Mains Sewerage connection vs Enviro Cycle/Aussie Clean?

[Sitec]

Hi all!

Totally in Land Rover related, but seeing as there's a huge amount of knowledge on here, where better to ask the question!!?

So, we have an acre block in Williamstown SA (Barossa...), and we have mains sewerage running past the gate (not literally). Sooooo, do I spend $11000 +/- and have an Enviro Cycle/Aussie Clean and keep a nice patch of garden green, or do I connect to the mains and forget about it? I'm tempted to set up a 'grey water' tank if I do decide to connect to Mains Sewarage, and collect sink and shower water for garden watering...

The Court is yours!! Discuss!!!! :)

[Ferret]

I thought if the sewer is run past your gate your compelled to connect or a least still pay even if you choose not to use it to keep installation costs under control for everybody. Probably different regulations in different places I suppose.

[Tank]

I thought if the sewer is run past your gate your compelled to connect or a least still pay even if you choose not to use it to keep installation costs under control for everybody. Probably different regulations in different places I suppose.
You will probably have to pay an Availability fee if the sewer line runs past your boundary, a mate had the same sewer line run past his front boundary and his rear boundary, he was billed twice, he fought it in court and won. Then a few years ago he wanted to subdivide his block, but was refused on the grounds that he had no access to sewer line at the bottom of his block, cost him heaps.
With the Bio/Enviro Cycle systems there are usually ongoing maintenance and filter replacement costs and if it is the type that expels the treated water onto your garden, then you will need to get used the stink.
I have a 1 acre block and I have an Absorption trench system and it has only cost me $150 for a pump out once in 22 years.
If you use an on-site waste disposal system you have to be careful what you flush, No heavy detergents or Bleaches or anything Anti-Bacterial, then again my next door neighbour pays over $1K/year in sewer rates, Regards Frank.

[BMKal]

The place we have just been staying at in Tassie for the past 4 weeks has the Aussie Clean system installed. Seems to work well, and no smell at all. We stayed in the same house last time we were in Tassie about 4 years ago, and no smells noted then either. The unit has been in operation for quite a few years now with no problems - but I couldn't tell you what the associated costs are. They have a yearly maintenance contract which covers everything.

The only thing I could see wrong with it was that, in my opinion, it actually wasted a lot of water. The pump and sprinklers in the garden came on regularly - for about 5 or 6 seconds at a time. Definitely not long enough for any meaningful watering / soaking into the ground etc. I'd say that, especially in hot weather, most if not all of that water would simply evaporate providing no benefit to the garden at all. I'd be looking at reducing the frequency of the pump coming on and increasing the duration of the pumping cycles to give better use of the water.

There is an air blower in one of the tanks that runs most of the time - you can hear it humming, but it's not loud enough to be annoying - and the tanks / system were only about 10 to 15 metres away from the house.

Only other problem (maybe it was just me) was that I couldn't find a switch anywhere to turn the pump off - it was obviously hard-wired into the house somewhere, but buggered if I could find a switch for it. This meant that if you did want to venture out into the garden, you took pot luck with when the sprinklers came on, and if you heard a hissing sound - you ran like buggery to get out of there before getting sprayed with the stuff. Best to avoid the garden just after someone's taken a shower. If there isn't a switch there - I'd soon be installing one.

The system installed at the place we were staying at worked on a hi/lo level switch in the main tank to control the pump / sprinklers. Not sure if there is the opportunity to move the two switches further apart to provide a better time differential. However, I did note that a slightly more expensive version of the same system has the pump / sprinklers controlled by a combination of high level switch and a programmable timer - I think that this would be the better option.

As Frank said - no using heavy detergents etc with these systems as this is no good for the bacteria. All the houses in the area we stay at down there are not on scheme water - you either collect your own rainwater, or buy it in by the truckload. Both houses we were at survive entirely on rainwater collection. This means no chlorination - don't know what if any effect chlorinated scheme water would have on one of these systems.

[Pinelli]

Had a biocycle at a previous property (5acres) where we ran on tank water only - no bores, no town water. Was forced to install the biocycle when we extended the house, but made the most of it and used it to water the gardens around the house using one of these (http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/products/portfolio-types/reclaimed-water/reclaimed-water-distribution/) to spread the water over 6 zones (it cycles through 6 zones).

