet tank parts to flow as well!
At least this was a small thing we could take care of ourselves. There’s another new thing that is stressing me out.
The furnace has started making noises.
Of course, with this cold, the furnace is turning on more often, and staying on longer. This house is not very efficient, either, so we lose heat quickly. For all the time the furnace is on, the upstairs is still very cold. There’s only one heat vent for the entire second floor, and the girls have not noticed any real difference since the roof was done. Ah, well. It would have been nice!
Last night, I kept hearing the furnace turn on and start making a strange vibrating noise which – like the well pump – would stop by the time I hobbled my way down the basement stairs to check it.
I ended up turning the thermostat down, so at least the furnace would turn on less frequently, and not stay running as along. Oddly, after I did that, the vibrating noise seems to have stopped completely! Which doesn’t make any sense at all.
What we need to do is get someone to come in and give it a check, and do any maintenance stuff it needs. The problem is, we need to set aside funds for a replacement vehicle. Funds that would normally cover the cost of such irregular expenses. It becomes a battle of priorities over the dwindling “unallocated funds” part of our budget, since rising costs for everything else keeps chipping away at that, too.
It’s all these little things that are going to do us in. The well pump. The septic. The furnace. The taps. The toilet. The lights. The outlets. etc. All these accumulative things. Yes, it’s an old house. This sort of thing must be expected. Especially since there’s very little of this that we can do ourselves, and our resources are so limited.
So we try to focus on the stuff we do have control over, and juggle the budget to find ways to pay people to come in for the stuff we don’t.
The crazy thing is, a significant portion of these problems are caused by our water. It’s simply to loaded with iron and minerals. What I’d like to do is add a filter to the line going into the well pump. A simple filter would extend the life of all sorts of things! There are types that can be cleared without having to open it up to change filters, which would require re-priming the pump. Adding a filter is not going to be done until the pump is replaced, and we’ve already had three plumbers not want to do that (my brother already bought a new pump and all the fittings) due to the risk of the foot valve, at the bottom of the well, disintegrating and losing our water completely. That would turn a job of a few hundred dollars into a job of several thousand dollars, because of the set up we have, and the lack of availability of parts we would need. The valve itself is cheap. It’s all the other stuff that would have to be done to get to it that gets expensive!
Yup. It’s all those little things. They sure do add up!
The Re-Farmer 