Washing Machine Drain Line Options

[PSDStu]

In order to pass inspection we will be required to have our washing machine drain line connected into the main drain line leading to our septic tank.

After the inspection is complete I want to reroute the drain line seperatly.

One of the options I was considering was burying a 55 gallon drum, drilled with some drain holes and filled with some rocks/gravel. Then run the washer drain line into the top of the tank.

What are some options ya'll have done?

Stu

 

[Bird]

One neighbor in the country did exactly what you said with the 55 gallon drum. Another neighbor had a separate septic tank and a pump and pumped the water out of that tank periodically to water his yard. And another simply ran it out of the ground where it ran down a bit of a slope away from the house and soaked in or evaporated.

 

[JJT]

Probably not an option for you, but here's what I did.

1) purchased a high efficiency washer, is uses 1/3 - 1/2 the water of a normal washer. 2) tripled the size of my leachfield, min for us was 250 feet of pipe, I ran 15 50' laterals. Since I was doing the labor, the cost was not prohibitive.

Eventually a 55 gallon dry well is going to plug up with lint and soap scum, or simply rot out and cave in. I worked for a plumber in high school and have seen it all when it comes to septic systems, including using a junk car as the tank for a dry well.

Add a few laterals to your existing system and leave the washer attached to the house drain.

 

[OkeeDon]

Now, I'm going to offer a peek inside my family to see just how much of a miser my wife is (she prefers "thrifty").

First, I should explain that in our present location, we are on city water, which is not cheap. We have a laundry tub next to the washer. My wife keeps buckets inside the tub; they mostly fill the space very well. She hangs the washer drain hose on the side of the tub, and into one of the buckets. When the washer drains, the bucket is filled first. If she's not around, the rest goes down the drain, which makes her cry. So, she times the washer and tries to show up at drain cycles to redirect the hose into additional buckets.

She then uses the buckets of wash water to water her herb garden, right outside the door from the laundry. The plants seem to thrive on the diluted soapy water.

When she's really up on her game, hardly a drop of water is wasted.

You could much more easily use one of Bird's suggestions and attach a hose to the drain and run it out of the door, preferably to a garden. I could do that for my wife, but then what would we tease her about?

 

[chatcher]

It's hard to get a straight answer to a question like this. That's because the professionals don't want to recommend something illegal, and a lot of non-professionals don't have a good understanding of how septic systems work.

You're in Florida, so you probably have much different conditions than I do. Here it is hilly with lots of clay that does not drain well. Here 90% of the septic systems can't handle a large volume of water, as from washers and bathtubs. All the old-timers have separate drains, some of which just run into open creeks. This is not legal, but it works. The other choice is to stay legal, and continually fight leach bed problems.

I would think if you have sandy soil like most of Florida it would be possible for a well-designed septic system to handle all of your waste water. But then, I am a non-professional. I don't know what the rules would be on dry wells, but aside from that, the performance may depend on how high the water table is.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( plants seem to thrive on the diluted soapy water )</font>

I've not tried it myself, but a neighbor told me that one of the most beautiful lawns in Dallas is regularly fertilized with Tide laundry detergent and nothing else. Has anyone else tried that?

 

[texbaylea]

It is my understanding that Texas has approved separating gray (washing machines, etc) water from black (sewage) although many counties are resisting. Planning a kitchen remodel and will include a separate tank and simple drain field. Might even add a pump to use the water for irrigation.

Vernon

 

[Freds]

I've always wondered if I did mine "correctly".
My drain hose runs into a slop sink that sits over a sump tank. The first winter here we had a massive snow melt that gave my newly cemented cellar (used to be dirt) about three inches of water and my sump pump couldn't keep up, so I was advised to drill holes in the bottom of the tank to allow the water into it more quickly before it could come up through the concrete.
Now, these holes also allow the washer water (and anything else I wash in the slop sink, like paint brushes) to drain into the ground rather than filling the tank and getting pumped into my septic.

Works for me, but probably isn't legal. However, I was told a few years ago that dirty water that filters through 12 inches of gravel becomes gray water, so I don't think I'm contaminating the ground water supply and my well is about 60 feet away.

 

[PSDStu]

I liked Don's idea...........but..........and when I mentioned it to my wife.......the little lady said I must have married the wrong person......... go figure!........after 25 years I should have known better!

I'm thinking about trying to rig up something to use the water for flower beds now instead of the whole 55gal drum plan.

Lots of valuable ideas so far!

Thanks

 

[Jimbrown]

Are you sure it is not legal? There have been a lot changes made lately about grey water. Here in Az it is encouraged for you to pump laundry water out on the ground to water trees ect. I have an out door shower also that feeds directly to some high water trees. all legal. It is not legal to dump into sand washes or any type of existing surface water.

 

[hitekcountry]

<font color="blue"> She then uses the buckets of wash water to water her herb garden </font>

Would it be safe to assume that you could use wash water on a vegetable garden? Any reason not to?

