Your One-Stop Solution for Lift Station Excellence

Lift stations are used to move wastewater from a lower elevation to a higher elevation, particularly where the elevation of the source is not sufficient for gravity flow and/or when the use of gravity conveyance will result in excessive excavation depths and high sewer construction costs.

In the event of a lift station failure; by either a force-main break, power outage, or pump failure; wastewater will collect in the lift station wet well and backup into the collection system, causing sewage to back flow into any drain in the connection, starting with those at the lowest elevation point and continuing on up the system.

Key elements of lift stations include: a wastewater receiving well (wet-well); pumps and piping with associated valves; motors; a power supply system; an equipment control and alarm system; and an odor control and ventilation system.

The most obvious sign that there is a problem with your lift station is the "High Level Alarm" sound. High water level alarms produce an audible and visual (flashing light) signal that the water level in the wet-well is rising. This is usually an indication that the pump is not working at all or that it is not pumping at a high enough rate to keep up with the amount of water coming into the wet-well. If this happens, you may have a lack of power going to the tank, or more commonly one or both of your pumps are clogged.

A grinder pump is a pump with a “grinding” mechanism, (much like a garbage disposal) that grinds the waste solids into a slurry. Therefore, your pump is not pumping any solids. Because you are not pumping solids, a smaller diameter force main may be used.

As with any mechanical product, some pumps will last longer than others. A lot depends on how much wear and tear is placed on the station. How much it is used, what is going into the station to be pumped out during its tenure, as well as how well the station is maintained.

Most residential grinder and sewage lift stations will require 230 volt, 1ph power for their lift stations. However, in larger applications (municipalities and industrial situations), 460 volt, 3 phase power is required. Most grinder pumps and non-clog pumps usually can be built in any combination of phase and voltage.

A "Simplex Lift Station", or "Grinder Pump Lift Station", has one pump and controls for one pump. Whereas a duplex system is set up with two pumps. In larger applications (large municipalities for instance), the lift station can even be designed with 3 or 4 pumps (triplex or qudraplex).

Since a "Duplex Lift Station" has two pumps, the greatest benefit is redundancy. In the event that one pump has a failure and stops running, the second pump can kick in and serve as a back-up. This maintains the operation of your lift station until the faulty pump can be repaired or replaced. Also, duplex systems typically alternate between pumps so there is even wear on each of them. In other words, one pump is not “doing all the work.”