My house is not on city sewer system. It is connected to a septic system in my back yard so I am very aware of what is being rinsed out to the septic and drain field. No food stuffs, no garbage disposal, no oils, cleaners are limited.
The washer has always been my worst problem with too much water and soap. I recently replaced my old 60 gallon washer with a 22 gallon top-load model. It does the job with 1/3 less water. Much better on my septic tank. And the soap it uses is better too, low sudsing.
BUT the old washer had one feature that I did not want to give up: A LINT FILTER. It used to catch all kinds of yuck so it didn't get into the septic system. I had years of seeing how much lint is in the wash. Yes there is more in the dryer but you would be amazed at how much is in the washer! When I went to replace the washer, I found that the newer washers do NOT have filters! When the washer sends water out from wash or rinse cycles, anything in the water is expelled to the septic tank. Not good. Not good at all!
Cotton and other natural fibers will slowly degrade in the system, not really a big deal.
But any non-natural fibers will just build up. They can cause a criss-cross mat inside the drainfield. This blocks the natural process and eventually causes the drainfield to fail because water can not drain through the matt of foreign fibers. I replaced my drainfield about 9 years ago...HUGE MONEY (it had been in the ground almost 40 years!). I did not want my wash to kill my new drainfield.
Have to tell you folks about a filter I just put on my washing machine. Found it on the web. Filtrol 160 is a separate filter I connected to the wall so the wash water goes through it, then out to the septic tank. It does what my old washing machine filter used to do!
It catches cat & dog hair, lint of all types, loose strings, kleenex pieces (I left it in my pocket). It's great quality, solid, not expensive, low maintenance, easy. It is just one more thing I can do to help protect my septic system. Here's what it looks like:
And here's the
Filtrol 160 website if you are interested in it yourself. There is another company that sells them (septicsolutions.com) and has more information about the product but they did not offer 90 guarantee. I went to the manufacturer (septicprotector.com) to get mine and dealt with the owner of the company. Lovely person.
I get
nothing for recommending this filter...no discount, freebies, no rebates, nothing.
But thought this one was worth the posting.
I like it and it does what it claims.
Can't ask for more than that!