Grey water from washing machine
 

As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large. So, since
we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which permits
watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I had thought
it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect the water from
the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which claims 3.1 grams
of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set by the industry's
own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives or not, but I'm a
bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid detergents at the
supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use the rinse cycle
water, but that seems a terrible waste.

Grey water from washing machine
 

"Claude" wrote in message
...
As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has
Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large.
So, since we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which
permits watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I
had thought it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect
the water from the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which
claims 3.1 grams of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set
by the industry's own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives
or not, but I'm a bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid
detergents at the supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use
the rinse cycle water, but that seems a terrible waste.

when you get to thinking about what you could do with it instead, it is
indeed a terrible waste :-) i'd be nervous about 3.1 too, seeing as you can
now get 0g powders.

i was recently seen here singing the praises of aware powder (no
phosphates). because of the bizarre (to state it mildly) construction of my
house, the washing machine cavity is set up to just pump the water straight
out the wall (through a pipe, of course ;-) and down to the garden. i just
pump it straight out this way and have seen no problems at all. the only
thing i need to do which is still not done (gahhh!) is to change the pipe
so it's longer & more flexible, in order to use it more effectively, as atm
it does not reach many places, so effectively much of this water is probably
"wasted" anyway :-)

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary garden
hose to the washing machine outlet, hose goes out the door onto the yard,
then she just moves the hose around at whim. your best bet is probably
something like this.

another idea if you're muscly, organised & don't have a handy door or window
(or hole in the wall ;-) near the washer, is to pump it into a very large
container or two, then perhaps either siphon or bucket it out. i am thinking
though that there'd be an easier solution than this with a bit of applied
thought. you can now buy large water containers on wheels (i saw one with a
tap & short hose attached, even) so there is certainly going to be some
solution available to you.
kylie

Grey water from washing machine
 

Claude wrote:
As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large. So, since
we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which permits
watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I had thought
it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect the water from
the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which claims 3.1 grams
of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set by the industry's
own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives or not, but I'm a
bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid detergents at the
supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use the rinse cycle
water, but that seems a terrible waste.


If they dont build a water desalination plant this year, there is going
to be hell to pay. And unfortunately it would be best powered either
solar or nuclear. (Ouch I can feel derision coming on that last one)
What ever, we wont be around otherwise due to people fighting for water.
Why are we still importing people when the water system cannot handle
the population we have now?
I am going to tell "Thwaitse" in Melbourne he does not know how to use
numbers except to twist them and make the people cringe. Blame us for
their incompetance? All we domestic consumers use is some 8/9 percent
of water, while industry and irrigators use the rest. Yesterday he
claimed we use 40 to 50 %. What utter lack of knowledge for a supposed
leader of people.
What we save is minuscule. Are we being misled? YES. Some would call it
SPIN. That avoids the word lies. Spin sounds nicer.
I sometimes wonder if these people got their university ticket by email.
As a matter of fact, I think its time the government checked all the
credentials of public servants, after what I heard going on with the
judge in Sydney and his misleading the traffic people for a fine
collected in a dead persons name. It makes for interesting reading.

Im not being paranoiac. Prudent is the correct word....
Never mind you guys, I'm gonna make a home solar water distiller (I'll
have plenty of water)so all the sludge left behind can be mixed in with
my nuclear bomb shelter concrete. (grin!)

Grey water from washing machine
 

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind. i mean,
it's quite ordinary, but not totally ordinary. well, in fact not ordinary at
all - rather good in fact. yet not quite extraordinary.

i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore others.
g
kylie

Grey water from washing machine
 

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message


i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore others.
g
kylie

Heh, heh, I found it very amusing, Kylie. Always room here for a bit of
wit.

Grey water from washing machine
 

"Jonno" wrote in message
If they dont build a water desalination plant this year, there is
going
to be hell to pay.

They'd be better starting with the wasted storm water methinks. After
that, then maybe desalination.

I am going to tell "Thwaitse" in Melbourne

???? Who?

