Avoid Hidden Costs by Selecting the Right System

Drawing on Orenco’s decades of experience, we explain why “cheap” wastewater treatment is almost always expensive in the long run. Talking through the pitfalls—wrong technologies, undersized systems, poor‑quality components, and ignored alarms—we show how they can snowball into major repairs, environmental problems, and big hits to property value. We also share some simple steps homeowners can take to avoid or address these issues. 

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Transcript

00:08

Hello and welcome to Make It Clear, a conversational podcast about all things related to water and wastewater.  I'm your host, Angela Bounds, and I'm joined by my co-host, Shawn Rapp.  In each episode, we'll tackle a relevant topic with facts and expert opinions and make things clear. 

Angela: Hello and thank you for joining us again. Today, Shawn and I are going to talk about the hidden costs of

00:36

choosing the wrong system. Shawn and I have both had the luxury and pleasure to work our customer service line.  

Shawn: For many years. 

Angela: For many, many years, both of us actually. And so we've taken calls on the customer service line that have really solidified for us what happens when you choose the wrong system. 

Shawn: Yeah.

01:06

Angela: What that can mean. Until you've actually experienced it. It can be one of those things where it's like, oh, it'll be fine.  It'll be fine. Nothing to see here. It will be fine, but it won't. 

Shawn: No, the problem with that is the fallout usually costs a lot more than the original equipment should have cost. 

Angela: Yes. Or you're paying for things twice.  You don't want to have to pay a contractor to come back out. 

Shawn: Nope. 

Angela: Right. Nobody wants to pay for things twice. 

Shawn: No.

01:37

Angela: All right. So, and that really starts us off with the first thing that we wanted to talk about, which is why cheap wastewater is expensive.  If you go for the least expensive option, it may work out for you. We're not going to say it won't.  It may. However, in our experience,

02:08

it isn't the best option for a reason. 

Shawn: You get what you pay for and with wastewater, you say that, I mean, we say that a lot, you get to pay for and we hear that all over society. 

Angela: Yeah. 

Shawn: But in wastewater, it's generally the case that better equipment, which costs more money is going to last you longer and perform better. 

Angela: Right. And it's, we've talked about it a lot, the sustainability factor.

02:36

Right. You want your wastewater, you want your, your septic system, your onsite system. You want it to last a long time.  You don't want to have to replace it. That means that there's going to be some upfront costs.  And that's okay. So the first hidden cost is like what, when you choose the wrong technology. 

Shawn: Right.

03:06

Angela: We talked a little bit about this the other day as well. So if you, if some of those mistakes have happened and you haven't paid attention to your perc test or you don't know exactly what kind of technology you need on your property and somebody misses that it's going to be a hidden expense because you will eventually have to replace it. 

Shawn: Yeah. High groundwater, seasonal high groundwater

03:35

is another one of those things, you put in a system that's not necessarily designed for that because when you tested everything, it was dry. 

Angela: Right.  

Shawn: Come the wet season or, you know, the seasonal rains that fills up with water and suddenly your system pops up out of the ground. 

Angela: Yeah. Yeah. Or it's improperly sized. 

Shawn: Right.  

Angela: Or you needed a pressurized drain field, not just a gravity fed drain field,

04:04

or any variety of reasons why the wrong technology may have been put in.  But it will cost you in the end. 

Shawn: Right. Or putting in a system that is not designed for what you need. Like if you, regulations require you to have some removal of some kind or like high phosphorus or something.  And you need to put in... 

Angela: Or nitrogen. 

Shawn: Or nitrogen or whatever it happens to be. And you put in just a regular system that doesn't address that

04:33

you're going to end up putting in more equipment later and it's going to cost you more money then than if you'd done it originally. 

Angela: Correct. Cause now you're taking stuff out.  You're re-excavating, you're removing equipment, you're putting stuff in.  It will be an expense.  Undersizing the system can also be an issue.  Things can fail quickly.  Systems can fail quickly.

05:01

And a lot of times if we see failed systems, it's due to under… undersizing.  So just make sure that it's sized properly because you will have to size it properly eventually. 

Shawn: Yeah. And take things into account like number of bedrooms now versus what could happen. You've got a big lot, and when you, when you built the house or the house was built, they put in a system that was for say three bedroom home.

05:31

They put in a system for a three bedroom home.  Next guy comes along and he wants to add two more bedrooms to the house because he's got a big family. But he doesn't upgrade the system.  Now you've got a system that's really undersized and it's going to cost you a lot more in maintenance every year than over the lifetime of the system because life cycle cost is a thing.  Then what would have cost to actually upgrade the system at the time that the house was being updated.

05:59

Angela: Yeah. And speaking of life cycle costs, when you're selecting components, you should absolutely take into consideration how long that component will last.  How many cycles will that pump handle?  You don't want to replace pumps…  

Shawn: No. 

