Siphoning off bath water for the garden

zagmund

Does anyone have any good suggestions for ways to siphon off bath water for re-use in the garden?

Unfortunately when we got the house refurbished the drain from the bath ended up being inaccessible so tapping into the down pipe is not an option. The bath itself is right beside a window, and right below the window is a suitable place for a water storage tank, so it's only a question of getting the water out the window and then letting gravity take over.

I've had a look at places like Amazon, but most of the siphons they have there are of the €2.50 plastic petrol tank type and I don't think they would quite be up to the job. Being a bathroom I also don't think that any of the pumps which you power with a drill would be an option either.

Can anyone suggest any sort of way to siphon/pump off the water from a bath?

And before anyone comes in with the "it will be bad for the plants" - I wouldn't be using water which had anything like bubble bath or whatever it's called these days. The worst that would be in it would be a very, very small amount of hand soap.

Thanks,

z

Calahonda52

I wouldn't store get water, I would put on garden directly unless u can really clean out the tank, u will get a colloid sludge on bottom.
Re the siphon, if u immerse enough of the house in the bath, filling it with water and then put ur thumb on the end while u let it out over the window sill and done blew the level of toop of water in bath, release thumb and it will flow,
have u looked at the bigger ones fro oil tanks, self priming, c 10 quid

zagmund

Thanks - I'll try the manual method and see how that goes. I couldn't remember how to prime the hose, but you've pointed it out above.

The problem with using it directly is that the water will be hot, but I guess I could let it cool first.

Thanks,

z

Calahonda52

google self priming siphons

gutteruu

A cheap 'self priming siphon' like mentioned is just a non-return valve on end of a pipe (Ball type non-return). Shake it up and down to prime hose (Ball type non-return). Once its over head gravity will do rest.

Rabbo

Seems like a messy way to conserve water.

If your doing it for financial reasons, I can't see how it's feasible. Irish Water are charging about half a cent a litre. Assuming the bath uses 80 litres, you're saving 40c per bath.

If you're doing it out of principal, then fair enough.

zagmund

Yeah, it's messy alright. I'm not doing it to save money as such, but that's a plus even if it is only 40c per bath. The thing is that at the end of the day the water has already been paid for and used once and I have two options - either pour it down the drain or re-use it. If I can re-use it then I may as well.

We already have rainwater harvesting set up for the main roof area and that works just fine, but during the Summer that can run out after a week or two, so if I can top it up with the bath every so often I think I may as well. I'll give it a go for a while and see how it works out.

z