Grey Water : Marque II

Whilst at the hardware I bought 15meters of 13mm black poly tubing (for my drip irrigation work) so I thought I'd try out syphoning out the gray water. Our washed empties into a special drain on the laundry sink, so it is easy to lift the washing machine discharge tube out of its drain and direct the discard into the sink. The theory was that I could them syphon the water from there.

BUT there were problems. Firstly it is important that the water level does not get higher that the washing machine's discard tube, or the water pumped out will backwash syhpon back into the machine (I learnt this the hard way). Second starting the syphon is not so easy with the 13mm poly pipe. Using the well tried method, of making three or so loops and letting all the air bubbles out then clamping you thumb over the end and lift the loops out and then let off your thumb, was not so easy with the tubing which wanted to kink and fold rather make the tight loops I needed to get into the sink. The tubing is light and wants to float to the surface, and loose suction, so I need a brick to hold it down.


With patience I got the syphon going and it worked well. Still it was a lot or mucking around you probably would not want to have to do that routinely.