Lift Station Inspections

Avoid Costly Repairs With Lift Station Maintenance

Lift stations are large concrete holes in the ground into which your waste drains. Once the waste in your lift station collects, powerful grinder pumps move it up to the main city line. The pump is triggered by floats that turn on the pump in much the same way as the float in your toilet turns off the water in your tank. Think of your lift station as an elevator for waste. The central purpose of a lift station is to remove waste from your property by pumping waste from a site that is below grade up to a city sewer line. 

In general, operators and maintenance men tend to stay away from a lift station and check it only when a warning light or an alarm comes on. By this time, both pumps have quit, and the system is backed up. Invariably, this scenario occurs at the end of the day or on weekends, or at least carries over into this time.

Your lift station will probably be a part of the property forever. Preventive maintenance will keep the cost to a minimum.  To schedule your next lift station inspection, please call Anytime Septic Solutions.

Helpful Lift Station Suggestions

There are several things you can do to help your lift station function properly.

• Make sure your pumps are the proper size. One pump should handle the normal flow and only run 3-4 hours per day with 3-4 starts per hour.
• Have one spare pump.
• Have a good control system in a neat and orderly fashion. Also, have an electrical schematic for everyone to see and use.
• Have an elapsed time meter for each pump.
• Contracts must include three inspections per year scheduled once every four months.
• Have accessibility to the lift station for service.

There are also several steps to taking care of the pumps and monitoring the alarms.

• First of all, both pumps should run approximately the same amount of time if the alternator is working and the pumps are of equal size and condition.
• Secondly, by reading the elapsed time meters every day, you will know when one pump is not carrying its load.
  
• Third, by putting the first alarm float in between the lead and lag pumps and having it flash on alarm, you will know when one pump is not keeping up with the flow. This is an early warning that you have a problem occurring, but you should still have one good pump. This gives you time to schedule and address the problem without worrying about after-hours or weekend service. The second alarm float will bring the red light on steadily with no flashing.

No matter what's going on with your lift station and its alarms, you can rely on Anytime Septic Solutions for 24/7 service. We're even available on nights and weekends!