Ghostly plumbing in Knoxville

[phishfood]

Another thought, if the float switches in the outside pit are not set correctly, the upstairs drainage pipe could sometimes be filled with water, and this might also cause your problem.

 

[djmayhill]

That's what I was saying the out side pump is probs the issue opening the pit could be difficult it's hard to tell i looking at the pictures

 

[Matt30]

Hello all,

I'm Matt, live in Knoxville TN.

Here's my situation. I just bought a new house in March. The way the house is setup is that it's in a hill, so both the "upstairs" and the "downstairs" are ground level entries, front and back of the house respectively.
This means that the house requires a pump to pull sewage to the sewer, I think. The plumbing in the upstairs bathroom (street level) gurgles quite frequently and at times violently; sometimes the plumbing in the bathroom sink discharges whatever's in the p trap along with a nasty stench of the farts of a thousand dead cavemen.
I investigated a suspicious closed off "room" in the first floor by peering through the drop ceiling. I discovered what looks from afar like a 55 gallon oil drum submerged in the cement floor with two pvc pipes leading from it. Preliminary research indica t es this could be the pump, which acts like a tiny septic tank. Not sure.
Anyway, when this bad boy activates, there's usually a slam when it cuts off.
My question is what the heck is going on? None of the downstairs plumbing exhibits these issues. My upstairs toilet flushes sluggishly could this be the issue? Should I cut through the wall and clean the pump th I ngy?

The slam you are hearing is the check valve closing, that's normal.

Your upstairs plumbing shouldn't be flowing into this pit, just the downstairs. It's below the sewer so it needs to be pumped up.

I wanna see how/where this ties into the main building drain, something isn't adding up, or I'm just not understanding correctly. The sink wouldn't just discharge the trap dry unless there was vent issues

 

[Mr_David]

I think this is the system you have outside.

http://www.eone.com/sewer-systems/regions/us/product-catalog/2000-series.html

Not familiar with those.

 

[Mr_David]

here's what I think.
Original plumbing on upper floor is hub and spigot lead joint cast iron.
Lower level plumbing was added and an ejector system was added to pump waste up to existing system.
PVC looks like 2" therefor the upper level ,like Frodo, said does not drain down into the lower ejector system.
The secondary outside system may not be discharging the fast enough to keep ahead of the lower pump system.

 

[Billythegrape]

Great so what do I do to improve waste expulsion?

 

[frodo]

i would pull both pumps to get nomenclature information.

size motor
gallon per minute pumps

then we can compre pumps, see if the house pump is bigger than yard pump

if it is,,you wil have to get a bigger pump for the yard

or smaller for house

 

[Matt30]

Both pumps would have to be running at the same time and system full of sewage for that to be plausible.

Is the pump out in the yard a sewage pump, or effluent pump?

 

[Billythegrape]

Ok I'll get on it. Gonna be a bit, so I'll get back here in a couple of days.

 

[Billythegrape]

Ok back was feeli n g better so I had the wife pull the grinder out. The only thing I could find wrong was that the L1 and L2 had been wired incorrectly causing the run light to stay on in the box and the manual run button to be nonfunctional. I rewired it correctly and now those things are working as they should. I rotated the pump by hand and it didn't seem too bad, so I flushed it with water and my wife reinstalled it. No change in bubbling. The pump turns on and stuff.

 

[Billythegrape]

In answer to all of the above, the pump outside is a sewage grinder, kinda like a giant garbage disposal for turds. The piping for effluent water is black iron. The toilet for the upstairs bathroom t's into this piping via pvc. The downstairs pump goes directly into the black iron at a 90 degree angle, which according to frodo could be am issue. The other thing I discovered is that there is an old y branch in the piping near where the downstairs pump enters. This y has a u bend for a toilet in a room that has no toilet. This room used to be the old bathroom.

I am going to cut into the tiny room downstairs that houses the pump. I will update with pics. Does anyone have any thoughts about the sewage grinder outside? It functions, how do I tell if it's functioning how it should be? Should I snake the iron piping? Should I pull the manhole cover in the street and check stuff there? Should I burn the house down and collect the insurance money?

 

[Mr_David]

Burn it and post a video.

 

[Mr_David]

My Opinion;

That grinder pump wasn't designed to handle the kind of water volume that is being discharged from the basement sump.

maybe if you install a similar type of system in the basement.
A grinder pump with a smaller discharge rate
or adjust the pump switch to cycle more often producing less volume between cycles.

 

[Billythegrape]

So you're saying to change the float level or something on the basement pump to make it cycle more frequently?

 

[Mr_David]

If possible. Yes. But it may not make a difference. But that would be the least expensive thing to try first.

That discharge line above the check valve will be holding waste water so be careful.
Don't be that guy who disconnected the drain without de-energizing the pump.

 

[Billythegrape]

If possible. Yes. But it may not make a difference. But that would be the least expensive thing to try first.

That discharge line above the check valve will be holding waste water so be careful.
Don't be that guy who disconnected the drain without de-energizing the pump.

Hahaha yeah... so... how do I de-energize the pump?

 

[Mr_David]

Hahaha yeah... so... how do I de-energize the pump?

Unplug it.
Looks like you have a piggyback switch. the one that is plugged into the outlet is the float switch and the one plugged into the piggyback is the pump.
if you remove the piggyback switch and plug the cord with a typical looking end into the outlet, the pump will run continuously.

The piggyback plug has an open circuit until the float is inverted by the water level. then the float closes the circuit and send power to the pump via the 2nd cord plugged into it.

do a search for float switches