Angela: all the time. 

Shawn: I took too many calls when I was on the customer service line of people who needed to replace pumps and they'd ask, how much is that going to cost?  And so you

06:28

tell them, you know, here's a ballpark figure of what that pump costs. Well, I can just run down to the big box store. They've got pumps down there. I can just grab one of those. Isn't that the same thing? 

Angela: Yeah.  

Shawn: No, it's not the same thing. 

Angela: It's actually not. 

Shawn: Yeah. Pumps for wastewater systems typically are purpose built. It's not like a well.  Well, it looks like a well pump, operates somewhat similar to a well pump, but it's not designed the same as a well pump. 

Angela: Right. 

Shawn: So just going down to a big box store and picking up a well pump or a sump pump is not going to… 

Angela: It's not going to... 

Shawn: to cut it.

06:58

Angela: Right. There's a reason why these pumps are used.  And keep in mind, every time that you replace a pump, you're using an electrician or a service provider, somebody is going to come out because they have to wire up that pump.  You don't just drop it in and go. That's not how it works. 

Shawn: No, in most jurisdictions require you to have

07:28

an electrician do the wiring for you and just depends. You need to make sure your location allows it. 

Angela: So speaking of things that are not made up to snuff necessarily or for the purpose, make sure that the materials that your tanks are made of are good. 

Shawn: High quality. 

Angela: High quality. There are, we are

07:58

living in a very fortunate time where good solid tanks are readily available.  So don't cheap out on it.  

Shawn: And make sure you get a tank from a reputable dealer. 

Angela: Yep. You can get your hands on a good tank. There is no reason in today's day and age to not get a good non-corroding tank.  Put in the good stuff.

08:27

Please. Again, trust us.  

Shawn: We've heard too many stories. 

Angela: We have. I think that you and I, oh my gosh, I just cannot even. That would be a great number to get if we could. The number of combined calls that we've taken on the customer service line telling us like what went wrong or what people did or what happened. Like I would love

08:55

to see that number, because I know that you and I both, we were on the OG customer service line. 

Shawn: Yeah. 

Angela: Right? Where every call coming into that place just about came through customer service. 

Shawn: Yep. 

Angela: So yes, yes, yes.  Ah, the good old days.  So this is something that we have also talked about recently.

09:24

Maintenance, monitoring, and not just getting past the mentality of I'll deal with it later.  Deal with it now. 

Shawn: Where I see that the most is in alarms. So somebody keeps getting a repeated alarm and it becomes a nuisance. Instead of dealing with it, they unplug the alarm. 

Angela: Right. Don't do that. 

Shawn: Don't do that. 

Angela: Don't do that. Do not just unplug the alarm. 

Shawn: Nope.

09:53

$150 maintenance visit could turn into $5,000, you know, drain filter replacement or something. it's… take care of it when it happens.  

Angela: Take care of it when it happens.  Do not put it off.  Because if you do put it off, there are other costs associated with that, right? The environmental costs, if the system is not performing and leaching out wastewater

10:21

to the surface or into your groundwater, your energy costs.  If you've got an alarm that's sounding and say your floats are tangled up and so your pump is just running because it's in a high-level condition, it thinks it's in a high-level condition. So the pump just runs around, runs around, runs.

10:51

You're going to burn your pump out. You're going to run your energy bills up. It's unnecessary. 

Shawn: Yeah. 

Angela: Your property value. So in order to maintain your property value, you have to have a good working septic system. You want to, you invest in your property every month when you pay your mortgage. 

Shawn: Right. 

Angela: Right. Or when you take care of your yard, you mow your yard, you, you make sure that you're

11:20

inside plumbing is working so that things aren't flooding.  Make sure that your outside plumbing is also working. 

Shawn: Yeah. You neglected your maintenance and now your system's in failure. Now you're getting fines. 

Angela: Yeah. Yeah. So even some of the stories that we've told recently about installers and service providers, the moral of the story is don't ignore problems.  Make sure that you have quality equipment

11:49

that goes in first so you don't have to replace it later. Make sure that that equipment is properly sized for what is going to be your lifestyle on that property.  And keep an eye on it.

Shawn:  Yeah. 

Angela: Pay attention.  Watch out, listen out for things going wrong. And if things start to go wrong, fix them. 

Shawn: For sure. 

Angela: All right. Anything else you want to add?

12:19

Shawn: No, I think we've... 

Angela: That wraps it up? 

Shawn: wrapped it up and a nice little bow on it.  

Angela: Perfect. All right. Well, as always, thanks, Shawn…

Shawn: You bet. 

Angela: for recording these with me and thank you all for listening.  

We want to thank you again for joining us today.  Before you go, don't forget to subscribe where you listen to podcasts so you're notified when new episodes are posted.  Also, you can leave your comments or suggestions through the contact link on our website, www.orenco.com. Until next time, have a great day!