Did the same with greywater at the next house, and was continually having to clean the system out from hair, fluff you name it that came out of the washing machine and showers. The biocycle produced very clean water. Worked without needing to touch it for 5 years until we sold the place.

The biocycle did need testing on a quarterly basis. However, saw the lazy bastard who installed it drive up the driveway one day, sit in his car, write out the test report, and then drop it in our letter box. Stopped doing the testing after then, and nobody seemed to care.

As far as chlorination is concerned, this system had space to add half a dozen pool chlorine tablets in the final storage tank, post processing, so bacteria and other stuff were killed off before being sprayed.

[frantic]

Bmkal if the pumps hi Lo system is float activated, just put a pin or brick on the float arm to hold it in the low position when your in the spray area.
But if it's only having 5-10 second sprays this could mean an intermittent fault in the high sensor tripping the pump to reduce volume .

[DiscoMick]

There is another choice.
These are approved for Australia. Will depend on how progressive your local council is.
A friend has one and says it is great. Also MUCH cheaper to install and then costs very little to operate, just a little power. Just empty it regularly on shrubs (not vegetables).
Just a thought.


Sun-Mar Composting Toilets | Waterless &Microflush Eco Systems | (http://sun-mar.com.au/)

[BMKal]

Bmkal if the pumps hi Lo system is float activated, just put a pin or brick on the float arm to hold it in the low position when your in the spray area.
But if it's only having 5-10 second sprays this could mean an intermittent fault in the high sensor tripping the pump to reduce volume .

Problem was that you had to risk walking through the "spray" area to get to the tanks / pump. Not sure what the level switches were, but suspect capacitance probes - I didn't see any sign of floats. Was also a bit of a job to get at this part of the system in any case - you had to undo a couple of bolts and tilt the box containing the pump / valves / controller etc to get access into the top of the below ground tank where the level probes are.

But I'm back in Kalgoorlie now, so not likely to get sprayed at least for another couple of years or so. :D

[Sitec]

There is another choice.
These are approved for Australia. Will depend on how progressive your local council is.
A friend has one and says it is great. Also MUCH cheaper to install and then costs very little to operate, just a little power. Just empty it regularly on shrubs (not vegetables).
Just a thought.


Sun-Mar Composting Toilets | Waterless &Microflush Eco Systems | (http://sun-mar.com.au/)

Like the idea of this, and will be using something similar in the truck, but the wife says NO. Hmmm...

[carjunkieanon]

Had an enviro-cycle on a house back in the 90's.
- Have to keep cleaning the spray heads or they clog up.
- Don't mow over the hose!
- We had thick, green, long grass wherever the spray reached?and normal short, burnt Aussie grass everywhere else so they clearly pump out something good for growth.

Have a Bio-sceptic system at our current place.
- Quarterly service - about $350/year.
- The council charges every few years, a fee because we're not on sewage. Don't know how they justify this.
- System pumps out water subsurface on two areas of lawn so can't plant certain trees, flowers, veggies etc where they'll contact that water.
- If you have a blackout for 5 days (as we did last year) the pump and blower won't work?.(system was fine).

[DiscoMick]

Like the idea of this, and will be using something similar in the truck, but the wife says NO. Hmmm...

There are versions for houses. Also split systems. Our friend's doesn't smell at all that I've noticed. They can be powered and use water. They can also have an outside vent installed. Plus at less than $3000 the price is right compared with the alternatives. We were recently quoted $15,000 to re-establish septic trenches - seriously?

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[DiscoMick]

Had an enviro-cycle on a house back in the 90's.
- Have to keep cleaning the spray heads or they clog up.
- Don't mow over the hose!
- We had thick, green, long grass wherever the spray reached?and normal short, burnt Aussie grass everywhere else so they clearly pump out something good for growth.

Have a Bio-sceptic system at our current place.
- Quarterly service - about $350/year.
- The council charges every few years, a fee because we're not on sewage. Don't know how they justify this.
- System pumps out water subsurface on two areas of lawn so can't plant certain trees, flowers, veggies etc where they'll contact that water.
- If you have a blackout for 5 days (as we did last year) the pump and blower won't work?.(system was fine).

The BIL has a Biocycle and it has the same drawbacks. He has to pay for an annual inspection plus the council also charges an inspection fee - two separate fees? Doesn't work without power. Makes a significant area unusable. Spray drift etc.
He says if he'd known what he does now he wouldn't have chosen it.

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[Sitec]

He says if he'd known what he does now he wouldn't have chosen it.

