Thread: Mains Sewerage connection vs Enviro Cycle/Aussie Clean?

Originally Posted by 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).

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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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

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...

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.
We run on tank water for the house and bore water for the animals and garden.

Keith

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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.
Jonesfam