Grey water from washing machine
 

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"Claude" wrote in message
...
As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has
Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large.
So, since we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which
permits watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I
had thought it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect
the water from the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which
claims 3.1 grams of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum
set by the industry's own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for
natives or not, but I'm a bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of
the liquid detergents at the supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I
could just use the rinse cycle water, but that seems a terrible waste.

when you get to thinking about what you could do with it instead, it is
indeed a terrible waste :-) i'd be nervous about 3.1 too, seeing as you
can now get 0g powders.

i was recently seen here singing the praises of aware powder (no
phosphates). because of the bizarre (to state it mildly) construction of
my house, the washing machine cavity is set up to just pump the water
straight out the wall (through a pipe, of course ;-) and down to the
garden. i just pump it straight out this way and have seen no problems at
all. the only thing i need to do which is still not done (gahhh!) is to
change the pipe so it's longer & more flexible, in order to use it more
effectively, as atm it does not reach many places, so effectively much of
this water is probably "wasted" anyway :-)

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet, hose goes out the door onto the
yard, then she just moves the hose around at whim. your best bet is
probably something like this.

another idea if you're muscly, organised & don't have a handy door or
window (or hole in the wall ;-) near the washer, is to pump it into a very
large container or two, then perhaps either siphon or bucket it out. i am
thinking though that there'd be an easier solution than this with a bit of
applied thought. you can now buy large water containers on wheels (i saw
one with a tap & short hose attached, even) so there is certainly going to
be some solution available to you.
kylie


You can buy those hoses that fit directly on to your Washing Machine outlet
from Bunnings for $20-30

Grey water from washing machine
 

On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 02:11:08 GMT, "0tterbot" wrote:

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind. i mean,
it's quite ordinary, but not totally ordinary. well, in fact not ordinary at
all - rather good in fact. yet not quite extraordinary.

i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore others.
g
kylie

Oh no, please continue. It was just starting to get linguistically
and Goon-ishly interesting!

Tish

Grey water from washing machine
 

Farm1 wrote:
"Jonno" wrote in message
If they dont build a water desalination plant this year, there is
going
to be hell to pay.

They'd be better starting with the wasted storm water methinks. After
that, then maybe desalination.

I am going to tell "Thwaitse" in Melbourne

???? Who?


Cant be bothered spelling this mans name write

Grey water from washing machine
 

g'day claude,

we make our own wash detergent (recipe on our web site) and also use a
twin tub washing machine because they allow you to be very economical
on water usage our 4 kilo' machine uses a total of 90 litres water
(rinse & wash) and in that we do 3 loads of washing.

all our grey water goes to vege gardens


On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:22:12 GMT, "Claude"
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

Grey water from washing machine
 

In article ,
"Claude" wrote:

As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large. So, since

You can check Choice for water efficiency of washing machines. Top loaders
(which most Aussies prefer) are not very water efficient. OTOH the wash water
from a front loader might be too 'dirty' (from detergent) to use on the garden.

we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which permits
watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I had thought
it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect the water from
the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which claims 3.1 grams
of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set by the industry's
own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives or not, but I'm a
bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid detergents at the
supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use the rinse cycle
water, but that seems a terrible waste.

I use Aware at about $3.50/kg. Planet Ark is the same price and probably the
same stuff. If you are nervous about Duo, just direct it to the lawn.

I bought two of those $20 washing machine extension pipes from Bunnings. Just
a tip: make sure there is a connector ring on the end (creamy-white rubber).
Sometimes you find they're missing and then you have to be a bit creative to
attach the wretched thing.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

Grey water from washing machine
 

"gardenlen" wrote in message
...

we make our own wash detergent (recipe on our web site)

Thanks Len. Couldn't find the recipe on the site, can you point me in the
right direction?
BTW, wonderful site.

Grey water from washing machine
 

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind. i
mean, it's quite ordinary, but not totally ordinary. well, in fact not
ordinary at all - rather good in fact. yet not quite extraordinary.

i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore others.
g
kylie


Lol...you could have worked the 'bore' bit a little more, I thought...:)

Grey water from washing machine
 

"Chookie" cackled:

You can check Choice for water efficiency of washing machines. Top
loaders
(which most Aussies prefer) are not very water efficient. OTOH the wash
water
from a front loader might be too 'dirty' (from detergent) to use on the
garden.