Yeah, I'm starting to think that.. Kinda thinking of plan B.. Run the toilets, dish washer and washing machine into the street sewer, but run the showers, bath and kitchen sink out to an underground tank, which has its overflow piped to the sewer too.. This way we'd make best use of 'grey water' without the running costs of an Enviro Cycle, but utilise the fees that the council will sting us anyway.. Thinking I'd pipe it all separate but run it in the same trench to the sewer, which gives me the option to then bury the grey water tank and link it in once the dust has settled in a year or so...

[123rover50]

Doesnt anyone use septic tanks and absorbtion trenches any more?
We are on acreage and built about 15 yrs ago. Put the 3 toilets into a septic tank with trench and no problems.
The grey water I used to spray on lawn etc but too much hassle so I just pipe it down the hill into a big clump of bamboo and its no problem now either.
No inspections, no charges, nada.:D
We run on tank water for the house and bore water for the animals and garden.

Keith

[p38arover]

If you have a sewer running past and have to pay council rates for it, then why would you not connect to it?

[ramblingboy42]

we've had standard septic system with transpiration pits and greywater tank for 20 years.

Not a problem, even when the system occasionally gets flooded.....went through a few greywater pumps early on for some reason but all good now.

[Tank]

The place we have just been staying at in Tassie for the past 4 weeks has the Aussie Clean system installed. Seems to work well, and no smell at all. We stayed in the same house last time we were in Tassie about 4 years ago, and no smells noted then either. The unit has been in operation for quite a few years now with no problems - but I couldn't tell you what the associated costs are. They have a yearly maintenance contract which covers everything.

The only thing I could see wrong with it was that, in my opinion, it actually wasted a lot of water. The pump and sprinklers in the garden came on regularly - for about 5 or 6 seconds at a time. Definitely not long enough for any meaningful watering / soaking into the ground etc. I'd say that, especially in hot weather, most if not all of that water would simply evaporate providing no benefit to the garden at all. I'd be looking at reducing the frequency of the pump coming on and increasing the duration of the pumping cycles to give better use of the water.

There is an air blower in one of the tanks that runs most of the time - you can hear it humming, but it's not loud enough to be annoying - and the tanks / system were only about 10 to 15 metres away from the house.

Only other problem (maybe it was just me) was that I couldn't find a switch anywhere to turn the pump off - it was obviously hard-wired into the house somewhere, but buggered if I could find a switch for it. This meant that if you did want to venture out into the garden, you took pot luck with when the sprinklers came on, and if you heard a hissing sound - you ran like buggery to get out of there before getting sprayed with the stuff. Best to avoid the garden just after someone's taken a shower. If there isn't a switch there - I'd soon be installing one.

The system installed at the place we were staying at worked on a hi/lo level switch in the main tank to control the pump / sprinklers. Not sure if there is the opportunity to move the two switches further apart to provide a better time differential. However, I did note that a slightly more expensive version of the same system has the pump / sprinklers controlled by a combination of high level switch and a programmable timer - I think that this would be the better option.

As Frank said - no using heavy detergents etc with these systems as this is no good for the bacteria. All the houses in the area we stay at down there are not on scheme water - you either collect your own rainwater, or buy it in by the truckload. Both houses we were at survive entirely on rainwater collection. This means no chlorination - don't know what if any effect chlorinated scheme water would have on one of these systems.
The stink we used to get from our neighbours septic system was because they used Drano and bleaches for a loverly white toilet bowl. Told her what she was doing wrong and got her to put some Actizyme in the Tank and ditch the chemicals, ok for a few years till she rented out to a couple of oxygen thieves and the stink is back. Looks like the system is not working anymore, no smells garden dead and dry, finally, Regards Frank.

[jonesfam]

We had a thing called an Enviro Loo.
It was horrible!
It was supposed to dry your doings & turn it into fertiliser. The thing constantly filled up with water, the mechanical belt that moved things back kept jamming& the fan that was supposed to help dry things & get the smell away kept burning out.
Finally got a septic system, put in an extra tank for Loo water & all is good with the world.
No more climbing down into plastic boxes to try and fix things - just push a button.:D
Jonesfam

[whlump]

Most areas around Vic if sewerage lines pass property you are almost compelled to connect, most of the treatment plants the effluent water neally always needs to be disposed subsurface, hard to go past the old tank and absorption trenches
Cheers, Wayne

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