Save grey water to flush toilet?

[vsheetz]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

Boondockers typically save their dish water and catch the running shower water while the hot comes in. Then they use it for flushing thereby saving their fresh water in the tank. They save it in either a bucket or pour it into a jug.


If you're in RV parks with hookups there's no need to do this.

Yep. We use a dish pan in the shower.

[Brecklundin]

Originally Posted by bldrbob

If you are remodeling you should consider a separate tank for the washer.Then it would only have soapy water with a little lint, not food particles .

i was actually thinking of a 2nd potable tank so maybe a separate one for washer water is doable...

see i knew people here would know. thanks a bunch.

[Brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Droski

Consider a composting toilet, gray water can smell quite bad at times.

i actually am... im going to take a crack at building my own. The vent fan is easy, can either water the plants with wet waste liquids or route them just into black tank. Have 60gal black tank so lotta room.

About the DIY composting toilet. i have sourced everything except a flap fir the solids bin. im still looking. There is a place in the UK that makes a dandy looking divided bowl that tanks different anatomical issues into consideration. Venting is super import and easy enough.

i know, it's a "crappy" plan.... 💩

[Brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Winemaker2

I don't boondock much but if I did I would install a separate pump fed as suggested from part way up the grey tank. They make & sell diaphram pumps that do not clog like a std fresh water pump.... they are used frequently on boats to pump sink & shower water overboard. I would plumb it to a 2nd spray head to add water & flush with without the need to make a fresh / grey water connection at the toilet that can / will be a source of contamination of fresh water.
Side benefit is that this can be used to transfer grey to black tank if/when desired.

very elegant solution. this one i am gonna look into. i was already pondering if and when i get a composting toilet how should i use the old black tank or should i pull for added potable water.

i realized my fresh tank in back at end of rv under the head of the bed with plenty of room for a 50gal skinny tank. figured I'd reroute the inlet to top with a connection between the tanks and let gravity work for me for a change. might be a few considerations but noting impossible and i hate plumbing but tjis idea i like best.

just trying to see the options. i kinda like tbe manual solutions of trapping water prior to running it down to grey tank. That gives a nice choice which water to use. At least to start then once i have composting solution i wont have wasted money unless i do use that old black tank to capture grey water.

I was actually thinking that as my tanks share a common exit port i could just close main valve and let the water back fill. That made my think of the solids all just blocking things at that y-junction defeating the whole idea.

[Brecklundin]

just thinking i can probably just filter grey water at the respective drain points before it goes to the tank. That should be fairly simple, plus i already mention to not put solids down tbe sinks or shower drains anyway.

[Winemaker2]

Originally Posted by Brecklundin

just thinking i can probably just filter grey water at the respective drain points before it goes to the tank. That should be fairly simple, plus i already mention to not put solids down tbe sinks or shower drains anyway.

Yup...
Just get few of those SS mesh screens. One on each drain. Easy to remove & clean off. Biggest culprit likely galley sink then shower for hair.
I'd add an inline screen strainer to any new pumps. Just place them where EZ to get at and that's a fail safe yo keep stuff out of a pump.
Like I ssid you can get diaphragm pumps that can handle some solids and can run dry w/o damage.

[dustyrains]

One other item I have figured out. When doing the dishes, of course you have to rinse the soap off them. Don't run the faucet to do that. Use a plastic spray bottle. Just spray the soap off the dishes. You can do a large sink full of dirty dishes with with quart of clean rinse water this way.

[Off Road]

I think winemaker 2 has the best plan. I would add that if you go to a agricultural supply store they will have chemical spraying supplies and equipment. You should be able to find a liquid strainer for before the pump fairly easily. I don't think the composting toilet is a good plan if you have a 60 gallon black tank. That size tank should last two people several weeks.

[johntaves]

I am rebuilding my water tanks, or rather the whole water bay. The original had 2 36 gal tanks for grey and black and 90 gals for fresh. This ridiculous setup sucked for boondocking. I don't see how this setup was good for any scenario.

I was about to do 75 grey, and 42 black and 110 fresh. However, I just read this thread about grey flushing. I'm thinking this would be very cool to do.

I can easily put a 10gal grey tank above the 75 grey. That tank will take the shower water. It will have 1 drain at the bottom with a valve that goes into the main grey tank. It will have another drain up high that will be open to the main grey, so when it gets full it just drains away. This would create a pool of shower grey that a pump would draw from. I will install a separate sprayer for the toilet.

Why not add a third drain from the 10gal that is at the top and flows into the black? So if the 85 gals of grey is used up, it flows into the black.



Thoughts?

[shootist]

If you want it legal so to speak, run the kitchen sink to the black tank direct. Then your grey water is not nasty smelling and supporting all kinds of bacteria and creepy crawlers.

[richard5933]

Shower drain water will have as high, or possibly higher, bacterial count than kitchen. Probably less in the way of solids from washing dirty dishes though. Either way, I'm wondering if some type of screen filter would be in order to prevent anything from getting into the flush valve.

[NevadaNick]

Adapt this to rv use. It would help some.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/SinkPosi...4-01/205088518

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by NevadaNick

Adapt this to rv use. It would help some.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/SinkPosi...4-01/205088518

Interesting idea but RV toilets don't have a rear tank to set it on. I didn't read how it works exactly but even if you built a shelf at the rear of the toilet there probably wouldn't be enough room to sit down on the toilet without banging into it.

[Brecklundin]

Something outside most of our ideas about the waste water storage probs... maybe swap your toilet for one of the better composting toilets? The good ones cost ~$750 to $950. Plenty of debate about them but watch several vids on YT to get info from a wide variety if people who actually do ir have owned a composting toilet in their RV.

Going that way has a couple hidden benefits which seem to me in what a huge difference it makes for Boondocking.

Relevant to your topic is once you are not dumping waste into black tank you can be quite creative with it.

For me it's 60 gal extra grey water storage. I considered fancy replumbing but, well, plumbing & i are, ummm, not on speaking terms.

Also since you don't use water to flush save the occasional rinsing of the liquid waste funnel. For two people that gives at least another week in the boonies.

I also ran across an article where they replaced the black water tank with a new freshwater tank giving an additional 60gal fresh water.

I went the basic route by just letting the over flow from grey water tank into the old blackwater tank. Combined we now have 100gal grey water storage.

The key which lit my thought bubble was switching to the composting toilet. And there are lots if folks who aren't fans, that's good because they have ideas worth considering if you look at this as a Boondocking solution.