How often should my septic be pumped?

The answer to that question is different for every system. Some of the variables that affect the need for pumping are:

• Tank size/capacity
• Household size/capacity
• Volume of wastewater
• Schedule of water usage
• Amount of solids in the wastewater

The table below shows the suggested number of years between pumping for different system and household sizes (number of people).


Number in household

Tank size (gal) *	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
500	5.8	2.6	1.5	1.0	0.7	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.1	-
750	9.1	4.2	2.6	1.8	1.3	1.0	0.7	0.6	0.4	0.3
900	11.0	5.2	3.3	2.3	1.7	1.3	1.0	0.8	0.7	0.5
1000	12.4	5.9	3.7	2.6	2.0	1.5	1.2	1.0	0.8	0.7
1250	15.6	7.5	4.8	3.4	2.6	2.0	1.7	1.4	1.2	1.0
1500	18.9	9.1	5.9	4.2	3.3	2.6	2.1	1.8	1.5	1.3
1750	22.1	10.7	6.9	5.0	3.9	3.1	2.6	2.2	1.9	1.6
2000	25.4	12.4	8.0	5.9	4.5	3.7	3.1	2.6	2.2	2.0
2250	28.6	14.0	9.1	6.7	5.2	4.2	3.5	3.0	2.6	2.3
2500	31.9	15.6	10.2	7.5	5.9	4.8	4.0	3.5	3.0	2.6

*most residential aerobic septic systems have 500 gal.tanks.

NOTE:
The use of a garbage disposal or flushing harmful solids into your system will reduce the amount of time between pumping by about 20%. Example: Six people living in a household with a 750 gal. tank would increase their pumping frequency from 1 year to about every 7 months with the use of a garbage disposal.