I agree. I've just had to swap my front loader for a top loader due to the
bloody thing breaking over Christmads, and I'm not impressed at all with the
new one. Wastes too much water, and doesn't wash the clothes as efficiently;
stuff comes out still a bit grubby, and that never happened in the front
loader. It's a very inefficient way to wash, and I'll be going back to a
front loader as soon as I can afford it.

Grey water from washing machine
 

just a bit of info,

I stopped using bio-z and any washing powder with emzymes as the grey
water
forms a white fungus coating on the lawn. Like the emzyme bacteria is
multiplying on the lawn, then dries cake hard. I am now using the
cheapest $3/kilo brands and lawn
looking great! Must be all the nitrogen.

I usually have a bath each nite, then use the bath water to fill
washing machine then
out to the lawn and lemon tree. Only hassle is waiting around with
a bucket to fill machine each cycle. The last rinse I let the machine
use clean tap water but I only let it
fill to EXTRA LOW setting.

Grey water from washing machine
 

meeee wrote:
"Chookie" cackled:
You can check Choice for water efficiency of washing machines. Top
loaders
(which most Aussies prefer) are not very water efficient. OTOH the wash
water
from a front loader might be too 'dirty' (from detergent) to use on the
garden.


I agree. I've just had to swap my front loader for a top loader due to the
bloody thing breaking over Christmads, and I'm not impressed at all with the
new one. Wastes too much water, and doesn't wash the clothes as efficiently;
stuff comes out still a bit grubby, and that never happened in the front
loader. It's a very inefficient way to wash, and I'll be going back to a
front loader as soon as I can afford it.


Try a little more soap They differ that way, and wash in warm water.
As an Ex appliance mechanic, (I became EX when they decided to have
sales design washing machines) the best washing action is the old whirly
type agitators like the Hoover, the Westing house and the GE (they all
had built in weaknesses too). All large now extinct due to costs and
people trying ,and buying cheaper top loaders. Most people aren't happy
with top loaders these days. Even the whirlpool brand, while they were
great use quiet non gearbox agitators. Using a motor to reverse
agitation and planetary gearboxes does not give machines the shock
impact of a real washing machine gearbox, which had the power to pound
the water so it reversed action for better clean. The agitator would
also lift and reposition clothes so it would balance better and no one
part of the washing would be missed.
Unfortunately, the government makes rules and regulations so we will all
have to go to front loaders, but even these aren't as good as the older
machines.

It has come to pass that while I used to tell people to hang onto their
old ones, they quite often fell into the trap of thinking I was saying
this to make more money....

I told you so!!! (grin) I picked up an old machine, front loader, hate
it but my wife's happy enough...

I think I must be difficult to please.

Grey water from washing machine
 

Sopem more advise on front loading washing machines
Wash clothes, not body, wacky warning advises
See link.http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...1/s1822437.htm


Jonno wrote:
meeee wrote:
"Chookie" cackled:
You can check Choice for water efficiency of washing machines. Top
loaders
(which most Aussies prefer) are not very water efficient. OTOH the
wash water
from a front loader might be too 'dirty' (from detergent) to use on
the garden.


I agree. I've just had to swap my front loader for a top loader due to
the bloody thing breaking over Christmads, and I'm not impressed at
all with the new one. Wastes too much water, and doesn't wash the
clothes as efficiently; stuff comes out still a bit grubby, and that
never happened in the front loader. It's a very inefficient way to
wash, and I'll be going back to a front loader as soon as I can afford
it.

