Maintenance
Grinder pumps should not require preventive maintenance. However, grinder pumps that use floats to sense the level in the holding tank are prone to grease buildup that may turn the pump on unnecessarily, or not turn on the pump at all, causing the tank to fill up and sewage to possibly back up into the home or yard. To prevent this, grinder pumps that use floats are often hosed down to remove the grease from the floats.
Homeowners are not usually limited by what they can or can not pour down their drains because their home has a grinder pump. Sanitary napkins, diapers, kitty litter, paint, oil (both motor oil and cooking oils), etc. should not be flushed or poured down any drain, whether the home is connected to a gravity sewer system, septic tank, grinder pump or cesspool.
A questionable item is "disposable wipes" that are made by cleaning companies for personal use, cleaning toilets, etc. Some wipe companies say "flush one at a time," some say "not for pump systems," some say "safe for sewers." Check with the grinder pump manufacturer for their recommendation.
In large sewage pump stations, clogging problems are often avoided by installing a chopper pump in the tank. A chopper pump is able to handle larger/tougher solids than a residential grinder pump, including hair balls, diapers, sanitary napkins, clothing, etc.
Read more about this topic: Grinder Pump
Famous quotes containing the word maintenance:
“However patriarchal the world, at home the child knows that his mother is the source of all power. The hand that rocks the cradle rules his world. . . . The son never forgets that he owes his life to his mother, not just the creation of it but the maintenance of it, and that he owes her a debt he cannot conceivably repay, but which she may call in at any time.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“In public buildings set aside for the care and maintenance of the goods of the middle ages, a staff of civil service art attendants praise all the dead, irrelevant scribblings and scrawlings that, at best, have only historical interest for idiots and layabouts.”
—George Grosz (1893–1959)
“... in the fierce competition of modern society the only class left in the country possessing leisure is that of women supported in easy circumstances by husband or father, and it is to this class we must look for the maintenance of cultivated and refined tastes, for that value and pursuit of knowledge and of art for their own sakes which can alone save society from degenerating into a huge machine for making money, and gratifying the love of sensual luxury.”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)