Welcome back to our septic tank maintenance blog! At this point, we’ll be covering further laundry advice to make sure that your septic tank continues to perform at the highest quality. If your septic tank is not performing at its top capacity, then you surely know what a disadvantage that is. If you’re in need septic tank supplies or septic tank cleaning products, then be sure to access SepticWorx for top of the line septic tank care.

How we do our laundry greatly affects how well our septic tank is going to hold up. So don’t make the mistake of using soaps with soil fillers to clog the drain at the bottom of your tank and cause disaster. Instead, use forethought and use a capsulized detergent pod or homemade detergent, like this powder recipe here:

Powdered Detergent Recipe

This recipe won’t clog your drains or destroy the system that’s working away to protect you from your own septic water. It’s less pricey per load too: it’ll average out at about 30 cents per load. This particular formula does not produce too many suds.

Ingredients:

Baking Soda

Sodium carbonate

Borax

Soap flakes, or bar of pure soap.

Instructions:

If your bar of soap is not already flakes, using a cheese grater, grate the soap until you’ve got about a cup of soap flakes. Combine the soap flakes with 1 cup sodium carbonate, 1 cup baking soda, and ½ cup borax. Mix these ingredients and keep the formula dry.

To use the mixture, dump a ½ cup into the washer per load of laundry. If your washer is high-efficiency then you’ll only need 2 tablespoons.

More Tips

You may experience blockages in your drainage pipes on their way to the drainage field. To fix this issue, try installing a lint septic tank filter into your wash machines drainage line. To avoid this problem from occurring again, make sure that your drainage line is cleaned on a regular basis. If you continue to have issues with drainage, and how your septic tank reacts overall, you may want to install a dry well. This will catch all of the laundry greywater that your machine is producing and lessen the stress on your septic tank. If you took our advice and changed your detergent to something homemade or green, then you can use this laundry greywater from the well to irrigate your lawn and landscape plants. In fact, if you reside in a municipal system in a drought-prone area, you may find classes on how to install a greywater irrigation system.

Your New Detergent

If you don’t have the time to create detergent, then you’ll have to buy some like everyone else. If you’re a touch timid with respect to what kind of soaps you can use, we understand. Having a septic tank break would be a highly unpleasant experience. We’re glad to help you navigate the waters to finding your new kind of detergent. To begin, the type that you’ll want to choose depends on the kind of septic tank you have. If you own a gravity powered system- the most common kind- then you’ll want to use mostly liquid laundry detergents. If you have an aerated septic system you’ll want to use powdered septic tank safe laundry detergent. This will help you to avoid too many suds when it goes down to the tank itself. You’ll also want to look out for certain chemicals that mainly powdered detergents come with. These chemicals are generally used as soil fillers, which is not something you want clogging up your septic drains.

The main thing you’ll be looking for on the label is a no surfactants sign. Or, at least, low levels of the chemical. If you can find it, search for biodegradable as well, that’ll serve your septic tank far better than something that’s not, obviously. Finding a detergent without surfactants is going to be easier said than done. If you look for a while and come up fruitless turn to this knowledge: there are a few types of surfactants, natural (oleochemical) and synthetic (petrochemical). You don't want anything to do with synthetic or petrochemical detergents because they’re created from crude oils. Oleochemical surfactants are produced from plant oils like coconut oil and palm oil.

Unfortunately, laundry products that are septic tank safe are much pricier than your average detergent. If you’re buying a new septic tank or want to save money on the detergents, consider installing a dry well to catch those suds instead.

If you’re interested in repairing or purchasing a new septic tank shop SepticWorx LLC. We pride ourselves on our top quality products that will make the difference in the longevity of your septic system. Be sure to access our septic tank cleaning products to clean your tank without harming your components. Contact us here if you have questions.