Originally Posted by
Jonathan Clevenger
I was looking at
Gas detectors | Thermal Imaging Cameras at the different septic test dyes that they sell, and I''m wondering what people tend to use and why.
They sell Red and Yellow in powder form, and they sell red in liquid form.
Thanks!
Can't really tell you why a home inspector would want to use them. When I was new to the profession back in the early 1990's I use to drop dye tablets in toilets with homes that had septic tanks. I really had no idea why or what I was doing (I do now), but I was told it was the thing to do. The idea the way I understood was that you would see dye after a while on the surface of the ground and it would show if you had broken lines in the septic field.
What made me stop was when I turned a neighborhood pond fluorescent green! It even made the local news that night, they never found the reason for the mysterious green tent and blamed it on local kids.
Anyway, I say all of this because the only way to properly inspect a septic tank is to pull the top, pump the tank and inspect the inside. To my knowledge we have only a handful of inspectors across the country who can do this and own a honey pumper. Anything less than this when inspecting a septic tank is like selling snake oil.