Wells, Sump Pumps and Septic Sewage Systems - I think I should re-wire my septic pump, am I right?

On advice I received at this forum, I recently re-wired the control circuit on my well pump, and it's been working wonderfully (this is a great place!)

This morning, the high-level alarm went off in my septic tank. First, here's a bit of info:

We have a 5 year old house (purchased a few months ago), with a septic tank that has a raised leach field (I expect due to the clay native to the area). There is a 110v circuit that runs (I'm assuming) in a conduit underground from the house about 30 feet to the front of the concrete cover over the 2nd compartment of the septic tank. The conduit comes up a 3-foot length of 2x4, and ends in what appears to be a GFCI outlet, mounted in a weatherproof box. The spring-loaded door was broken off at some point.

Plugged in to the bottom outlet is a piggyback plug, I assume the first plug is for the float switch in the tank, which switches power to the pump. There is also a second float switch mounted higher, without digging I expect that this runs directly to the house, with an alarm mounted in the basement on a different circuit.

Fortunately the heavy rain stopped shortly after the alarm went off this morning, so I went out to investigate. I removed the concrete cover and noticed that the bottom float switch (which I assume is the pump control) was almost completely under water, and the top one (alarm?) was raised quite high. Plugging in a worklight into the top outlet resulted in power, so that much is good. Pressing the test button on the GFCI outlet resulted in nothing! Pressing the reset button interrupted power to the worklight as long as I kept it pressed in. A closer examination of the existing float & pump plugs revealed a lot of moisture in between, as well the float plug contacts were bent and split.

I found that if I plugged the worklight into the float switch plug, and plugged it in about halfway, it worked. So I left the plug in like that and plugged the pump into it, and watched the water level go down significantly, quite fast. The alarm turned off, and I breathed a sigh of relief (face pointed away from the tank, lol)

So I have some electrical work to do... Is there a reason why the plug should be outside on a piece of 2x4? If so I guess the right way to do this would be to get a larger weatherproof box that can enclose both the outlets and the piggyback plug, and obviously replace the plug with bad contacts.

Or, hardwire it? Should this all be on a GFCI circuit? Would it be better to use a GFCI outlet or hardwire with a GFCI breaker?

Can I bury the new workbox? Would it be better to have all of this happening inside the house (in other words, the float switch would come to the basement, as well as the power to the pump, and have the splice inside?)

Anyway, thanks for reading, looking forward to some advice!

g.

We sell alot of these to septic guys for an installition like yours.7118 Mini Power Post Alderon Industries (http://www.alderonind.com/products/7118.html)

Thanks - but since I already have the post, and need to replace the plug anyway, I don't think a new purchase is what I'm after - looking to save money and DIY. I'm going to go ahead with a weatherproof workbox and hardwire the power to the the float switch & pump.

If someone can chime in with GFCI requirements I'll put in a GFCI breaker...

g.

Most guys around here don't put the septic pump on a GFCI. I have my waterfall pump on one because people can get to the water. The same for a regular sump pump. It's not going to hurt anything, but unless you like playing in your septic tank it's probably not necessary. Just my opinion though.

Awesome, thank you. I will hardwire today without GFCI. Not having worked with a piggyback plug before, I'm making an assumption that it interrupts the hot to the 2nd plug (that's how I'd design it...), so I will wire it that way and hope I'm right.

g.