This little DIY project has been percolating in my mind for a couple years now. I have thought through several versions but each time something stopped me going ahead.
A big one was the cost of a suitable sized funnel. I was thinking it would have to be a dairy or chemical funnel costing lotsabucks.
Then 2 days ago I was reclining in my downstairs '40's armchair in my workshop area & perusing the various objects laying around including some marker cones purchased for another use. All of a sudden I had a light bulb moment & realized a cone would make an excellent funnel!
This morning it took less than an hour to put it together. The hardest part was deciding exactly where to mount the 'receiver station' so as not to obstruct other verandah uses but be sufficiently easy to tip the water into it & handy to the upstairs garden hose for cleaning the basin.
So first I had to work out the position of the top of the pipe made with the piece of 90mm downpipe. I wanted to be able to remove the cone if needed so the pipe was screwed to the railing slat separately to the cone.
Due to the size of the downpipe it was hard to get the drill in so the screws are at a steep angle. I didn't have screws quite long enough which is why I later added 2 more zip ties right around the slat & pipe, just incase the screws let go. At some future time I might replace them with longer screws.
I drilled the screw holes first before zip-tying the flat pipe to the downpipe then screwing the downpipe piece to the slat. Then screwed the cone onto the railing using washers under the screw heads because the cone plastic is cheap & soft. I first cut a short piece off the narrow end of the cone so the hole was bigger to let the water through easily.
Then just a matter of dropping the flat pipe roll through the slats down to the ground & unrolling it across the lawn. The roll was 25m long which was not long enough to reach the new food forest garden at the back of the new property maintenance shed so I added another piece to reach the middle of the new garden.
The joiner is just another 20cm piece of old downpipe with the flat pipe pushed over the ends & held in place with some wide red rubber bands. I have yet another piece of flat pipe available to join on when needed so I can send the water to various parts of that forest.
So far, due to the undulations along the pipe path, the recycled water from the kitchen has not reached the forest garden because I don't use very much in the kitchen in the dry season. But by tomorrow arvo it should run out the end when I tip the rinse water down from the kitchen sink. It won't matter if water sits in the flat pipe because nothing can get into the pipe.
At this stage I'm not going to reuse the detergent water that I wash up in. I wash-up in the small bowl of the double bowl sink so the blue basin sits in the large bowl side & collects the rinse water, hand washing & veg washing water. I'm not sure that the detergent is very good for plants even though it is supposed to be organic etc.
A big one was the cost of a suitable sized funnel. I was thinking it would have to be a dairy or chemical funnel costing lotsabucks.
Then 2 days ago I was reclining in my downstairs '40's armchair in my workshop area & perusing the various objects laying around including some marker cones purchased for another use. All of a sudden I had a light bulb moment & realized a cone would make an excellent funnel!
This morning it took less than an hour to put it together. The hardest part was deciding exactly where to mount the 'receiver station' so as not to obstruct other verandah uses but be sufficiently easy to tip the water into it & handy to the upstairs garden hose for cleaning the basin.
So first I had to work out the position of the top of the pipe made with the piece of 90mm downpipe. I wanted to be able to remove the cone if needed so the pipe was screwed to the railing slat separately to the cone.
Due to the size of the downpipe it was hard to get the drill in so the screws are at a steep angle. I didn't have screws quite long enough which is why I later added 2 more zip ties right around the slat & pipe, just incase the screws let go. At some future time I might replace them with longer screws.
I drilled the screw holes first before zip-tying the flat pipe to the downpipe then screwing the downpipe piece to the slat. Then screwed the cone onto the railing using washers under the screw heads because the cone plastic is cheap & soft. I first cut a short piece off the narrow end of the cone so the hole was bigger to let the water through easily.
Then just a matter of dropping the flat pipe roll through the slats down to the ground & unrolling it across the lawn. The roll was 25m long which was not long enough to reach the new food forest garden at the back of the new property maintenance shed so I added another piece to reach the middle of the new garden.
The joiner is just another 20cm piece of old downpipe with the flat pipe pushed over the ends & held in place with some wide red rubber bands. I have yet another piece of flat pipe available to join on when needed so I can send the water to various parts of that forest.
So far, due to the undulations along the pipe path, the recycled water from the kitchen has not reached the forest garden because I don't use very much in the kitchen in the dry season. But by tomorrow arvo it should run out the end when I tip the rinse water down from the kitchen sink. It won't matter if water sits in the flat pipe because nothing can get into the pipe.
At this stage I'm not going to reuse the detergent water that I wash up in. I wash-up in the small bowl of the double bowl sink so the blue basin sits in the large bowl side & collects the rinse water, hand washing & veg washing water. I'm not sure that the detergent is very good for plants even though it is supposed to be organic etc.
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