Try a little more soap They differ that way, and wash in warm water.
As an Ex appliance mechanic, (I became EX when they decided to have
sales design washing machines) the best washing action is the old whirly
type agitators like the Hoover, the Westing house and the GE (they all
had built in weaknesses too). All large now extinct due to costs and
people trying ,and buying cheaper top loaders. Most people aren't happy
with top loaders these days. Even the whirlpool brand, while they were
great use quiet non gearbox agitators. Using a motor to reverse
agitation and planetary gearboxes does not give machines the shock
impact of a real washing machine gearbox, which had the power to pound
the water so it reversed action for better clean. The agitator would
also lift and reposition clothes so it would balance better and no one
part of the washing would be missed.
Unfortunately, the government makes rules and regulations so we will all
have to go to front loaders, but even these aren't as good as the older
machines.

It has come to pass that while I used to tell people to hang onto their
old ones, they quite often fell into the trap of thinking I was saying
this to make more money....

I told you so!!! (grin) I picked up an old machine, front loader, hate
it but my wife's happy enough...

I think I must be difficult to please.

Grey water from washing machine
 

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind.

can people explain the process they use to pump out the washing machine in
to the garden?

I was thinking this afternoon over summer it may be a good way to keep the
lawn watered.

Our washer has a shortish hose that clips on the back and feeds in to the
drain.

What do others connect from the outlet hose to the garden and how?
Is the pressure enough to run a sprinkler off it or a soaker hose?

Thanks.
Rob

Grey water from washing machine
 

"Jonno" wrote in message
...
meeee wrote:
"Chookie" cackled:
You can check Choice for water efficiency of washing machines. Top
loaders
(which most Aussies prefer) are not very water efficient. OTOH the wash
water
from a front loader might be too 'dirty' (from detergent) to use on the
garden.


I agree. I've just had to swap my front loader for a top loader due to
the bloody thing breaking over Christmads, and I'm not impressed at all
with the new one. Wastes too much water, and doesn't wash the clothes as
efficiently; stuff comes out still a bit grubby, and that never happened
in the front loader. It's a very inefficient way to wash, and I'll be
going back to a front loader as soon as I can afford it.
Try a little more soap They differ that way, and wash in warm water.
As an Ex appliance mechanic, (I became EX when they decided to have sales
design washing machines) the best washing action is the old whirly type
agitators like the Hoover, the Westing house and the GE (they all had
built in weaknesses too). All large now extinct due to costs and people
trying ,and buying cheaper top loaders. Most people aren't happy with top
loaders these days. Even the whirlpool brand, while they were great use
quiet non gearbox agitators. Using a motor to reverse agitation and
planetary gearboxes does not give machines the shock impact of a real
washing machine gearbox, which had the power to pound the water so it
reversed action for better clean. The agitator would also lift and
reposition clothes so it would balance better and no one part of the
washing would be missed.
Unfortunately, the government makes rules and regulations so we will all
have to go to front loaders, but even these aren't as good as the older
machines.

It has come to pass that while I used to tell people to hang onto their
old ones, they quite often fell into the trap of thinking I was saying
this to make more money....

I told you so!!! (grin) I picked up an old machine, front loader, hate it
but my wife's happy enough...

I think I must be difficult to please.

Lol washing machines can be funny things....I think mum had one of those old
washing machines, and it was way better than my pathetic thing. I agree
about the warm water, but we have an old, standard rental house, electric
hot water system. So I have to be careful with that or everyone's cold
showering. Can't wait to buy our own house....

Grey water from washing machine
 

"meeee" wrote in message
...

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind. i
mean, it's quite ordinary, but not totally ordinary. well, in fact not
ordinary at all - rather good in fact. yet not quite extraordinary.

i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore
others. g
kylie


Lol...you could have worked the 'bore' bit a little more, I thought...:)

yes but this group is terrible for the puns. i do not want to encourage
anyone!! back, i say! back!
/waves chair, cracks whip
kylie

Grey water from washing machine
 

0tterbot wrote:
"meeee" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet
in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind. i
mean, it's quite ordinary, but not totally ordinary. well, in fact not
ordinary at all - rather good in fact. yet not quite extraordinary.

i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore
others. g
kylie

Lol...you could have worked the 'bore' bit a little more, I thought...:)

yes but this group is terrible for the puns. i do not want to encourage
anyone!! back, i say! back!
/waves chair, cracks whip
kylie


Oh mistress! (grin) Kinky!

