Is Bleach Harmful To Haymarket Va Septic Systems?

Is Bleach Harmful To Haymarket Va Septic Systems?

How long has it been since your home septic system had any TLC? For most people, their septic system is strictly out of sight, out of mind, and few people think much about it until or unless there’s a problem.

While it’s true that your septic system is amazingly rugged and robust, it’s like anything else, and without periodic maintenance, it’s going to cause you trouble. We recommend having your tank pumped and your system inspected every three to five years to minimize the chance of a major problem.

As the area’s top-rated septic service company, we can help with that. We’ve built our reputation by exceeding the expectations of each and every customer we serve, and we’d love to add you to our growing family.

We get lots of questions while we’re doing our work, and one of the most common ones we hear is, ‘is bleach harmful to Haymarket VA septic systems?’

It’s easy to understand where the question comes from. After all, many of the cleaning products on the market today have bleach in them. Bleach is deadly to bacteria, and your tank needs bacteria to do its work, so using bleach-based cleaners seems, at first glance, like a disaster waiting to happen.

The good news though, is that the answer to the question ‘is bleach harmful to Haymarket VA septic systems?’ is, not nearly as harmful as you might think. You’d have to go to the store, buy a couple of gallons of the stuff and dump it straight down the drain to introduce enough bleach to your system to cause serious harm. As long as you avoid doing that, you’ll be just fine, so keep right on using those bleach-based cleaners.

Unfortunately, the question ‘is bleach harmful to Haymarket VA septic systems?’ is a bit of a gotcha, because while bleach in moderate quantity isn’t harmful, the question itself runs the risk of diverting your attention away from other issues that could pose a much bigger threat to your system. Here are a few examples of what we mean:

• Excess Water – At first glance, this one might leave you scratching your head. After all, your septic tank is tied to your home’s plumbing system. It’s got water flowing into it literally every time you turn on a faucet or flush a toilet, so how could water be a bad thing?
  The problem here is that all the water ultimately winds up in your drain field. If you introduce too much at once, the ground in the drain field can become supersaturated, and if it reaches the point where it can’t absorb any more water, then it can’t process waste. Not good.
  Excess water can reach your drain field in a lot of different ways, but there are two big culprits. The first potential problem are the downspouts attached to the gutters on your home. Just be sure they’re angled in such a way that the rain from your roof doesn’t flow into the drain field and they won’t be an issue.
  The other big issue takes the form of constantly running toilets and dripping faucets. You’d be amazed at how much water either of these can introduce to your system in just twenty-four hours. The moment you see either, break out your tools and fix the problem, or, if it’s beyond your skill level, call your local plumber.
• Chemical Drain Cleaners – While the answer to the question ‘is bleach harmful to Haymarket VA septic systems?’ is generally no, chemical drain cleaners pose a tremendous threat. It takes as little as a teaspoon to devastate the bacteria in your tank, so if you have a septic system, these should be avoided like the plague.
• Grease – This one probably comes as no surprise. After all, most people know that grease shouldn’t be poured down the drain. Unfortunately, it happens a lot more often than most people are willing to admit to.
  Here, the trouble comes in two forms. First, some of the grease will stay in your tank where it’ll take up space and clog the system until you have it pumped out. Second, some of the grease will escape to the drain field. Once there, it will float to the surface and harden, creating a problem known as grease capping.
  You may have seen products advertised on TV that promise to dissolve the grease and flush it from your system painlessly. Don’t believe the hype. Not only do these products not work as advertised, but some of the chemicals they contain can be harmful to your tank’s bacteria. In short, they make a bad problem even worse.

Again, it’s not that the question ‘is bleach harmful to Haymarket VA septic systems?’ is a bad one. There’s no such thing as a bad question. It’s just that in asking it, be sure it doesn’t distract you from other issues that can be a lot more damaging to your system.

All of that brings us back to the topic of maintenance. If you can’t remember the last time you had your tank pumped out and your system inspected from end to end, then it’s probably past time, and septic maintenance isn’t something you want to put off. If you’ve ever experienced a backflow of raw sewage into your home, you know what a nightmare that can be.

Give us a call and schedule your appointment today. We’ll be there when you need us, and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.