The ground floor of our house sits below the level of the mains drains so we have a slightly odd (to me) system of dealing with waste water from sinks/showers. This ‘grey water’ collects in a chamber in the garden where a pump with a float switch raises it to the level of the mains drain.((The loo is a Saniflo with its own pump)
This all worked well but said pump has now packed up and our plumber says it is too big a job for him to fix. My question is, who do i go to now? A builder? A drain specialist? The fact that I have seen examples of said pump on Amazon suggests to me that i can’t be the only person to have this setup. Has anyone got experience of a similar arrangement snd advice on who might mend it?
Not that strange, if it was working fine then just replace the pump like for like but avoid your so called plumber because unless you havent disclosed something its a pump swap. Any decent plumber should be capable of changing it.
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I wonder if your system conforms to the current regulations and, if not, whether your plumber is reluctant to repair a non-conforming system.
We have a somewhat similar system (though not including lavatory waste) and it doesn’t conform. At the moment, we’re going to see if it continues to work well. Our departement is (we are told) much more relaxed about that sort of thing than neighbouring departements!
I suppose it depends if its mains drainage or fosse septic?
Ours is mains, sort of 
Good morning, I have a water question but cannot find the correct categorie…has anyone used the Aquasain system for soft water? i have a very old system, 20 years, Cogem, still working but out of guarantee and they still come every year, change the filter, test the water, charge 140 and bugger off. time for a change I think.
If you can’t find a plumber to fix it, then you may have to get a builder in that specialises in “assainissement”. No doubt, the usual scratching/shaking of head, frowning, and sharp intake of breath might ensue before said person hits you with the estimated cost.
Do you actually notice a difference in scale build up?
for all the years I’ve had the old, cumbersome Cogem there has bee no scale. I have to put in salt every so often. It’s just the yearly fee whixh means anything wrong with the elecs bit is not guaranteed…you wee so right, the yellow in my pool was pollen. got rid of it.!!
The Cogem is a proper water softner with a special resin that swaps the calcium and magnesium in the water for sodium. Hence the salt being required. Aquasain on the other hand is a bit of Voodoo, psuedo science, they claim it changes the form of the calcium to a softer version.
I had better stick with what I have rather than take a chance with Baron Samedi!
When did they last change the resin?
Morning! Well, now there’s a question. They change the filter, go into the kitchen and play with the water, I have not seen a tub? of resin or where they might put it? They set it to purge itself and I’m not to use the water for an hour. My whistling kettle is a few years old and I scrabbled about in it just now and there is a very small amount of calcaire. I’ve never cleaned it out like that before!
Oh, they come every september!
Typically the ion exchange resin would last 10 years. Thats really the only slightly expensive part. The purge is probably a deep clean using a weak acid like citric acid or similar but could also be chlorine dioxide to both clean and sanitise the unit. See if you can watch what they do? Changing a filter is a low cost item but with their milage I expect its a std sort of price. You should ask to view the test results as well to see what they are testing for. Bacteria levels or just hardness?
UPDATE
After two failed replacements, we are trying to find the identical model of pump - but we need help!
Hi
Is there anyone who lives near 39100 Dole can help us? We need to collect a new pump for our drainage system from Mr Bricolage in Dole. It has to be an identical replacement to our current one- we’ve tried to fit two others, with no success.
It’s only available for collection from Mr Bricolage in Dole - they won’t post it out but, as we live in Normandy, collection is a bit impractical.
I was hoping that there might be someone in this community who lived near Dole and could collect it, then send it by to us by Relais. I’ll obviously pay in advance for the pump and we’d need to have a discussion about your own expenses.
Hoping there is someone out there who can help - we’d be terribly grateful!
Regards
F