Grey water from washing machine
 

On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:22:12 GMT, "Claude"
wrote:

As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large. So, since
we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which permits
watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I had thought
it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect the water from
the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which claims 3.1 grams
of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set by the industry's
own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives or not, but I'm a
bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid detergents at the
supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use the rinse cycle
water, but that seems a terrible waste.


I may have missed something in the discussion that followed your post,
but here goes anyway..

Washing machines produce two types of gray water - the grossly
chemically loaded wash water and the lightly chemically loaded rinsing
water. I don't fancy putting the wash water on my garden.

With our Westinghouse toploader we press a 'drip dry' button, which
automatically pauses the cycle before the rinsing water is pumped out
of the machine.

So - the delivery hose sends the wash cycle water down the sink. Then
the machine rinses and pauses. At this point we take the delivery hose
out of the sink and plug it into a pipe that runs to a 150 litre
storage tank for the garden.

Reactivate the spin cycle and Bob's your uncle - the garden gets the
light gray rinsing water only.

All you have to remember is to unplug the delivery hose after the
rinse cycle. As we get grayer this gets more difficult and leads to
family arguments about whether the water in the tank is too gray..

Grey water from washing machine
 

"George.com" wrote in message
...

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind.

can people explain the process they use to pump out the washing machine in
to the garden?

I was thinking this afternoon over summer it may be a good way to keep the
lawn watered.

Our washer has a shortish hose that clips on the back and feeds in to the
drain.

What do others connect from the outlet hose to the garden and how?
Is the pressure enough to run a sprinkler off it or a soaker hose?

Thanks.
Rob

I have one of those hoses from Bunnings attached and the pressure is not
strong enough to run a sprinkler but you could run a soaker hose, the type
that dribble out not spray out.

Grey water from washing machine
 

You say 2 types of grey water. If you use the Aware or Planet Ark powders
there is no need to waste a litre of water. These have zero phosphates and
claim they are suitable for the proteaceae group of natives. You can't get
better than that. Powderpuff's post is correct. Waste NO water!


wrote in message
...
On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:22:12 GMT, "Claude"
wrote:

As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has
Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large. So,
since
we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which permits
watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I had
thought
it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect the water
from
the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which claims 3.1
grams
of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set by the industry's
own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives or not, but I'm a
bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid detergents at the
supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use the rinse cycle
water, but that seems a terrible waste.


I may have missed something in the discussion that followed your post,
but here goes anyway..

Washing machines produce two types of gray water - the grossly
chemically loaded wash water and the lightly chemically loaded rinsing
water. I don't fancy putting the wash water on my garden.

With our Westinghouse toploader we press a 'drip dry' button, which
automatically pauses the cycle before the rinsing water is pumped out
of the machine.

So - the delivery hose sends the wash cycle water down the sink. Then
the machine rinses and pauses. At this point we take the delivery hose
out of the sink and plug it into a pipe that runs to a 150 litre
storage tank for the garden.

Reactivate the spin cycle and Bob's your uncle - the garden gets the
light gray rinsing water only.

All you have to remember is to unplug the delivery hose after the
rinse cycle. As we get grayer this gets more difficult and leads to
family arguments about whether the water in the tank is too gray..

Grey water from washing machine
 

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"meeee" wrote in message
...

"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
...

my mum lives in a slightly more normal house, & connects an ordinary
garden hose to the washing machine outlet

in fact, it's the larger size of garden hose, not the ordinary kind. i
mean, it's quite ordinary, but not totally ordinary. well, in fact not
ordinary at all - rather good in fact. yet not quite extraordinary.

i might stop now while i'm still amusing myself, but before i bore
others. g
kylie


Lol...you could have worked the 'bore' bit a little more, I thought...:)

yes but this group is terrible for the puns. i do not want to encourage
anyone!! back, i say! back!
/waves chair, cracks whip
kylie

Yelp! Yelp! Yelp!

Grey water from washing machine
 

Hey there, I've read this in the Defence Rec Folders, G'day Claude!!


