Do you think this water saving mod worthwhile?

[path1]

Saturday when picking up a part for my trailer I ran into a guy that has the same model as ours but few years newer. We got talking and he told me how he extends his boondocking time via pumping his gray water to re-use in his toilet.

TT has 2 gray water tanks, one for kitchen and one for bathroom (shower and sink) He hooked up a water pump to his bathroom gray tank then to his toilet. He can twist a valve and pump water from his self contained tank or twist valve the other way and can pump water from his bathroom gray tank to his toilet. Neither one of us had our TT with us. Just picking up stuff at RV place.

While I think the idea has some merit I wonder just how much this would extend boondocking time. We very seldom we run out of space in the bathroom gray water tank. Black tank would receive same amount of use. For us, any extended time would because of water savings on the fresh water tank.

Does anybody see any other downsides to this mod? I see the pump being a shorter life because of soap residue and hair? Of course, one could also just drain the gray water into a gallon jug and use it for flushing.

Does anybody know how many gallons of water your toilet goes through when boondocking?

[time2roll]

path1 wrote:
Does anybody see any other downsides to this mod?

A simple valve separating the waste and fresh water is not going to pass safety code.

You need to be full time with one or the other. Or you need a real backflow device not one of those $10 jobs.

No I would not do it. At most I might capture the sink water in a bin and send it to the black tank to save space in the grey tank.

I am far more likely to add more tanks if the space was that important.

[rhagfo]

gbopp wrote:
It's an interesting idea. I don't know if it's worth the expense/effort.
You could have the potential smell of gray water in the toilet, and another pump to clog or fail.

I think it would be just as easy to carry a couple extra 5 gallon jugs of fresh water.

bpounds wrote:
I don't doubt that could be done safely, but personally, I'm not going to do any modification that in any way connects waste water to the fresh water system. It's just too icky to consider.

Flushing doesn't use much as I'm sure you know. But I've not measured it. What I know is that I encourage using as much as reasonably possible when flushing. It makes for a well maintained black tank. I encourage DW to conserve in other places, not the toilet.

sch911 wrote:
Wow I'd hate to smell his bathroom....

It was stated in the OP's TT has TWO gray water tanks GALLEY, and shower bathroom sink. Talking about using the Shower water.

I doubt there would be any stink in the bowl, I use nice fragrant soap. Fresh to shower grey is no worse than the fresh to the toilet.

I would just add a check valve on each side of the choice valve.

[DownTheAvenue]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Typically one runs out of fresh water PRIOR to filling waste tanks.
Except when you have a galley then it will fill before running out of Fresh water.

Wouldn't that depend upon the size of the tanks?

[Rbertalotto]

It's grey water from shower and bathroom sink. No smell except soap and shampoo. Put a check valve on fresh water toilet supply and I think it's a pretty good idea. Wish I had separate grey tanks.

[DrewE]

I'd put a check valve in the fresh water line between the selector valve and the rest of the RV's plumbing.

It doesn't strike me as a particularly useful modification. Dumping dishwater down the toilet would seem to accomplish almost as much (except it wouldn't save a fairly negligible amount of fresh water usage).

[Teacher_s_Pet]

This is probably the guy who talked about water conservation while boondocking, in his case camping in parking lots. He was presenting a seminar at a rally we attended 10 or so years ago. He and his wife also saved water and dumping expense by using wet wipes for their baths every three nights. Also saved money by not wasting it on any type of toilet chemicals.

[3oaks]

2oldman wrote:

sch911 wrote:
Wow I'd hate to smell his bathroom....

Yeah, I was thinking that too. Also, it may stain the toilet bowl.

I agree. I would never consider it.

Someone suggested a filter. All a filter would do is separate any particles from the grey water. The bacteria still gets through.

[Old-Biscuit]

Valve failure or Opps wrong valving and grey fills up fresh water tank.......:S


Typically one runs out of fresh water PRIOR to filling waste tanks.
Except when you have a galley then it will fill before running out of Fresh water.

All three of my waste tanks use a 'common' drain header.......so I have another valve on common header.
With it closed I can equalizer galley & grey, grey & black, galley & black, Galley, grey & black.

So I ALWAYS run out of fresh before I run out of waste tank storage.

[2oldman]

sch911 wrote:
Wow I'd hate to smell his bathroom....

Yeah, I was thinking that too. Also, it may stain the toilet bowl.

[sch911]

Wow I'd hate to smell his bathroom....

[STANG23L]

Interesting. You could always add a filter before or after the Grey Pump to catch the nasty stuff in the grey tank.

[bpounds]

I don't doubt that could be done safely, but personally, I'm not going to do any modification that in any way connects waste water to the fresh water system. It's just too icky to consider.

Flushing doesn't use much as I'm sure you know. But I've not measured it. What I know is that I encourage using as much as reasonably possible when flushing. It makes for a well maintained black tank. I encourage DW to conserve in other places, not the toilet.

[gbopp]

It's an interesting idea. I don't know if it's worth the expense/effort.
You could have the potential smell of gray water in the toilet, and another pump to clog or fail.

I think it would be just as easy to carry a couple extra 5 gallon jugs of fresh water.