I have a lift pump in the basement that pumps the downstairs water and sewage up to a septic tank. Last night we had a storm and the power went off. I noticed a strong smell of sewage came in from the lift tank/drain area. I found that the breaker had tripped when the power went off, once I reactivated the breaker, the pump pumped once and eventually the smell went away? Issues ? Rick

Has the breaker tripped before ? Possible battery back up system ?

Rick, possible overload from lightning caused the trip. Is this a GFCI breaker? Dedicated circuit? If so, I'd replace it with a regular breaker. You can get a power outage signaling device, used in fire alarm systems. These operate from a battery backup source and emit a noise. Of course, with no power, you couldn't flush anyway.

This happens during a storm. If this isn't a recurring problem and everything has returned to normal then I believe your worries are needless, Good luck, Tom

Needs to be vented to the outside

Hi Plumb

What the heck are you talking about? If you know anything about plumbing at all then you should know that installing a vent has already been done for this system and would do nothing to help with the problem presented as Ricrac said, "once I reactivated the breaker, the pump pumped once and eventually the smell went away".

Also, please note the date of this thread... from 2011?

Mark

When I run the hot water in the bath it seems to have brown rusty/sandy like substance left in the bath .I have a combi boiler for information