"Claude" wrote in message
...
As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden. My top loading Whirlpool 7244E has
Small,
Medium, Large and Extra Large settings and I had it set on Large. So,
since
we do about four loads per week, Melbourne's new regime which permits
watering only by hand on two days per week is not the problem I had
thought
it was going to be, provided I can find the time to collect the water from
the washing machine. The detergent I've got is Duo, which claims 3.1
grams
of phosphorus per wash, supposedly half the maximum set by the industry's
own standard. No idea if 3.1 is acceptable for natives or not, but I'm a
bit nervous about it so I'll look for one of the liquid detergents at the
supermarket like Aware or Planet Ark. I could just use the rinse cycle
water, but that seems a terrible waste.

Grey water from washing machine
 

In our house, we have been collecting the washing machine water for years.
It is definitely amazing how much water you can get. We mostly just save the
rinse cycle and carry it out in buckets. We have also bought a largish
plastic rubbin bin and put that under a roof section where the water comes
off. Again lots of water.

Then you see other neighbours just wasting it, how they like.
Aaaarrrggghhhh.

Funny thing though the water bill is not much lower. I think Sydney Water
keeps bumping up the price without telling us. :-)

Katherine


"Claude" wrote in message
...
As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden.

Grey water from washing machine
 

jones wrote:
In our house, we have been collecting the washing machine water for years.
It is definitely amazing how much water you can get. We mostly just save the
rinse cycle and carry it out in buckets. We have also bought a largish
plastic rubbin bin and put that under a roof section where the water comes
off. Again lots of water.

Then you see other neighbours just wasting it, how they like.
Aaaarrrggghhhh.

Funny thing though the water bill is not much lower. I think Sydney Water
keeps bumping up the price without telling us. :-)

Katherine


"Claude" wrote in message
...
As an experiment, I caught all of the water coming out of the washing
machine this morning in buckets. To my amazement, I captured 10 buckets
from the wash cycle and another 10 buckets from the rinse cycle! At an
average of 8 litres per bucket, that's a helluva lot of water - enough to
water my modest suburban garden.


The more for less trick. A con perpetrated in times of need and never
removed in times of plenty. Like the oil companies.
We had 5 more people staying at one point in time, and when they left
there was no reduction in water usage. I queried this and they didnt get
back. I has happened again. We reduced water consumption and the bills
stay the same. But the water used now is 200 litres per day less.
Wonder how this will affect the poor water companies?

Grey water from washing machine
 

"jones" wrote in message
...
In our house, we have been collecting the washing machine water for years.
It is definitely amazing how much water you can get. We mostly just save
the rinse cycle and carry it out in buckets. We have also bought a largish
plastic rubbin bin and put that under a roof section where the water comes
off. Again lots of water.

Then you see other neighbours just wasting it, how they like.
Aaaarrrggghhhh.

Funny thing though the water bill is not much lower. I think Sydney Water
keeps bumping up the price without telling us. :-)

Katherine



I have been doing similar the last year and making a concerted effort to
conserve water in other ways like restricting the time in the shower and so
on and have reduced my water useage by 40% on the last year. :)

Grey water from washing machine
 

g'day katherine,

we sue the water from both cycles on our gardens, but we also use a
homemade laundry detergent recipe, that the wife is wrapped in, the
recipe is on our remedies page.

also if you check on our permaculture essay page we have a pic of how
we set up 44 gallon drums to collect water and this water is then used
for clothes washing using a boat submersable and a battery booster
pack from the auto shop all up cost around $110.

we also use a twin tub washer, the only way to conserve water and most
likley power (as the pump only gets used when emptying the machine a
single time other machines would use their pump twice per load), our
machine take 90 litres a fill for both wash and rinse purposes, and we
use that fill to do 3 loads of washing (4kg machine). once you get
into a routine usinbg a twin tub isn't that much more difficult when
comapred to at least water management.

so each drum does 6 loads of clothes (2 complete washes).

and yep that's a hell of a lot of water 160 litres for a single load
of clothes, if you could use it all for say 3 loads of clothes that
would be much better (but very hard to set laundries up to do this
with auto' machines), so you water use is mainly for washing clothes
along with toilet and shower/bath.

they not only keep pushing the price up a fed gov tenent, but they
keep cutting the water allocation litreage down as well so double
jeophardy.

the sooner the bullet is bitten the better for the family often it is
left to the very last then there is an all fired panic.

