Sewage Pumps & Ejector Pumps in Spartanburg, SC

If a fixture's drain sits lower than the point where the building drain leaves the house, gravity cannot carry its waste out. Basement bathrooms are the usual case, along with basement laundry, wet bars and lower-level apartments in homes built into a hillside, which the Upstate's rolling lots produce plenty of.

The plumbing code treats these basins seriously. A basin that receives a toilet has to be sealed and gas-tight, has to have its own vent to the outdoors, and the pump has to pass solids up to 2 inches through a discharge line at least 2 inches in size. The discharge has an accessible check valve and a full-open shutoff valve so the pump can be serviced without draining the line back into the basin.

An ejector pump moves waste as it comes, solids and all, through a 2-inch or larger discharge. It suits the usual basement bathroom, where the pump only has to lift a short distance up to the building drain. It is the simpler and more common of the two.

A grinder pump has cutting blades that chop solids into a slurry before pumping it. Because the slurry is fine, a grinder can push through smaller pipe over a much longer distance or a greater height. That makes it the choice for long or steep runs, and for homes that discharge into a pressure sewer.

The two are not interchangeable. A grinder is the wrong pump to send waste into a septic tank, because finely ground solids carry farther into the drain field. Replacing the existing pump with the same type is usually right, unless the old one was the wrong choice to begin with.

Most ejector failures are not the motor. They are the parts around it.

• Floats: the switch that tells the pump to start. A float tangled on the cord, stuck on debris or worn out leaves the pump off while the basin fills, or running when it should stop.
• High-water alarm: a separate float that sounds an alarm before the basin overflows. It should be on a different circuit from the pump, so a tripped breaker on the pump does not also silence the alarm.
• Check valve: stops the water in the discharge pipe from falling back into the basin when the pump shuts off. A failed check valve makes the pump run twice as often and can cause a loud bang in the pipe.
• Vent: lets air out as the basin fills and in as it empties, and carries sewer gas outside. A blocked or missing vent slows the pump and lets odor into the house.
• Basin seal: the gasketed lid and the seals around the pipes and cord keep gas in. A cracked lid or a missing grommet is a common cause of sewer smell in a basement.

A sewage pump that runs a basement bathroom often lasts many years, but it lives in a harsh place. When it fails, we pull it, clean and inspect the basin, replace the pump with one rated for the head and flow the system needs, and replace the check valve and floats while the system is open, since those wear out alongside the pump.

An ejector pump does not run without power. During an outage, everything that drains to the basin has to stop, or it will fill and back up. A battery-backed alarm warns you, and a standby generator or a generator transfer setup can keep the pump running. If your basement bathroom is used heavily, plan for outages before the next storm.

On some septic properties the drain field sits higher than the house or the tank. Those systems usually include a pump tank or lift station that collects effluent and pumps it up to the field. That part of the system is permitted through the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services and is the territory of a licensed septic contractor.

Our side is the house. If the plumbing inside has to be pumped up to reach the septic tank, that is an ejector system like any other, and we install and repair it. When an alarm or backup could be either one, we help you sort out which part has failed.