Hose pipe ban, how to recycle bath water.

hardpressed

It's cold and wet so our local water company have imposed a hose pipe ban! Looking forward to the summer, I'd like to recycle the bath water but don't fancy carting it through the house. Is there any way of diverting the water from the waste pipe (ground floor bathroom), into a water butt or some other container? I'm sure some of you MSEs must know. I don't want all my plants to die of thirst.

basill

Back in the 70s when there was a shortage my mum used to syphon bath water through the bathroom window onto the garden or into the butt for storage.

B

Queenie

I was going to suggest you invest in a council water butt (they sell them cheaply in some areas) but then noticed you said your bathroom was on the ground floor and I don't have any experience of that.

Can you give your local council/water company a ring and ask how they suggest you do it? You don't need to commit to their ideas/suggestions, but you could use it for a base of understanding the potential and then come back and ask specifics on anything you don't understand. (Or until you get any more definite answers to this thread?)

thetope

perhaps you could get a cheap hand pump or something from B&Q and pump it into a water butt outside if there isn't enough head to siphon it? i have seen some threads in here for cheap water butts and composters if you haven't got one already

economiser

In the 1970' drought I was able to divert the drain into a water butt. But we did have external plastic drain pipes which were easy to adapt and put back as was when the rain eventually came. It was less messy than the siphoning, which we tried first.

deano72_2

i think u can buy a cheap syphon device which attatches to a battery drill.might bit long winded tho..

full-time-mum

hardpressed wrote:

It's cold and wet so our local water company have imposed a hose pipe ban! Looking forward to the summer, I'd like to recycle the bath water but don't fancy carting it through the house. Is there any way of diverting the water from the waste pipe (ground floor bathroom), into a water butt or some other container? I'm sure some of you MSEs must know. I don't want all my plants to die of thirst.

Good post, I wanted to ask the same thing.

I wondered whether there was a way to catch the water between it leaving the plughole and reaching the sewer - sort of like a water butt rain diverter.
My only problem is that all my waste pipes are internal.

BTW, you do need to be careful of putting detergent onto the garden in large quanities.

full-time-mum

thetope wrote:

perhaps you could get a cheap hand pump or something from B&Q and pump it into a water butt outside if there isn't enough head to siphon it? i have seen some threads in here for cheap water butts and composters if you haven't got one already

Trouble is, if it is too difficult and cumbersome to do, it aint gonna happen.

fannyadams

What really enraged me was GOLF COURSES are still allowed to sprinkle their greens, and swimming pools are allowed to be 'topped up' with a hose. I can't wash my car, but I can wash the dog! (what if the dog is inside the car when I wash it) :rotfl:
What I do is get hose and poke in thru bathroom window into bath water and then make lots of hose go into bath water ensure no bubbles. Now hold the open end in the bathwater and allow the rest of the hose to go back over the window sill and drop down to start the syphoning off. There, no sucking involved.
To answer OP about detergent, put the bath water into a rain butt and let it stand for 2 days and it'll be OK. I did it last year and the palnts were fine. Alternatively why not look on OS part of site for non chemical 'detergents' to clean with.
Look here:
http://www.naturalcollection.com/natural-products/Bath-Water-Diverter.asp
for a bath water diverter. Although I suspect that you might need outside pipework (and I've got indoor pipework too!)
HTH

Paul_the_Painter

How about getting a cheap garden pond pump. I fear running a pump that attaches to a drill would rapidly knacker the drill. With a pond pump you can just drop it in the bath and attach a hose to the other end.

full-time-mum

Paul_the_Painter wrote:

How about getting a cheap garden pond pump. I fear running a pump that attaches to a drill would rapidly knacker the drill. With a pond pump you can just drop it in the bath and attach a hose to the other end.

Interesting idea - already got one of those so could try it out, if it still works (got left out over the winter by mistake.....)