 

[Buckcreek]

I have an aereator sewage plant and my washingmachine is breaking me up on chlorine, The county inspector told me , of course this was off the record to put a seperate lech field in for the washing machine with a pipe running out to a branch that runs throug my property. he said i could put a cap on it and open it if i had any problems to let the field drain. But just dont tell anybody he said to do it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Highbeam]

Here is a somewhat different idea. How about a second tank for all of the domestic grey water. Everything but toilets. The black water dumps directly in to the septic tank as designed. The grey water tank is built like a septic tank with an inlet and outlet at the same elevation. The outlet from the grey tank overflows into the black water line before the septic tank. So if you sell the house, nobody knows any different, everything still works the same.

Now in that grey water tank, set a sump pump with the discharge connected to jive with your desired use. Use as desired to irrigate or send it to a seperate discharge full time, whatever you want.

The tank isn't expensive and can be added to an existing system with the biggest challenge being seperating the drain lines into gray and black. A typical septic tank is 1000 gallons. If you use 15 gpm, the typical city max flow rate, then the full grey water tank will allow you to irrigate for a long time.

This system should not effect the total load on your septic system as designed. If you added downspout water to the grey tank, you would run the risk of overloading the septic system but you would have more free water.

 

[OkeeDon]

Of course, separate black water and gray water tanks are exactly what a motor home uses. To me, gray water is no different than running a hose at the side of my house and, using a bar of handy soap, washing off a lot of the mud before I enter the house. The gray water (dirty, soapy water) simply runs on the ground.

My current motor home, a well-used 1988 Pace Arrow, is now serving as my construction "trailer"/occasional "motel" on my Okeechobee property. I keep the valve on my black water tank (from the toilet) firmly closed, and when that tank eventually fills, I'll drive to the nearby KOA and use their dumping facilities. In the meantime, however, the valve on my gray water tank (shower, sinks) is open, and the gray water is running onto the ground. I should add that I do little cooking in the motor home, so there is no food waste going down the drain -- just soapy water (and a little toothpaste, well diluted).

I first learned this trick with my first motor home, a 1972 Winnebago, which had no gray tank. There was a black water tank for storage, and a cap that could be removed to allow the gray water to run on the ground. The cap had a hose thread on it so the gray water could be diverted some distance from the coach. To use the sinks and shower, one had two choices -- be hooked up to sewage at an RV park, or let it run on the ground.

I believe it's not a state law, but set county by county, but many areas in Florida allow drainage of gray water into a drywell. When I was constructing custom outdoor patio kitchens, we often had customers who wanted a bar sink, but had no hookups. We would run a cold water line from one of their outdoor taps, and run the drain down into a 5 gallon plastic pail buried in the ground and filled with small rocks. We cut a lot of holes in the borrom and lower sides of the pail, and put a lid on it before burying it to keep the dirt out. Years later, no problems were reported to us. (If the customer wanted hot water, we installed a small, local hotshot heater). The 5 gallon pail was enough for a small bar sink, lightly used; I would use a 55 gallon drum for a laundry. The primary reason for the drywell is to keep the water from making mud where you don't want it.

Oh, in answer to a question above, I suppose the soapy water would be OK for vegetables; we eat the herbs and are still here. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[MMM]

I have an areated plant with 6 sprinklers and don't want the antibacterial soaps and grease in the system. All of my gray water runs to pasture or garden. I have 100' of buried 2" PVC that ends on side of a hill. The grade is important because you need pipe to have a fall to prevent soap/grease build up. At the end of PVC there's 50' of flex sump pump hose to water garden with or send to pasture when irrigation isn't needed.

 

[JerryG]

<font color="blue"> I've not tried it myself, but a neighbor told me that one of the most beautiful lawns in Dallas is regularly fertilized with Tide laundry detergent and nothing else. Has anyone else tried that?</font>
I have often wondered how the grass took to the detergent. Does any one know the anything about using Tide?

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I have often wondered how the grass took to the detergent )</font>

Jerry, I don't know about different detergents, but I mentioned above that one guy just ran the washing machine water out of the ground and down a slope. I do know the grass grew faster there than anywhere else on his property, even more so than the grass right over the leach field lines. Now I can't say for sure whether it was the detergent or just the fact that the grass got more water there, but at least I know the detergent sure didn't hurt the grass.

 

[bgott]

I dont know about now but years ago detergents had nitrates in 'em. Nitrates are what they use in fertilizer. They had to change the formula because it was causing algae blooms or some such thing in waterways. I do know that it seems that wash water still seems to do a good job of promoting growth, it might just be the constant watering.

 

[MMM]

Dtergents are wetting agents and decrease surface tension of water. This helps water soak in, instead of run off.

 

[JoeDizzy]

Over at my mothers house, the wash water is (gravity)drained to a concrete grease trap (approx 30 gal) buried in the ground. There is a pipe connected to the side (near top) that drains out to the field. Works well. It was there when the place was bought. I am not sure if it would pass inspection now. I would assume that it wouldn't. I had to re pipe it a few months ago due to the old resin piping collasping and backing up.

Just a side note, she uses tide detergent and I don't notice any big difference in the color or lushness of the grass in the area where it drains.