300 Gallon Plastic Septic Pump Tank Preplumbed

Three plants, six shipping states, and what that means on a septic order

Look at the logistics first on this one, because a septic order has a schedule attached to it that a storage tank does not. The sheet lists three plants, Chowchilla in California, Marked Tree in Arkansas and Philippi in West Virginia, against six shipping states, Arkansas, California, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Both entries are printed as the sheet gives them and the difference between three and six is not explained here, because it is not explained there. What matters to you is that a west coast, a mid-South and an eastern moulding point between them cover a lot of country on a short lane, and a short lane is the whole game on this kind of job. A pump tank does not go in on its own. It goes in as part of a system, into a hole that somebody has already dug, to a set of invert levels that somebody has already worked out, on a day when a machine is on site and a crew is being paid. The part that arrives late is the part that turns a one-day installation into a two-day one, and at 113 pounds empty this vessel is light enough that the delay is never about handling. Order it with the rest of the system, not after it. The second half of the siting question is the part this page will not answer, and it needs saying plainly rather than being buried in a caveat. Where a septic pump tank may be installed, how it must be bedded and backfilled, what depth of cover it may take, what may be driven over it, what venting and electrical arrangements it needs, and whether any of that is acceptable to the authority in your county are decisions for the designer and the inspector on your job. None of it is published on this sheet, and this page states none of it. We make no listing, acceptance or code claim for this part anywhere on this page, and any page that does make one should be read with suspicion. How approvals and listings work in general, why they differ between jurisdictions and why a mark on one side of a border means something different on the other, is background reading rather than a statement about this part, and it is set out in the guide to septic tank listings and how plumbing codes differ across the border. One restriction does appear on this sheet itself and a buyer needs it: Snyder notes that this part is not for sale, use, or shipment in Florida. That is a restriction rather than a listing and we print it because it changes what you can order. Where you are still settling the volume rather than the part, the tank sizing calculator and the tank sizing guide work the capacity question through, but on a septic system the designer's figure is the one that governs and ours is a cross-check.

Three hundred here, three hundred beside it, and a five hundred above

Two rows of this short table are the same shell. 5260000W94201 is listed at the same 300 gallons, the same 48.5 by 48.5 by 53 inches and the same 113 pounds as this tank, and the difference between the two listings is in the name and the part number rather than in any dimension the sheet publishes. This one carries the word preplumbed in its name. That is what the name says and this page reports the plumbing the sheet itself lists, the 4 inch inlet, the 4 inch outlet tee assembly and the 20 inch manway cover, and claims nothing further about what is or is not fitted in either listing. If the distinction matters on your job, and on a system being assembled to a drawing it usually does, ask us and we will get the difference confirmed by Snyder in writing rather than inferred from a product name. The third row is the genuine alternative. 5170000W94203 holds 500 gallons on a 60 inch plan at 63 inches tall and 182 pounds: nearly a foot wider, ten inches taller and better than half as heavy again, which is a bigger hole, a deeper excavation and a different set of invert levels. That is not a decision to make from a catalogue page. The volume of a pump chamber follows from the system it serves, the dose it delivers and the reserve it has to hold when the pump stops, and the designer's figure governs.

Need the taller or the wider one? Every row links to its page with freight to your ZIP on each; 866-418-1777 will check the ceiling and the pad.

A twenty inch manway cover over a four inch inlet and outlet

• The access: a 20 inch manway cover over a 20 inch lid opening, which is the sheet's only access entry. Twenty inches is the difference between a chamber somebody can service and one that has to be worked on blind, and it is the dimension the riser and cover arrangement above it has to agree with. Bring the finished level and we will confirm what fits.
• The inlet: a 4 inch gasketed PVC pipe, as the sheet lists it. That is the entry and the sheet gives its size and its type and nothing else; no invert height, no fall and no connection detail is published, so none is stated.
• The outlet: a 4 inch gasketed PVC tee assembly, as the sheet lists it. Again the size and the type are the sheet's own words, and the position, the height and what it connects to on your job are the designer's decision rather than ours.
• The pump: this is named a pump tank and the sheet lists no pump, no float, no control, no discharge fitting and no electrical arrangement. Every one of those is specified with the system, and the page claims none of them.
• Preplumbed: it is a word in the product's name. What the sheet publishes about the plumbing is the inlet, the outlet tee assembly and the manway cover, and that is exactly what this page reports. Ask for the rest in writing before you plan a connection around it.
• Limits: 130 F / 54 C is the service limit, the specific gravity rating is 1.7, and the warranty is listed as a 3 Year Warranty. The sheet publishes no max contents figure against that rating, so none is printed here.

Give us the drawing when you order. On a buried chamber the connections are decided once, and the only thing more expensive than getting them wrong is finding out after the backfill.

Where a pump tank sits in a system somebody else designed

A pump chamber is not a treatment stage and it is not storage. It is the part of a system that holds effluent until there is enough of it to move, and then moves it somewhere the ground will not take it by gravity. That is why it turns up where it does: a property where the drainfield or the discharge point is uphill of the tank, a site with shallow soil or high groundwater where the treatment field had to go somewhere awkward, a mound or raised system that has to be dosed rather than trickled, a long run where gravity runs out before the destination does, a cabin, shop or outbuilding added to an existing system on the wrong side of a rise, and the replacement case where a failed chamber is being swapped in an arrangement that already works. In every one of those the chamber is a component in somebody else's design, and the figures that decide it, the dose volume, the reserve above the alarm, the invert heights and the pump duty, come from that design rather than from a product page. What a supplier can usefully do is make sure the vessel that turns up matches the drawing, arrives before the machine leaves, and is the right size the first time.

Class 300 at a hundred and thirteen pounds, and the Florida line on the sheet

This tank is moulded at three plants, Chowchilla in California, Marked Tree in Arkansas and Philippi in West Virginia, and the sheet names six shipping states, Arkansas, California, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Both entries are printed as given. Freight is class 300 with an LTL ship mode, and the shipping size is listed at 48 inches long by 48 inches wide by 53 inches high at 113 pounds, against a tank listed 48.5 inches across; both dimensions are on the sheet and we print them as they are. Price the lane to your ZIP with the freight cost estimator; the listed price is before freight. One thing on this sheet governs whether you can order at all, so it is repeated here rather than left in a field: Snyder notes that this part is not for sale, use, or shipment in Florida. Beyond that, the practical instruction is about timing rather than weight. At 113 pounds two people take it off a truck without a machine, so the delivery is easy and the schedule is everything: have it on site before the excavation is open, not after. Check the inlet and outlet connections against the drawing while the vessel is still above ground and still turnable, because a chamber that is a quarter turn out in the hole is a chamber that comes back out. A strap that is checked once a season is a strap that holds; put it on the same calendar as the gutters.