float works in reverse

[musicaljames]

Mine is a submersiable pump, on 110, pulls 9 1/2 amps dry. I do go into the effluent tank with a simple breathing hose once I have evacuated the tank.
Pump is now out and inside the house. Once wired tempoarily, inside, the float turns the pump on and off in Exact Reverse to what it should.
With the float upward, resembling a full tank of water, it interupts electrical flow and has the pump off. (all dry, inside.)
With the float downward, resembling a dry tank, the pump comes on!
What should I do? Please help. thnks, jw

 

[Rancher]

Lots of questions, so bare with me.

Effluent tank with a submersible pump in it, with a float switch to pump the tank when it gets full, correct?

Did it ever work normally?

Or was the pump originally in a well and the Effluent tank was used as a cistern, and then the pump would turn on when the tank was empty and off when the tank was full.

They make float switches in two variaties, pump up and pump down. One turns on when the tank if full to pump it out, and the other turns on when the tank is empty to fill it.

Other questions come to mind, like why you would go into an effluent tank, even if it was empty...

And where do you pump this effluent water to, i.e. why do you need this tank.

Rancher

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

switch

Your float switch is trying to fill the tank, not empty it. Some switches have two sets of contacts, one normally open and the other normally closed.

 

[Speedbump]

Are we talking about a well pump or a sump or sewage pump?

bob...

 

[musicaljames]

It is a sewage pump; or actually, an effluent pump.
I understand scum/effluent/sludge. All of those are on the larger, 1000 gal tank, which has a baffle wall on the far end from its inlet pipe, nad all of which is downward from the home itself.
The pump in the chain is to pump effluent upward to the very front yard's leach field.
Past the mentioned baffle wall is the next outlet. That pipe goes about 2 feet to a much smaller tank-- which I can just about stand up in-- if I have pumped out it of its "water" (effluent.)
The pump is in the house now. (it is 16 gerees out.) I swore yesterday that the float switch (if I wired it correctly) was reversed and working opposite. Today I am dumb struck as the float seems to triggring correctly.
However, the plastic, float housing is cracked just a little, and beside that the pump just sounds a little bit weak. But what does that even mean to "sound" a little bit weak."
I get by each other day by emptying the little tank with an ordinary submersable pump lowered in for 10 minutes, and hosed out to the side of the yard.
What should I do? Options? Please help with thoughts.

 

[Bob NH]

If the float switch is cracked it will fail if it hasn't already. The pump-down kind are usually available at HD or a similar place.

If the float switch is separable from the pump and you have means to apply power to the pump from outside via a waterproof connection, then you should be able to leave the effluent pump in the tank and connect it to power when you want to use it.

Does the switch have two wires or three in the cord? If three, then it is probably a switch that can be used for either "pump down" applications as a sewage effluent pump, or for "pump up" applications where it is to control filling of a tank.

 

[musicaljames]

The sound is weak

It is a Meyers pump that has the cracked float nad sounds weak. Everything is insdie the "mud room" here. The float switch unit is two-wire.
The sound, though, of this old Meyer pump (probably 1/2 hp) is "thin."
Basically, I will go to HD (box store) in the city (Bangor, Maine) , and buy their septic pump for $199. Unless someone strongly advises against that. I think it is Rigid, 1/2hp. One float on it, no alarm float. ??Good idea??

I say this because the old Meyers pump sounds thin or wimpy-- and has the cracked float. I have a 1/3hp Rigid also inside next to it, and:
Do all pumps have a strong, full, low-tone sound that even pleasingly humms on the wooden floor inside. I briefly run them dry, here inside,
and the newer 1/3 hp Rigid sounds full, but the 10-year old Meyers septic pump doea spin, but sounds no stronger than let's say a refrigerator motor. I wonder if the old Meyers is, like, 90 "people years" old, and so I will spend $199 on a Rigid, 1/2 hp spetic pump with one float.

 

[musicaljames]

Thanks, Bob NH, for your descriptions. (piggy-back float switch, etc.)
Can you even imagine standing at the edge of a septic hole, uncovered, in all this snow & ice, and contemplating going 6 or 7 feet in there to re-attach the threaded coupling once I have purchased the new pump and have the plumping pipe on the new pump?
It is 14 degrees this morning here. Take care.

