****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I purchased this unit to pump sewage and waste water from a small rental house with one bathroom and a small kitchen. The small house is detached from my main house and there was no easy to get a sewage line through the concrete slab and underground to tie in with the main line, so I bought this unit after researching quite a bit. It was pretty straightforward to install and the instructions were clear. It's a very powerful unit and as another reviewer noted, you're going to want to make sure all of your pipe connections are solid because when this pump fires up, there is a lot of liquid moving through the waste pipe very quickly. In my situation I have the waste pipe going up about 20 feet and over through an attic space and then back down to connect into a waste line in the main house.I've had the unit running for a few weeks now and haven't had any issues. It runs every few toilet flushes and you can hear it, but the sound isn't too loud. I have the remote alarm panel connected into the bathroom so users can see if there are any issues with the pump before flushing.This definitely beats breaking up the concrete and installing a sewage pit. We'll see how it lasts but at this point it's a great solution for a DIYer.I'm giving this a review after installation, but before actual usage. So far, the first one arrived damaged, not the box, but the unit itself, so I'm guessing it was packaged that way, but maybe not. The seller was great and sent out a new one even before they received the bad one. This one was packaged better and seemed to be in perfect condition. I say "seemed" because after installation I did a low pressure test of the plumbing system and found the unit was leaking air badly. I opened the motor cover to find that the o-ring was not seated and was hanging past the gasket seat into the tank area. I re-seated the o-ring and that did the trick. All that being said, this is a well-built, well-designed unit and I expect that it will function well. I'll update after I run it through it's paces.This unit and its support / warranty are not being honored. Our only toilet. shower. bathroom. kitchen water drain source. We are a family and need facilities. Motor stopped working - 2 weeks to get a replacement and then it was a used unit. we had to go through a troubleshooting regime prior to them sending a working unit. Then we were told that they would not honor replacement again if we did not do the troubleshooting, which we did, yet they said we did not. Its broke again, 2 units in 9 months now what? Plus we paid for the extended warranty.Stupid design! Stupid product!!! frequently stopped working, The pressure switches got dirty and need to be cleaned ,Makes me very headache,Don't buy!!!!!!I'm in the same boat as the other reviewer. Namely, I have received the unit and started installation, but have not finished as of yet. I am super impressed at the ease of installation, and access to the motor. I disassembled the unit just to see how difficult it would be in the event that I ever need to get to the motor. I thought this would be a good idea before the thing actually fills up with waste and the odor is so bad I don't want to get near it! I would say it takes about 10 min. to get to the inside. You can take the entire motor and move it to another sink for cleaning. I believe a brand-new motor is $675 (list), but this is one of their top-of-the-line 1 hp units.While I'm sure it would not be super pleasant to get into the motor, there is at least the check valve to prevent any waste or gases from getting into the unit. You do need to install a gate valve on the actual waste inlet pipe. ( not supplied). There is really nothing more than rubber gaskets and hose clamps required to hook this up. It would require a 15 amp dedicated circuit as the motor itself I believe draws 10 amps.No hard wiring is required either, you just plug it into a wall outlet. One disappointment was I am installing this unit about 30+ feet away in a remote building and the wire for the alarm is only 15 feet long. Saniflo does not sell an extension cable. I found by a little bit of investigation you can buy a closed-circuit television extension cable up to about 33 feet. I believe it is a 2.1 mm x 5.5 mm plug end if anyone has the need to do the same.Overall, this thing is a huge timesaver, and maintenance appears to be fairly easy considering what you are dealing with! I thought I was going to have to go to one of the composting toilets and some kind of graywater system when I discovered this unit. It easily saved me thousands of dollars on alternative methods.I was able to reach Saniflo online within about 6 or 7 min. Staff seem friendly and helpful. I will update the review in 2 or 3 months when I get a few hours on the unit. So far, I'm really impressed and recommended unit. I did save about $200 off the price listed here so shop around.Update:I finished up the installation of the Saniflo today. As I test I filled up 50 feet of three-inch diameter drain pipe leading to the saniflo. I'm not sure what the quantity of water was, but there would be no situation where there would ever be this amount of water going into the saniflo. I mostly did this to check for leaks in the sewer line. This was enough to set off the alarm, but the saniflo still pumped all of the water into the main sewer (7' up and 25' horizontal) in about 6 seconds! yes, 6 seconds ( incredible!). One thing I learned from this is to make absolutely certain your fittings are tight and secure! You could have a major mess on your hands if this amount water made its way into the Interior of a building. I don't think you would have a whole lot of time to respond before a major mess was created. I could not imagine a bunch of raw sewage flying around the interior of a basement or utility room.Installation was really straightforward. I still need to dedicate an outlet to this, but totally amazed by this machine's performance. I don't think the noise level is all that bad, but you're certainly aware it running. For average use I don't think this thing would be running for more than about 3 or 4 seconds. Again, scary powerful!We installed this unit in a bathroom addition and it has given us trouble from the start. The alarm constantly goes off and the homeowner has to manually over ride it. The pressure switches got dirty and need to be cleaned/replaced and the the unit has stopped working multiple times. In contacting the manufacturer they wanted to start the warranty period from when we picked the unit up from the supplier, not the install date. Our manufacturer finally was able to get a replacement pressure switch and circuit board, however it was difficult for him and took weeks. This is not good for something so critical to a bathroom!! The cost is approximately six times greater than the pump we were going to use. Today I am going to that job as the homeowner cannot get the unit to come on and he has sewage backed up in his tub, shower and hi toilet wax ring is leaking. This Sanicubic 1 is 3 years old. I am going there to look at replacing it with the pump we were going to use originally. This pump has cost us greatly and does not perform.This is the worst, I have had nothing but problems with this unit. 4 years worth. I'm going to switch to something else please don't Spend your money on this product.
