How to look after your pump station
If a pump station serves your property, the likelihood is that the property is not connected directly to the mains sewer system.
Sewage pump stations are designed to handle foul water, sewage, natural human waste and biodegradable products. Other household waste and non-biodegradable products should never be disposed of through the drainage system.
Disposal of non bio-degradable products will affect the reliability of all pump stations, causing pump to block and storage chambers, pumping stations to become congested with non-pumpable waste.
Bear in mind too that it isn’t only the toilet that is connected to your pump station: anything that goes down the sink, bath etc. also ends up there.
The following must not be discharged into drains:
- Cleaning Rags
- Cloths
- Syringes; Hypodermic Needles
- Medicines; Medical Equipment. Take unused medicines to a pharmacist for safe disposal
- Fat, Oil; Grease. These products tend to cool down, separate from water and coagulate within the pump stations chamber (FOG’s) encase the pump and floats, causing blockages and failure of pumps
- Nappies, Sanitary Towels, Incontinence Materials Soft Toys, Tennis Balls etc. It may seem a bit obvious to say this, but it is amazing what gets flushed down the loo from time to time, causing blockages of the drains and pump stations.
- Even so-called disposable nappies and sanitary towels often do not degrade fully and can lead to malfunction, so it is best to dispose of them by other means. Fabric cleansing wipes; nappy liners can block pipe work or your pumping station. They should not be flushed into the drainage system.
Routine De-Sludging and Servicing
Pump stations over time accumulate settled solids. It is good practice to check and if necessary empty/de-sludge you pump station at the same time as any mechanical or electrical servicing is carried out.
It is vital to your pumping stations ongoing operation and should be carried out regularly. Mechanical and electrical servicing, particularly, must be performed by properly trained personnel suitably qualified and experienced in this type of work.
Regular servicing of pump stations and pumping equipment will extend their life expectancy, hydraulically efficiency and help to avoid emergency call outs. For further information contact us or ask about our service agreements.
Pump Station Servicing & Maintenance
To ensure that your pump station remains effective, it needs to be serviced and cleaned once or twice per year. We offer service agreements to suit a broad range of maintenance budgets, to ensure our customers keep up to date with regular servicing and avoid costly breakdowns.
Expert care
Our highly trained technicians exclusively work on basement sumps and pumps, and can spot problems before any harm is caused. The team is on the road every day of the year to ensure 1000s of pumps across London and the South East are operating reliably and efficiently.Minimise hassle and admin
With a service agreement in place, we’ll remind you about routine maintenance and ensure that these are booked in as part of our duty of care – so you don’t have to worry about missing these vital check-ups.Discounted servicing and parts
ou get the benefit of 10% off the parts required for any servicing and repairs – or inclusive parts and labour on our gold plan. And if you do need to call us out in an emergency, there won’t be an expensive one-off charge, since you’ll already be covered!Emergency engineer call-out
24 hours a day, every day of the year – you can call us when you’re having an emergency and we’ll be there to help, with an average response time of 3 hours across our entire catchment area. What's included in a service?
- Carry out a visual inspection of the chamber and the internals – pumps, pipework, and cables
- Pump down chamber on hand, and monitor the operation of components
- Check the operation of float switches, adjust position if any obstruction is identified
- Ensure non-return valves are testing free from blockages Inspect the cable joining kits for moisture or corrosion, change where required
- Test the high level alarm for visual and audible signals
- Test the battery backup and ensure power is provided to ensure pumps will operate during power outage, if applicable to site
- Swap the duties of the pumps, this allows equal wear of both automatic pumps, amend controls if required
- Carry out a clean and wash down of the chamber, pumps and float switches
- Reporting scale of fat/limescale build up within the chamber
- Test operation of station, resetting service reminder on panel/alarm, ensuring power is left on and gate valve is open; ensuring site is left clean and tidy
