We want to pump out the septic tank, but no one can find it. Previous owner doesn't know where it is, and the health department has no record because the house is so old.

We've had various plumbers and septic people out to the house, most of which probed the ground with a stick. One guy snaked the clean out, and eventually found a concrete tank, but that turned out to be a small grease-trap tank, fed only be the kitchen sink.

What are the "high-tech" options available? One guy has a camera that goes down the pipe. How does that work? Can he see the turns and therefore deduce where the tank is?

Is there such a device that you flush down the toilet and track it's location from the surface like some sort of anti-submarine warfare drill.

Thanks,

Glenn

Hi Glen, Welcome back,
Well the camera isn't going to work unless you can track it. How far down in the ground are your sewer pipes and what are they made of?
We start at the cleanout and probe the sewer line until we hit the septic tank. But then I live in Florida where the lines aren't buried as deep as they are up north. If the lines are cast iron, then down here we locate hidden underground lines with a magnetometer. This is a senitive "dip needle" magnet that You run over the ground until the needle dips down indicating metal underneith.
The only other way, since you've already located the grease trap would be to probe the line out of the grease trep over to the septic tank or to dig down every 5 foot or so and track the sewer line from the cleanout to the septic tank. Good luck, Tom

Thanks, Tom.

Seems the kitchen sink going to the grease trap is totally separate from the rest of the house. When the grease trap was open, only water from the kitchen sink showed up, all the other water was going somewhere else. I recall seeing two pipes going into the slab, one was a 1-1/2" PVC fed by the kitchen sink and one was a 3" PVC fed from all over the house.

How important is the grease trap? We've recently installed a second kitchen in the house, and that kitchen sink goes to the aforementioned AWOL septic tank. Should I be concerned that the grease is not being trapped?

A plumber is now telling us he has an electronic "egg" he will flush down the toilet for $75 that he can track from the surface. We'll see how well it works.

Glenn

A kitchen grease trap prevents grease from entering the septic tank and drain field.
This prolongs the life of the drain field and keeps the septic tank from loading up so fast. This will save on pumping and septic tank cleaning costs. I would run a separate line from your new kitchen and tie into the grease trap. Also the grease trap needs to be checked and cleaned periodically.
Good luck with the "egg". Let me know how you make out. Cheers, Tom

Hi,

If you can get somebody with a set of rods, some telephone wire and a electrical locator ( a continuous reel of rod would be better than the ones you screw together) tape very securily the telephone wire to the top of the reel and then place in a access point of your sewer system ( In Europe we call these A.J's which is short for Access Junctions) there will have to be a very small current i.e from a battery to allow the locator to pick up the signal from the telephone wire on the rods. Keep pushing the rods down the sewer whilst rolling out the telephone wire and track it with the locator. This is the manner in which we find old telephone pits that have been covered up years ago by landscapers etc.

Hope this works,

Maurice

Maurice, you are posting on a seven year old thread. It's dead.

It is not dead. Someone always needs this type of advice. Thanks to all those that did answer. It will help me. I hope.

The guy with the camera can trace the sewer pipe and locate where your tank is with Pipe Locator. That's how we do it. It also tells you how deep it is.

Or, call (large) septic pumping company and ask them to pump out the septic. They have their own way locating septic tanks - and they are pretty good on doing so.

Back to you / Milo

Milo & cmerrill you are both responding to a nine-year-old dead thread.