Why did this take me so long? I don’t really know… but the other day, just after starting a washing load, I decided to have a look at what would be involved in getting the used water from the washing machine into the garden. How hard could it be, after all? Not hard at all, as it turned out. The first step was an inspection.
This was the waste pipe from the washing machine, and I grabbed a few odd bits of pipe I had lying around to see if any would fit inside it. None of them did.
So the next step was to see what I had in my collection of connectors. This photo shows just some of them – luckily I am a hoarder by nature!
None of them fitted snugly inside the pipe, but there was one that fitted neatly on the outside of the waste pipe – a 40mm to 15mm reducer. To get it to fit a bit more snugly, I wrapped the pipe with one layer of duct tape.
This is a particularly expensive brand of tape, but from experience the ‘normal’ duct tape deteriorates rapidly when left outside, and turns into a powdery stringy dry mess after a few months, so I think the expense is well worth it.
I was worried about it popping off if the back pressure was too high, so I decided to use a length of large hosepipe I had, with inner diameter of about 20mm, which would allow a free flow. Some clear tubing fitted tightly inside this hose, and also went over the other side of the connector. A clear section of pipe is useful, as I can see if the water is flowing, and also how clean or dirty it is.
So before the washing machine, on its 30 minute eco cycle, started the first drain, it was all set up, and my thirsty garden received its first load of washing machine water. Its also easy to put the hose into a large bucket or other container, to use the water for other things such as toilet flushing.
I was worried about what the soapy water would do to the garden, so I conducted a quick social media poll. At the time of writing 134 people had responded, 123 of which said they have used all the water from the washing machine drain for a long time, and it had no negative effect. Only 2 responses said that the first drain had damaged their lawn or plants.
The specifications for my washing machine (Bosch Home Professional Series 4) are a bit vague when it comes to how much water it uses, since it weighs the load and automatically adjusts the amount of water. The one figure I could find said 70 litres per load, which is more than my daily allowance under the current level 6B water restrictions. Although I wash as infrequently as possible, that was a lot of water that was going to waste!
So there is no reason not to set this up. If you haven’t done so, just do it already!
