Grey water hose

[csand109]

I recently bought a grey water hose on my quest to reduce water wastage. When I connected it to the outlet hose of my washing machine, I thought I’d done so securely and tightly. Our backyard has a natural slope so I lay out the hose to allow gravity to guide the water down to the garden. As soon as the machine started to empty and my back was turned, the hoses separated and water flooded our laundry! Is there an extra connector or something that we were supposed to get to prevent this? 

[Jason]

Hi @Mal2,

Welcome to the Workshop community. Great to see you've already made progress with your issue. Let us know how you go with the adaptors.

Feel free to post anytime you need a hand with a project around the house and garden, or have something to share. 

Jason

[MitchellM]

@Mal2 just remember, don't inhibit flow with those connectors, you never want to reduce the size of outlet pipe. It will put extra stress on the motor.

[andarm]

Be aware that grey water must be used within 24 hours (at least in Victoria) if it is stored (as suggested above). If not used in that time, it must be disposed of to the sewer/septic.

[MikeTNZ]

My advice to anyone taking grey water out of a washing machine or the like, is to always make the out-flow larger than the pipe that precedes it and let the water flow to "atmospheric pressure" via an unsealed tank or tub.

The moment you start to restrict things, you can end up with lint and what have you, jammed in the "adapters".

I did a job for a guy about 3 years ago here in NZ, for this very thing, to fill a tank for his garden water, I hard plumbed it in 32mm pressure pipe with glued fittings to the outside of his house, into a 1000 litre tank.

If you are going to use any sort of tank for grey water, make sure there is a sediment drain on the lowest point of the tank, as it WILL attract a lot of lint and other stuff.

A coarse filter before your outlet hose probably wouldn't go amiss either.