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Posted by Red Green on April 16, 2008, 10:16 pm
solidgoldZZZ@optonline.net (Ron in NY) wrote in
> Hi All,
>
> I have been living in the same house for over 30 years. I am
> about 50 miles
> north of NYC in rural Putnam County, where there are no sewer systems.
> We have our own septic system. I have no problems with the septic
> system itself, as I have the 900 gallon tank pumped out every 2 or 3
> years. However, the house trap gets partially clogged with what
> appears to be soap, and if I don't scrape it off of the inside of the
> trap, my toilet downstairs starts to flush slowly. It only builds up
> on the house side of the trap--the septic tank side of the trap never
> gets any buildup. Every 2 or 3 months, I unscrew the house side cap,
> and instead of a 3 1/2" hole, I have about a 2" hole. There is usually
> a build up of what appears to be soap about 1" thick on the inside
> walls of the trap. I take a screwdriver, and scrape it off, flush the
> downstairs toilet a few times, and it all goes into the septic tank,
> and the downstairs toilet is good for a few more months again.
>
> When this problem started (about 8-10 years ago), we switched
> from powdered
> soap to liquid soap in both the washing machine and dishwasher. I
> figured that the powdered soap was not dissolving completely, and that
> was the cause of the problem---evidently, it wasn't, as the problem
> still exists. It's a white mushy coating, like congealed soap. I told
> my wife to cut down on the amount of soap in both the washing machine
> and the dishwasher, but it still happens. Back then both of my kids
> were still in the house. As of about 5 years ago, they are both out of
> the house on their own, so the frequency of usage on the washing
> machine and dishwasher has gon down considerably, but the buildup is
> still the same. Is it possible that the buildup is some organic
> compound ???
>
> Any ideas how I can cure the problem ???
>
>
> RON
>
> ========================================================
> Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.
Guess you really NEED to know what it is before you can figure out how to
fix it.
Take a sample to a septic company, plumber, local extension serice are a
few thoughts.
Fo instance, any chance it's grease. That can turn white and mushy. THen
it can get hard as a rock in clumps. I can only guess just like you.
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