I just finished remodeling almost all of my house. Among other things, we added a toilet and washing machine to one side of the house. The sewer line exits out the floor of a walk out basement in the middle of the house. The contractor installed a basin and sewage ejector pump in order to get the waste from the toilet and the water from the washing machine and sink to the sewer line. I was told that this was necessary because otherwise the PVC pipe would have been in the way.

Last weekend, the basin overflowed and sewage leaked throughout my basement. Contractor came to house to investigate and removed the submersible sewage pump and pulled out a wad of white paper from underneath and said there was a tampon in there which clogged up the pump causing the basin to overflow (because it blocked water from going through the pump). Carpet, drywall and baseboards had to be removed and will have to be replaced.

This new system is less than 2 months old. My wife swears there were not more than 2 tampons flushed. I am concerned because this is a new powder room to be used by visitors and I don't want this to happen again.

The pump is a Pro Flo. Nothing in the Owner's manual (which I received today) says anything about not flushing certain items or clogging up. What do I do?

Should the basin have leaked? I saw water/sewage going back in the pump from the side. Its not air tight.
Is the pump a bad pump? Plumber says you can't flush tampons, which may be true, but was news to every female my wife has asked.
How do I tell if the system design is bad?

Insurance company tells me that if this keeps happening, I will either be dropped from coverage or my rates will skyrocket.

I think your instructions will say to only dispose of disolvable solids or something like that, through your sump pump.

Hi Peter...

A few things:

1) The pit should absolutely be AIRTIGHT... if not airtight then you can plan on having sewage odors develop over time and that is both yucky and a health hazard! Be sure to make the pit air-tite.

2) The plumber should have told you what I tell ALL my customers that I install sewage ejectors for... No TAMPONS or FEMININE NAPKINS, No PAPER TOWELS, and No FLOSS!! These will inevitably clog the pump and cause exactly the issue you had!

3) Depending on the household, you may or may not need to post a little sign staing this above the toilet. At least this has worked for a couple customers..?

Anyway, there is nothing out of the ordinary here. NO sewage ejector that I am aware of is designed to remove these products. Sewage ejectors move toilet paper and waste product... that's it.

Check to get that pit sealed properly (even seal around the pipe penetrations with a silicone caulking... but don't OVERCAULK as you may need to remove in the future).

You should not have any more issues if you can keep the bad stuff out!

Good luck...

MARK

You can not get better answer than Mark gave you in the previous post ! ( sorry, I wanted to leave you positive feedback Mark - but - as always - the system wouldn't allow me to... )

There is only one thing I would add: we always place pump on concrete block. This way, it sits few inches above the bottom of the pit. In this case, pump won't suck in heavy debris from the bottom of the pit.