recycling water..(grey water line?)

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shadowpaints

shadowpaints

Songster
10 Years
Jun 20, 2009
2,005
12
181
Rigby, Idaho
Anyone re use their water from the baths, washer, dish washer and sinks?? we are seriously thinking of doing this to help the load of use on the septic tank?
if you could offer advice and maybe some pics if you to that would be incredibly helpful!
 
I have no pics, but the drain line broke under the bathtub a few years ago. We own a mobile home, and they are cheap made. Hubbo tried to repair the line, but it was just too much trouble for him, and he would NEVER pay someone to fix it. He went and got radiator hose, clamped it to the piece of pipe that was broken, and ran the line out and down the hill behind the house. Pretty green grass back there, and grew some pretty tomatoes, too.
 
The only water that needs to go to a septic tank is from the toilet. All the other water (grey water) can be used to water grass, flowers, vegetables, or whatever. There is just a little soap and shampoo mixed into the water, but that water works well for watering plants.
 
In France, everyone re-uses grey water. They have the most amazing gardens! The little bit of detergent from your shampoo and dish soap (same ingredient, BTW), keeps the bugs and aphids down!
 
I don't so much USE grey water as not run it into the septic tank. It is piped in buried conduit from the house across the back over to my own little gully with a small meadow at the bottom of it. That has kept the gully and meadow nice and green (and a haven for bugs and goodies for the chickens) through the dry spell.

I thought about using rain barrels to capture water from the down-spouts for re-use whenever I actually have a garden planted, or for the kiddie pools and stock tank for the ducks and geese, but I'm on a well. No municipal charges for water, and if the rain flows freely, then it pretty much goes back into groundwater. Plus, with rain barrels, there would be the need to screen it, and treat it for mosquito larvae, and additional maintenance. Eh. Maybe in a few years when I get deeper into "going green."
 
I would love to do this. We have to much water going into our septic from grey uses,and it causes the open sand tank to fill up before it can drain.. I will contact a plumber in the summer and see what it would cost to redo the pipes.

I did collect water from the rain gutters. Works well if you use the water right away,and even better if you attach a spigot(sp) to the can otherwise you are carrying a can at a time to water.Sometimes I would add a flexi hose to the gutter and guide it right to nearby garden beds.
 
I would love to be able to have a seperate drain for my grey water and only have the water from the toilets go into the septic system. The problems for me is that it would almost take knocking down the entire house to get to the seperate drains for each sink, tub, etc and reroute them. I do think that this is a great idea for new house construction as it would be easy to do when the house in being built, but generally impossible to do afterwards. I remember my mother used to tell me that when they took baths all the bath water was then used to do the laundry. Would not want to do that, but if I could just recycle my grey water for use just in my landscaping it would be great.
 
Unless something has changed in the last couple of years here in my state, greywater use is highly regulated, requiring DEQ approved systems with a special holding tank, filters, disinfectant, and daily fecal content testing. Dishwasher, sink, and bathwater are also considered black water because of the potential pathogen content.

Folks probably most often run a long pool hose (connected to the washing machine drain hose) out a window or door to wherever they want to use the water.
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i am hoping that it isnt regulated here, ill look into it tho. honestly most of our water usage comes from the washing machine, it uses 50 gallons a load, thats on medium load! i couldnt believe it! right now, we are draining the water into a 50 gallon drum and hauling it outside to dump, should have a skating rink soon! haha! this summer tho, bath water, dish water, and the water from the washer will water our front yard .. :)
 
That's a lot of heavy hauling! Is there a way that you could clamp on a pool backwash hose to the washer outlet tube and run the hose outdoors to save your back, or maybe run it into the barrel outside, on wheels?
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The hoses come in different lengths and are fairly inexpensive.
 

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