Ask Me Help Desk - Effluent pump or Grinder pump?

Hi all... First, here's the background info:

We’re in the process of finishing our basement. Due to the lot being a walkout and the builder wanting to get down to bedrock the basement has 12' ceilings. Because of that, he chose to have the main sewer line exit the house about 4-5' up the foundation wall as opposed to through the floor / under the house because there would have only been about .25" of drop to the city sewer line.

Due to this setup he pre-installed a pump basin in the basement floor directly below the sewer line exiting the house. It’ll take appx. 6-8' of pipe to get from the pump up to the main sewer line. There’s already a 'Y' adapter in to connect the drain from the basin to the main line, and a vent line is installed ready to be connected. He plumbed the floor drain in the furnace room to drain to the basin, and stubbed out for a bathroom (shower, stool, and sink) and plumbed it to drain to the basin as well.

We’re adding a kitchenette too and a sink for my shop. The basin will therefore service 3 sinks (1 having a disposal), 1 dishwasher, 1 shower, and 1 stool.

Now the question:

There’s a significant $ diff for an effluent pump vs. a grinder pump. We're trying to decide which way to go. Our research has shown effluent pumps handle up to a 2" solid, whereas a grinder doesn't really have a limitation since it grinds everything into slurry. The only possible >2" solid that could get to the basin would be from the stool. With a disposal on the kitchenette sink, not to mention a 1.25" drain line, nothing 2" is going to come from it or any other fixture. The rest of the house is not and will not be serviced by whichever pump we install.

Can we get some feedback from the plumbing pro's here as to whether we should go with an effluent pump or a grinder pump? What the typical setup is and what the recommendation would be for their customers? What would you do if it were your home?

Thanks very much in advance!

My opinion, hands down, go with the effluent pump. I recommed the ZOELLER unit at www.zoeller.com . Simply put, these pumps are super reliable, reasonably priced and require very little maintenance.

In 30 years I've been able to compare the sewage ejector with the grinder pumps and although the grinder pumps are nice they seem to have a tendency to break down after awhile, get noisy and are very hard to repair. They are EXTREMELY expensive to replace!

The biggest issue with the ejector systems seem to be odors. This can be eliminated by running a dedicated vent (as you mentioned you have) and installing the seals provided properly. I follow up by placing a bead of flexible silicone sealant at all surfaces that mate up to the pipes and the lid edges. Otherwise, I have never had any complaints with these pumps unless someone tossed a tampon down the toilet and into the pit and that would mess any pump up!

With any pump/grinder be aware you cannot let tampons, paper towels, tooth floss, or mop strings or simlilar enter the pit. These will get tied up around the impeller and cause the pump/grinder to fail or burn out.

Anyway, I see no compariosn here! Go with the effluent pump!

Mark

Thanks Mark!

I guess I really meant Ejector pump as opposed to Effluent pump, my bad! I realized that they are in fact different after doing a bit more searching around.

Let me ask an additional question...

Some of what I've read indicates it is better to go with a NON-Automatic pump and add a supplementary float switch to automatically activate it. This way, if the switch goes bad you can replace it very easily as opposed to if it is an Automatic pump with a built in float switch. In terms of pricing, it looks like the cost of a NON-Automatic pump is less, but only by about the cost of an add on switch, so in the end the price is probably pretty much the same between the NON-Automatic and Automatic pumps.

Thoughts?

Quote:

Originally Posted by massplumber2008

My opinion, hands down, go with the effluent pump. I recommed the ZOELLER unit at www.zoeller.com . Simply put, these pumps are super reliable, reasonably priced and require very little maintenance.

In 30 years I've been able to compare the sewage ejector with the grinder pumps and although the grinder pumps are nice they seem to have a tendency to break down after awhile, get noisy and are very hard to repair. They are EXTREMELY expensive to replace!

The biggest issue with the ejector systems seem to be odors. This can be eliminated by running a dedicated vent (as you mentioned you have) and installing the seals provided properly. I follow up by placing a bead of flexible silicone sealant at all surfaces that mate up to the pipes and the lid edges. Otherwise, I have never had any complaints with these pumps unless someone tossed a tampon down the toilet and into the pit and that would mess any pump up!

With any pump/grinder be aware you cannot let tampons, paper towels, tooth floss, or mop strings or simlilar enter the pit. These will get tied up around the impeller and cause the pump/grinder to fail or burn out.

Anyway, I see no compariosn here! Go with the effluent pump!

Mark

Purchase an ejector with the integral float. Float switches are notorious for failing and having to be replaced periodically. They also have a tendency to get hung up on things that would never hang up a float on an ejector with the float attached.

Mark