How to Make a Laundry Water Recycler (Gray Water System)

Step 5 Setting up the Plumbing

As you can see in the intro photo, my washing machine has an unusual drain set up, with the drain pipe opening being several feet above the washer. This is because the machine is in the basement and the extra height is required to have the water drain into our sewer pipe. I think in most homes the outlet hose enters the drain pipe at a level close to the top of the washing machine, or perhaps nearer to the floor.

In any case, you will be adding a set of diverting valves that will allow the flow of water to either go to the drain, or up to the storage tank. The photo below shows my setup. The heart of the plumbing is a "Y" pipe. I made this "Y" myself from a 45 degree PVC fitting because I was not able to find one in any store. If you know of any place to buy a PVC "Y" in this size range (3/4" to 1-1/4"), please let me know. I made the "Y" by cutting a hole in the side of the angle fitting that was in line with the opposite opening. I started the hole with a drill, and shaped it carefully with a Dremel tool and a utility knife. A Dremel took is an extremely fast rotating cylinder of sandpaper that makes jobs like this easy. If you don't have access to a Dremel, I would think that this would be a pretty time consuming task. The final hole was elliptical, because it is made at an angle to the material wall.

Finally, I glued a short length of 3/4" PVC pipe into the hole with PC-7 epoxy. This epoxy is quite strong and I glopped a lot of it around the joint (the dark gray stuff in the picture below).

If you don't want to go to all the trouble of making your own "Y", a "T" fitting will work just fine. I didn't want to use a "T" because I know from my engineering studies that it takes less energy to pump water through a 45 degree angle than through a 90 degree turn. Since I am already asking a lot from the washing machine pump, I wanted to make its job a little easier. If you use a "T" you can put it "sideways" so that the path up to the storage tank is a straight shot, while the right angle goes to the lower drain. There also may be easier ways to make a "Y" - Let me know if you think of any.

In the other two openings of the "Y", I glued in short lengths of 3/4" PVC with PVC cement. At the bottom of the "Y" the outlet hose from my washer fit over the 3/4" PVC and I fastened them together with a hose clamp.

For each of the two ball valves, I also glued a piece of 3/4" PVC at each end. The bottom end of each valve opening was then glued with PVC cement to the top openings of the "Y". A better way to do this would have been to use flexible couplings between the "Y" and the valves. Being a novice at plumbing, I didn't know about this option when I built it, but that's the way I would do it now because then the connection between the "Y" and the valves would not be permanent. (However, flexible couplings may not be available for small pipes such as these anyway).

Finally, you need to fasten the outlet openings from each ball valve to an appropriate length of hose, one going to the drain and the other up to the storage tank. I used the typical rubber washing machine hose (1" ID, 1-1/4" OD), which has a very thick wall. The top of each of these lengths of hose has a hook end, something you should find readily in any hardware store. The second photo below shows how I used a short length of 3/4" PVC pipe to join a hook end to a straight length of the washing machine hose.

After hooking the end of a hose over the side of the tank, I used a long piece of twist tie to secure it in place on the handle of the trash can. Before I did this it unhooked itself a couple of times and you can guess what happened.

If you heed my advice and build a safety overflow at the top of the tank, you will have a hose going from the upper outlet to your drain. It may not be straight forward to have your overflow hose enter the drain along side the washing machine outlet hose, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out a way to do it.