 

[Speedbump]

You said you bought the pump at HD I thought. If that is the case they are made by Myers but have the Water Ace name on them. They are also one horsepower range higher than the hp Myers puts on their pumps. I have checked it out at Lowes. False advertising I believe it is called. You may have bought a Sump Pump instead of an Effluent pump. If you don't want to keep buying these pumps all the time, stay away from the BB stores.

You certainly don't want a sewage pump unless you intend to pass 2" solids. They also have a smaller head curve than most of the effluent pumps. A 1/3 hp Effluent like the Myers I suggested is plenty big enough for household use.

bob...

 

[musicaljames]

Well, I got to HD, and becasue of Christmas, I felt poor. I bought just a float switch instead. Hardly a brand, called "Automatic." Since the old Meyers works a bit, I figure to give it the new float, forget the old alarm, and put it in tomorrow. I'll just check it by looking.
I'll cut off the plug on the float switch, and interrupt the black wire (breaker off), above ground of course, in the wire box already there on top of the tank.
If I ever had said sewage, I had meant effluent.
But a nice effluent pump might be dome shaped? HD did have one for 199. I felt poor.

 

[musicaljames]

I do look forward to your replies. Please do. Update: I was out for an hour and half. It is 12 degreees. I do enjoy the work. The old pump works. I wired it.
I afixed the new float switch. All of that seems pretty ok now.
I am now concerned that the uphill pipe to the field is blocked or partially froze. What should I consider now?! Options mcould incude RV anti freeze just in that tank? Should I do that? if I run a dumb old hose out into the woods from the pump, but that means the field would freeze for sure until May. Can I coax the field into re-accepting effluent?

 

[musicaljames]

2 degrees

Cold this morning... I am Not able to yet decide if it is the field not accepting effluent, or the pump fooling me into only thinking it is working. I plan to go down for the fourth time and set the pump back from the fitting on the wall.
I will then apply the power from above and see if it sort of ejects effluent out of the upward pipe that is attached to the pump. This is to proove if it is:
1) working but the field is frozen, or 2) the pump clogged with sludge that has now covered one inch on the bottom of the effluent tank. Any suggestions (humor is ok, too.) (yeah, sell the house quick) jw

 

[Speedbump]

Did you hear the one about Little Johnnie?

bob...

 

[musicaljames]

"little johnny" no I didn't.
By the way, Hot today: 37 degrees.
I wish so much someone had told me this idea (please write more) , but I became brilliant suddenly: I loosened the fitting in the tank there, set the pump moved to the center, and powered it. Then lifted the float and suddenly: the answer. The pump flood water (effluent) out the top pipe! So, the field is not accepting! What should I do, or what would "little johnny" do??? Should I try any sort of anti freeze or draino-type crystal (I shouldn't) or rotor ruder? What should we do?

 

[Bob NH]

Change the removal process!

Most systems with a pump in an effluent tank are designed so the pump can be disconnected and removed for service without getting into the tank.

You need a means to disconnect the pipe (union, flange, or a rail disconnect system). Depending on your discharge pipe routing it may be easiest to incorporate a flexible pipe so you can raise the pump to disconnect and connect.

 

[musicaljames]

Thank you. That is great advice. I even saw the quick-disconnect buckel on each side. Mine was an older threaded on pipe. I also thought myself of putting a light plastic line on to the float to easily check the pump at will. And I can now do some unthreading from above. I am getting much more clever at things. I have established that the pump does work. The field is probably frozen; I am thinking. I feel that the field needs to be unfrozen or replaced maybe? Because the pump works. I wonder how I can unfreeze the outer field.

 

[musicaljames]

Thanks again! I now begin to shop for a 1/2 hp pump. I'd like to go with a combination sewage/effluent pump. Someone locally tells me that the "balest," I think, has worn down and the pump thermally turns itself off. That is what si happening. The field is ok, but the pump cannot hold up a load of pressure to it. 31 degrees today.
I was in yesterday with a stoll even to sit on, on Christmas day. I now blow out air with a strong blower before entering. It smells great. I also will invest in an electric alarm that looks like a marker, which beeps as you pass it past any wires in teh area nearby.
I like the Liberty pump. though it is $250 or so. How does that compare to Gould?
jw