If your property has a control panel, an air pump running near the tank, or spray heads in the yard, you have an aerobic system. If it has none of those and simply runs downhill into a field, it is conventional.
That difference decides your maintenance schedule, your running costs and what is likely to break. A lot of homeowners we meet are not sure which they have, which is understandable, because nobody hands you a manual when you buy the house.
Conventional: gravity and time
A conventional system is a tank and a drain field. Wastewater enters the tank, solids settle into sludge, grease floats into scum, and the clear liquid in between flows out into a network of perforated pipe buried in gravel. The soil does the final treatment.
It has no moving parts, no electricity and nothing to fail mechanically. When it does fail, the cause is almost always that the tank was not pumped and solids reached the field.
- Pumping: every two to four years
- Running cost: nothing between pumpings
- Main failure mode: clogged drain field from missed pumping
Aerobic: treatment before distribution
An aerobic system adds oxygen to the process. An air pump feeds a treatment chamber where aerobic bacteria break waste down far more thoroughly than the anaerobic bacteria in a conventional tank. The effluent is then usually chlorinated and distributed through spray heads or drip lines rather than a gravity field.
Because the wastewater is treated to a higher standard before it leaves the system, it does not need soil that absorbs quickly. That is the whole point of them.
- Pumping: generally every other year, because aerobic bacteria produce more waste
- Running cost: electricity for the air pump, plus chlorine
- Main failure modes: the chlorinator running empty, the air pump failing, spray heads blocking
Why the answer is usually about your soil
Northeast Texas sits across a soil transition, and it lines up almost exactly with which system type you find where.
West, in the blackland prairie: around Greenville, Commerce and Cooper, the ground is deep, dark clay that swells when wet and cracks when dry. Water does not move through it the way a conventional drain field needs. Aerobic systems dominate newer construction there.
East, in the post oak savannah: around Winnsboro, Mount Vernon and Mount Pleasant, sandy loam drains well and a conventional field remains viable on the right lot.
Cumby sits almost exactly on the line, which is why properties on opposite sides of the same small town can need completely different systems.
The mistake we see most on aerobic systems
People treat them like conventional systems and leave them alone. An aerobic unit is closer to a piece of equipment than a buried tank: it has a pump that runs continuously, a chlorinator that empties, and heads that block.
The chlorinator is where neglected systems fail first. It is also the cheapest part of the whole thing. Keeping it topped up and having the unit looked at on a schedule is the entire difference between a system that lasts and one that does not.
Not sure which you have?
We can tell you in a few minutes on site. We service both types across Northeast Texas, and if you are planning a new installation, the soil assessment is the first thing that happens, because it decides everything after it.
Call (903) 885-4946. Someone answers any hour, any day.
Common questions
How do I know if I have an aerobic septic system?
Look for a control panel on the outside of the house, an air pump running near the tank, or spray heads in the yard. Conventional systems have none of these: they rely on gravity and have no moving parts.
Why do some properties need an aerobic system?
Soil. Heavy clay will not absorb effluent fast enough for a conventional gravity drain field, so the wastewater has to be treated to a higher standard before it is distributed, usually by spray or drip.
Are aerobic systems more expensive to maintain?
Yes. They have moving parts, need pumping roughly every other year rather than every two to four, and require the chlorinator to be kept up. The trade-off is that they work on ground where a conventional system cannot.
Need someone to look at it?
We look before we quote. Nothing gets priced over the phone that we have not seen.
Someone answers any hour, any day