Hi Everyone,
My greywater system needs a new pump and some maintenance. I bought the house with the system and at fourteen years old, it wasn't working. I am rewiring everything and replacing the pump and a bunch of PVC. I am thinking of adding in a filter as well to make sure particles aren't going to jam anything up down the line. I'll describe the system below.
Any advice is appreciated. My goal is to make the system more efficient and reliable. So a good pump that can move
water fast so that it doesn't have to run for hours.
Main questions are:
Should I keep the 2" PVC from pump to irrigation valve manifold? Not sure if bigger is better for volume or if 1.5" would be more efficient.
What pump should I get? I'm between a Wayne 1/2 hp effluent pump for under 200.00 or a Zoeller M95 or M137 for around 400.00. I've heard the Zoeller last a long time and are worth the money. Anyone have first hand knowledge? If they last 10 years, I'd rather get the Zoeller.
Is there a better pump type or are these effluent pumps the right choice for my application?
Anyone use an inline filter to protect the rest of the system from particles from the washer? These are the two I'm looking at.
https://www.septicsolutions.com/septic-parts/septic-tank-filters/pressure-effluent-filters/3014-pf_polylok-high-pressure-effluent-filter-with-stainless-steel-filter-cartridge
https://www.septicsolutions.com/septic-parts/septic-tank-filters/pressure-effluent-filters/stf100a2_simtech-high-pressure-effluent-filter-with-stainless-steel-filter-cartridge
House has separate built in greywater plumbing throughout, so sinks, showers and washer go to a 10,000 gallon greywater tank and a 1/2hp sump pump is in a small secondary tank that pumps about 7 feet up through 2" PVC, through a check valve and out the tank.
It reduces to a 1.5" PVC manifold that supplies 8 high volume irrigation valves. The other side of the individual valves is reduced to 1" PVC to each
yard zone.
The irrigation control is a heavy duty Hunter unit that controls the pump and can run two of the irrigation zones at the same time so that the there shouldn't be too much backpressure created from the reduction in pipe size.
There are no sprinkler heads, just larger flex tube (1/2" or so) delivering water at each point. The system is designed to dump volume fast so the pump doesn't have to run as long.
I'm wiring everything in weather resistance boxes and adding a flow meter so that the irrigation controller can see if flow stops due to pump stopping or running low on water or something getting jammed up and notify me instead of just running until the pump goes into overload protection.
I'm also thinking a second float switch to the alarm to warn if tank is low may be good since it's not exactly easy to visually check and it would help me dial in running times per zone so that I can use as much water as possible per day.
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