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:45:06 +1100, "jones" wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

Grey water from washing machine
 

did forget to add our current av' daily usage with 3 adults is just
over 210 litre per day.

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:45:06 +1100, "jones" wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

Grey water from washing machine
 

Thanks Len,

I have your website bookmarked and will check out the homemade detergent
recipe.

I do like twin tubs. We have a top loader, a smallish one. Sometimes when
the clothes are not too dirty (but still need a wash), I put it on prewash a
few times, or leave them to soak in a dish before washing, then put them on
prewash instead of a full cycle (which does take a lot of water).

Katherine
ps - If there are only a few pieces, I do them by hand.



"len garden" wrote in message
...
g'day katherine,

we sue the water from both cycles on our gardens, but we also use a
homemade laundry detergent recipe, that the wife is wrapped in, the
recipe is on our remedies page.

also if you check on our permaculture essay page we have a pic of how
we set up 44 gallon drums to collect water and this water is then used
for clothes washing using a boat submersable and a battery booster
pack from the auto shop all up cost around $110.

we also use a twin tub washer, the only way to conserve water and most
likley power (as the pump only gets used when emptying the machine a
single time other machines would use their pump twice per load), our
machine take 90 litres a fill for both wash and rinse purposes, and we
use that fill to do 3 loads of washing (4kg machine). once you get
into a routine usinbg a twin tub isn't that much more difficult when
comapred to at least water management.

so each drum does 6 loads of clothes (2 complete washes).

and yep that's a hell of a lot of water 160 litres for a single load
of clothes, if you could use it all for say 3 loads of clothes that
would be much better (but very hard to set laundries up to do this
with auto' machines), so you water use is mainly for washing clothes
along with toilet and shower/bath.

they not only keep pushing the price up a fed gov tenent, but they
keep cutting the water allocation litreage down as well so double
jeophardy.

the sooner the bullet is bitten the better for the family often it is
left to the very last then there is an all fired panic.

Grey water from washing machine
 

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:45:06 +1100, "jones" wrote
in aus.gardens:

Then you see other neighbours just wasting it, how they like.
Aaaarrrggghhhh.

Funny thing though the water bill is not much lower. I think Sydney Water
keeps bumping up the price without telling us. :-)

Katherine


If you look at your water bill you will probably find the cost of
water is the smallest part of it. $115 of my bill is a water sevice
and sewerage charge the water costs less than $40. and at $1.20 per
thousand litres any saving is marginal even though it has recently
gone up from under $1 per Kl

At that rate my 5000 litre tanks (2500 x 2) hold $6 worth of water
which makes the approx $1500 cost seem ludicrous.

I can't really save water on the garden because I never watered it
before (a brown lawn never needs mowing) but I use the water to wash
the car and our clothes. From a purely financial point of view water
tanks make no sense at all however from a moral and environmental
standpoint...


Regards
Prickles

Timendi causa est nescire
This message only uses recycled electrons

Grey water from washing machine
 

Since you put it that way about not saving much, you are right most of it is
not for water used, but their charges etc.

Water tanks are too expensive for most people to get, and I agree the small
rebate doesn't make you want to run to buy one.

Katherine


"Spiny Norman" wrote in message

If you look at your water bill you will probably find the cost of
water is the smallest part of it. $115 of my bill is a water sevice
and sewerage charge the water costs less than $40. and at $1.20 per
thousand litres any saving is marginal even though it has recently
gone up from under $1 per Kl

At that rate my 5000 litre tanks (2500 x 2) hold $6 worth of water
which makes the approx $1500 cost seem ludicrous.
From a purely financial point of view water
tanks make no sense at all however from a moral and environmental
standpoint...