Water from the bathtub to the garden?

[HenryBHough]

If you use a washing machine for clothes just cobble up the drain hose to a garden hose and let it rip. BUT put a check valve in the line to keep backflow from sucking all your seeds out out of the garden and into your panties as they spin.

 

[Missouri_Mike]

So your tub is below ground level?

It is level with the ground, not below the ground. Wish I had a clawfoot tub. Not due to height..but due to SIZE. I miss big bathtubs.

You need to just run the drain outside then. 10 feet isn't that far to go.

With a garden hose? Or some kind of flexible tubing? If I knew gravity would do it, I could make the water go outside into a barrel or 50 gallon trash can, scoop water for plants when needed. Like a rain catcher thing. But how to get it from the tub, over the tub, out the door, up the side of the trash can INTO the trash can?

I have your answer. Get a submersible pump they are about 80 bucks and very easy to use. I used one when I needed to drain out my little fish pond. You probably want to have some sort of resovoir and treat the soapy water before putting on your plants.

To use that you couldn't let the shower drain you would have to stand in the water while showering. She needs a direct line out from the drain.

 

[HenryBHough]

Warning:

If you suck the hose to get the siphoning started you'll shit your brains out within hours.

 

[gallantwarrior]

So your tub is below ground level?

It is level with the ground, not below the ground. Wish I had a clawfoot tub. Not due to height..but due to SIZE. I miss big bathtubs.

You need to just run the drain outside then. 10 feet isn't that far to go.

With a garden hose? Or some kind of flexible tubing? If I knew gravity would do it, I could make the water go outside into a barrel or 50 gallon trash can, scoop water for plants when needed. Like a rain catcher thing. But how to get it from the tub, over the tub, out the door, up the side of the trash can INTO the trash can?

Not over the tub. Under it. Just cut the sewer line and redirect it outside all by itself. You will want to plug the old line going to the sewer because the gas will make you puke. But for the tub just run it outside the house all by itself. Bury a 55 gallon drum outside and run the pipe there to fill it. Then you can either run other pipes to the garden itself or scoop out what you need. A drum would be good to have though so you can skim off the soap floating on the top and get rid of it.

If you are going to drain "gray water" (from bath and dishes) directly outside, dig a French drain so that the water will filter through the gravel before flowing into the surface water table.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Wouldnt a rain barrel be easier and accomplish the same

 

[Gracie]

I just showered, kept the plug in the tub and when finished, I bailed it out. Lawn is happy camper right now.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Wouldnt a rain barrel be easier and accomplish the same

Rain barrels provide fresh water for the animals. Gray water is unacceptable for livestock consumption.

 

[Gracie]

I'm going to try to conserve water the best I can, but I don't know if I can do the bathtub bail thing all the time. No kids at home and we are just getting too old to be doing all that bending and lifting. But I will do my best.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Does she have animals? Know pleny of people who water their garden just from their barrels. ......

 

[HenryBHough]

Back in the 1940s when rationing was the law of the land in The U.S. we had a neighbor with 11 children, living on a suburban lot of about 1/3 acre. They had a shallow well and septic tank/cesspool sanitary system. Also a vegetable garden that occupied all the space that wasn't taken up by their modest size house and a shed....OK, there was a tiny bit of lawn.

Each evening the father would take the lid off the cesspool, put on some rubber gloves and using a small pail nailed to a long stick bail out the liquid into buckets which the older kids carried into the garden and watered each plant.

They kept the produce for their own use; wouldn't share with anyone because they felt they were only eating what they had put in the ground themselves and others might not have the right immunity.

Seems they were probably right; they were the healthiest kids in town. Only time they ever saw a doctor was when they had some accidental injury.

When you think of it, the thing they were recycling best of all was the water that had come from the well which was only about 25 feet away from the cesspool and about 40-feet deep (sandy soil; driven "point").

 

[Gracie]

Some folks use their own poop as fertilizer. Not sure about that, but I don't think I would do it.

I'd like to have rain barrels here too but it doesn't rain enough in the summer to collect any and it would just get stagnant. I have the rain gutters that could flow into a trash can barrel thingy that we could put a spigot on I guess. But why bother with not enough rain to keep it filled? Unles I use the tub water to fill it. Maybe the washer water but then we have to be careful what kind of laundry detergent we use. Something to ponder muse on.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I usually use the rainwater for the animals. If I have to bring some up from the nearby creek, I have to treat it because it is a known source of giardia. All animals are susceptible to that. While you can compost human waste (we have a composting toilet), and typical pathogens are killed by the composting process, I would refrain from putting it on food plants. Well, perhaps fruit trees or other plants where the produce does not come into direct contact with the soil. Makes great fertilizer for the flower garden, though.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Scoop into larger bucket, kill yer backbone to get larger bucket outside? Pump like for a pond but it draws from the tub to outside and will it be powerful enough since the tubing has to go over the edge of the tub, snake along floor to outside? Turkey baster to get water INTO the hose then let gravity take over..hopefully?

How about taking a shower while standing in a brand new 50 gallon rubber or metal trash can? But then how do you get OUT of it? Or...just use plug in tub, take shower, then bail out the water into a bucket on rollers?

I want to save water and use it in my garden instead of it going down the drain. Any ideas? My bathtub is floor level (bottom part) and not far to outside..maybe 10 feet. I don't think the pump thing will work due to that. So I might hafta do the bail and haul thing. Unless someone comes up with a different brainstorm.

Thinking of siphoning gas from one vehicle to another, if you get a hose, and some way of sucking it hard enough to get it going, once the vacuum is established it should continue on it's own easily enough. Course then ya got a hose through your home or whatever.

Have a few old bottle water jugs here with my emergency water supply. If for a garden, since we usually bathe every day, why not just fill however many gallon jugs you need on a daily basis with that day's bath or shower? Still wasting a lot down the drain but would at least salvage some and sustain your garden in a much more eco-friendly way. And with a lot less effort too. Couple trips is 4 gallons.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Some folks use their own poop as fertilizer. Not sure about that, but I don't think I would do it.

I'd like to have rain barrels here too but it doesn't rain enough in the summer to collect any and it would just get stagnant. I have the rain gutters that could flow into a trash can barrel thingy that we could put a spigot on I guess. But why bother with not enough rain to keep it filled? Unles I use the tub water to fill it. Maybe the washer water but then we have to be careful what kind of laundry detergent we use. Something to ponder muse on.

Episode on Disocvery last night of "Alaska:The Last Frontier" showed them using animal poop and pee for their compost. Presumedly our own works too. Would think once you resign yourself to using poop and compost, worrying about who's poop it is is kind of silly.