Bio washing detergent is it required?
So you find your clothes are just not getting clean enough using a bio washing detergent? Well, you can still use most standard washing detergents even if your property uses an envirocycle or similar septic system for your household’s sewage and waste water.
You’re probably familiar with warnings not to use any harsh chemicals or powerful washing detergent as it may kill the living bacteria in your septic tank/s. Whilst this is good advice generally, it can also be a little misleading and give the impression the only product you can use for cleaning in the home is a certified bio cleaner. Unfortunately, whilst bio detergents are eco-friendly some of them don’t do a very good job at cleaning and this can become rather frustrating.
The truth is most clothes washing detergents can safely be used in an envirocycle/septic system whether it’s for clothes, dishes or toilet cleaning. The only products you should really be wary of are any harsh cleaners based on bleaches or anti-bacterial formulas – these products are harmful to the good bacteria in your septic and if used may kill them and in turn make your septic function poorly until the bacteria populations can recover again.
Personally, we use a low-sudsing good quality front loader detergent in our top loading washing machine and this does the job of cleaning our clothes wonderfully compared with those bio-detergents which may be a little better for the environment but are hopeless at cleaning! Also, we use a standard dishwashing liquid and normal soaps in the bathrooms but as stated we stay away from using harsh chemicals on our floors and to clean showers, toilets, sinks, and tubs.
About every 6 months, I feed our system some bio-pellets like Actizyme which is a solid form of live bacteria and can be purchased at supermarkets or online. These bio-pellets boost the natural populations of good bacteria in your septic system and keeps it nice and healthy. It’s easy to do, simply chuck a few handfuls down the toilet or drain and it will make its way into the system.
Over the past decade, we’ve had our septic system serviced and tested every four months without fail and we’ve never had any negative results about the performance or bacteria levels so I think that’s a pretty good affirmation we’re doing something right.
Of course, if using a specifically formulated bio detergent in your household happens to be working out just fine then stick with it but if you’re wishing your wash could come out a little cleaner then try some other good quality “non-bio” brands.
