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Also, leaving water trickling when you’re on a septic system can ruin your grinder pump because it stirs up the solids in the first separating tank. And, as I

Also, leaving water trickling when you’re on a septic system can ruin your grinder pump because it stirs up the solids in the first separating tank. And, as I learned the hard way this week, even if all the faucets are dripping, there’s no way to trickle a toilet. The supply lines for both of our toilets froze while the sink next to them kept right in dripping. And then there’s the question of how to keep your water heater from bursting when the power goes out and it can’t heat anything.

qbasic_forever 6y ago
Ooph, yeah this is going to be a nightmare for home insurance to unwind it all and deal with everything at such a big level.
jmkb 6y ago
> there’s no way to trickle a toilet If you have a tank toilet you might be able to adjust the floater (bend the rod upwards) so it never quite turns off the supply valve. Failing that, you can just manually prop the flap open with something. If you have a flushometer, remove the nut over the valve and adjust the screw underneath until the valve never quite shuts off. Warning: Take careful note of exactly how things were before. A toilet that never stops running can be just as hard on the spirit as a toilet that doesn't work at all.
- hotsauceror 6y ago
  I guess that’s true. But the alarm on our septic starts screaming after about six hours of a trickling toilet. The alarm is pretty much there for that specific condition and the installer really hammered on the need to fix a leaking toilet Immediately. I guess in the grand scheme of things a new grinder pump and a visit from the honey wagon are cheaper than a condemned house, though...
  - gnarlysasquatch 6y ago
    Otherwise there are folks who would let the toilet run for a year without fixing it.
    - pas 6y ago
      Doesn't that simply means water and sewage treatment are also too cheap?
      - mattacular 6y ago
        No, it just means people act human.
  - KMag 6y ago
    For a couple of cents, couldn't the grinder circuit include a basic 555 timer de-bounce circuit to suppress multiple triggers within, say, 30 minutes? That seems a lot cheaper than an alarm. Alternatively, why doesn't the grinder have a higher minimum triggering flow rate? It seems it's falsely detecting potential solids arrival.
gnarlysasquatch 6y ago
It’s not that it “stirs up solids,” it’s that a continuous leak causes the pump to cycle on more frequently. Your pump might cycle a few times a day normally; a running toilet could cause that to be every 30 min, and at that rate you could need a new pump in a year or two instead of 10. Trickling your faucets (just a drip-drip-drip) for a few days is a small amount of extra wear on your pump in exchange for not rupturing pipes.

qbasic_forever 6y ago

Ooph, yeah this is going to be a nightmare for home insurance to unwind it all and deal with everything at such a big level.

jmkb 6y ago

> there’s no way to trickle a toilet If you have a tank toilet you might be able to adjust the floater (bend the rod upwards) so it never quite turns off the supply valve. Failing that, you can just manually prop the flap open with something. If you have a flushometer, remove the nut over the valve and adjust the screw underneath until the valve never quite shuts off. Warning: Take careful note of exactly how things were before. A toilet that never stops running can be just as hard on the spirit as a toilet that doesn't work at all.

hotsauceror 6y ago
I guess that’s true. But the alarm on our septic starts screaming after about six hours of a trickling toilet. The alarm is pretty much there for that specific condition and the installer really hammered on the need to fix a leaking toilet Immediately. I guess in the grand scheme of things a new grinder pump and a visit from the honey wagon are cheaper than a condemned house, though...
- gnarlysasquatch 6y ago
  Otherwise there are folks who would let the toilet run for a year without fixing it.
  - pas 6y ago
    Doesn't that simply means water and sewage treatment are also too cheap?
    - mattacular 6y ago
      No, it just means people act human.
- KMag 6y ago
  For a couple of cents, couldn't the grinder circuit include a basic 555 timer de-bounce circuit to suppress multiple triggers within, say, 30 minutes? That seems a lot cheaper than an alarm. Alternatively, why doesn't the grinder have a higher minimum triggering flow rate? It seems it's falsely detecting potential solids arrival.

gnarlysasquatch 6y ago

It’s not that it “stirs up solids,” it’s that a continuous leak causes the pump to cycle on more frequently. Your pump might cycle a few times a day normally; a running toilet could cause that to be every 30 min, and at that rate you could need a new pump in a year or two instead of 10. Trickling your faucets (just a drip-drip-drip) for a few days is a small amount of extra wear on your pump in exchange for not rupturing pipes.