Frozen Septic Tank

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised to have found a frozen septic tank when visiting the home.

Symptoms of a Frozen Septic Tank

It is fairly easy to determine if you have a frozen septic tank. In my case, we had just arrived at the home and started flushing toilets and even doing a load of laundry. Due to the fact that the septic system is a pump up system, the frozen septic tank wound up backing up water into the house, and in particular the lower level bathtub. As soon as I saw sewage water filling up in the tub, I immediately shut of the faucets, clothes washer and the well pump.

Using a pickaxe I was able to remove the 4 inches of topsoil from around the septic tank cover and lift the lid of the tank. As I had expected, the tank had a couple of inches of ice encrusted on its surface. I was able to chip through it with a steel pipe, and find the liquid effluent sitting just below it. I also checked to see if the septic tank baffles were encrusted with ice. Fortunately they were not.

I then went into the basement of the home, and removed the large PVC drain plug/nut to the drain pipe that exited the house. I also held a 30 gallon trash bucket underneath the PVC drain plug/nut as I knew the sewage water built up into the drain system would come pouring out, which it did. Needless to say, I got a little wet and dirty at the same time. Unfreezing a Frozen Septic Tank After inspecting the drain pipe, I determined that it was frozen as well.

After emptying the 30 gallon trash can of sewage water, I then placed it underneath the drain pipe and connected one end of a hose to the water heater and the other end deep into the drain pipe. I then turned on the well pump and the valve to the hot water heater. After about 10 minutes of running the hot water into the drain pipe, and catching a lot of it in the trash can, I melted a hole through the ice in the drain pipe so that water began to flow again into the septic tank.

Later on that spring I had the septic tank pumped and inspected. Fortunately there were not cracks, and the baffles and pump were not damaged.

Since my frozen septic tank experience, I installed some insulation around the drain pipe and added more topsoil over the tank and drain pipe. In addition, late each fall I have the septic tank cleaned, and cover the top of it and the drain pipe area with some hay. Many years have passed since that frozen septic tank experience and I have yet to have the situation reoccur.