What does it mean when your septic alarm goes off?

Okay. You go outside and a panel similar to this one light is on and buzzer is sounding. First things first. See if there’s a “Silence/Acknowledge” button. This button only acknowledges the alarm. You don’t need to hear it until a technician get’s there. That can be really annoying. In most cases a “Red Light” will mean stop running water or at least really cut back until the system can get looked at. If this alarm happens at the same time a heavy rain occured, you might try waiting for 24 hours and see if the light turns itself off. It could be that rainwater got into the system and the pump is trying to get caught up .

This is a multiple panel. One of the panels is an aquaworx panel (Left). This panel controls the pump and tightly controls how much water your system can use per day. The one on the right (in this case) controls a sand filter pump. The panel on the right is demand dose, which means if there’s water in the chamber, the pump will run until it’s gone. In either case in a set up like this one, stop running water. Always remember “Red” usually means stop running water. Problem with a pump

Now if you have a panel such as this one. Yellow alarm would indicate air issue. You could still run water until technician arrives. But if the red alarm is on, you do need to stop running water. As you do have expensive electrical and mechanical components of your system that can break if you run too much water and flood these out. Running water above these sensative components will void warranties. This panel happens to be for a NuWater System.

This is the inside of one of the typical septic control panels in our area. It’s best that these panels do get locked up to keep little one’s hands out of there. Remember that some of these panels could have 120/240 volts or more running through them. If someone opens these up, it is possible to start voiding any warranties on the system. It’s best to call a qualified technician if you start getting into your system this deep.

First Call Septic Services specializing in all sewage pumps and grinders in Clark County, Cowlitz County, Skamania County. Vancouver, Ridgefield, Woodland, Amboy, Yacolt, Battle Ground, Battleground, Brush Prairie, brushprairie, la center, lacenter, woodland, camas