Ohhhh… I am super interested in this. I’m going to be moving to the desert soon (on septic if that makes any difference) and while I want to keep the yard as native and drought tolerant as possible, I would like some nice planted areas. I need to learn more. 😃
You have my vote on that comment. By the way, the City of Los Angeles now mandates all new buildings have to have greywater ready plumbing for the landscape (residential and commercial)
Aloha. We’ve been following your page for a long time. Huge fan of what your doing. Would I be able to apply your greywater system practices of burying the pipes in the yard to water yard ground up if I use drainage pipe? I live in Hawaiʻi and it’s crazy expensive to get your pipes shipped here. We scored a lot of the black drainage pipe with holes around the entire thing. Our yard is made out of coral and very fine dirt. Dolby I think it’s called? We live along the west coast of Oahu. We need a heavy duty machine to dig the trenches for our yard to lay the pipe. But before we do that I was curious if you ever used drainage pipe before creating your own special grey water drainage pipe. And how was the results from using drainage pipe? Mahalo
Should have drilled through the block. Not recommended to extend the washer discharge hose to extend more than 12” above the machine. It will work but you’ll be replacing the pump prematurely. Those pumps are not very strong nor made to pump water vertically over 12”.
How do you prevent sulfate build up in the soil? I see the filter is removing larger particulates, but detergent has a lot of sodium in it to bring down the surface tension of the water, and this can build up in your soils, eventually preventing things from growing.
@@brianwest3618 Anything that says sodium are salts. Sodium bicarbonate is a salt. All soaps and detergents have them. Over time a build up of sodium in the soil is bad. Phosphates are not the only harmful thing in soaps.
In general we have not had an issue with any laundry strips, laundry nuts, or liquids. I like the strips for the other environmental issues they address: plastic and shipping carbon foot print.
Really? Any detergent? Every other greywater says I need one with no sodium, but the only ones that make the list are waaay too expensive for a family of 7, plus they all come in plastic. I've been wracking my brain out trying to find something that'll work but not break the bank. Thanks for sharing!
To sum it up, don’t worry about the detergent you use. Just too much over hype on using a “Greywater” approved detergent that is uncalled for. Here is the detail explanation: I know the feeling, when I started out on this journey I discovered all the websites around greywater are just repeating what some else said years ago. What has happen over the last 20 to 30 years is the detergent companies have reformulated the ingredients to be nicer and safer for our human skin, in the process this has improved the interaction with soils and plants. At my house I use Tide and have started to use ecos.com when I can get it at a reasonable price. After a couple of years, I had the soil tested at my house and what came back was the greywater soil was free of arsenic (natural occurring), boron and chloride. The control group (standard potable water irrigation) came back with levels of all of these and the chloride was elevated. Bottom line the greywater soil was better and cleaned of harmful trace elements than the potable water soil. Now I would not use borax power, which is a sodium based detergent and was popular additive in detergents over 20 years ago. You can still buy 100% borax powered and we have a few customer who still use borax powder on their whites. These few customers change the greywater to the sewer system when washing whites, then switch it back when done. _ thank you for asking this question, I get it all the time.
Yes, We have started to talk with a company out of India, that will supply us with a coconut base filter that you can then be reuse for mulch around your tree. Just flip it over and let the soil microbes have a field day eating up the cloth fibers. Expect it on our website around the 4th quarter of 2020 and in the Lowes' distribution channel the first quarter of 2021.
Thank you for your question: Your other option is to use a "NSF 350" greywater system. A NSF 350 type of greywater system will clean the greywater to crystal clear quality, and the greywater is allowed to be sprayed on with sprinklers. In 2022 the going cost is about $14,000 for a NSF 350 system that can clean about 200 gallons a day.
Thank you for the question: Sorry to say, I do use Tide and is my preferred detergent. The soil analysis I had done after using it for two years on my lawn was that the soil with Tide was in better health than the ground with direct tap water. Now I am changing the from Tide in 2022 to ECO for two reasons: 1st) because of the greater good of plant base detergents (sustainable) and 2nd) The orange tide bottles are much harder to recycle, because of the color, ECO bottles are clear
Ohhhh… I am super interested in this. I’m going to be moving to the desert soon (on septic if that makes any difference) and while I want to keep the yard as native and drought tolerant as possible, I would like some nice planted areas. I need to learn more. 😃
They should mandate this stuff to save water for residents.
You have my vote on that comment. By the way, the City of Los Angeles now mandates all new buildings have to have greywater ready plumbing for the landscape (residential and commercial)
How about you MIND YOUR BUSINESS and do it voluntarily if YOU want to. JESUS, you Government zealots!
Aloha. We’ve been following your page for a long time. Huge fan of what your doing. Would I be able to apply your greywater system practices of burying the pipes in the yard to water yard ground up if I use drainage pipe? I live in Hawaiʻi and it’s crazy expensive to get your pipes shipped here. We scored a lot of the black drainage pipe with holes around the entire thing. Our yard is made out of coral and very fine dirt. Dolby I think it’s called? We live along the west coast of Oahu. We need a heavy duty machine to dig the trenches for our yard to lay the pipe. But before we do that I was curious if you ever used drainage pipe before creating your own special grey water drainage pipe. And how was the results from using drainage pipe? Mahalo
Should have drilled through the block.
Not recommended to extend the washer discharge hose to extend more than 12” above the machine.
It will work but you’ll be replacing the pump prematurely.
Those pumps are not very strong nor made to pump water vertically over 12”.
How do you prevent sulfate build up in the soil? I see the filter is removing larger particulates, but detergent has a lot of sodium in it to bring down the surface tension of the water, and this can build up in your soils, eventually preventing things from growing.
would make the soil more alkaline
I use only SA-8 detergent. No phosphates and great for the soil.
@@brianwest3618 Anything that says sodium are salts. Sodium bicarbonate is a salt. All soaps and detergents have them. Over time a build up of sodium in the soil is bad. Phosphates are not the only harmful thing in soaps.
Your link doesn't go to Lowes 🤔 where do you purchase the container your using?
did you use pump?
What about using laundry strips like "Tru Earth" or something like that? Those are getting popular as of recently.
In general we have not had an issue with any laundry strips, laundry nuts, or liquids. I like the strips for the other environmental issues they address: plastic and shipping carbon foot print.
Really? Any detergent? Every other greywater says I need one with no sodium, but the only ones that make the list are waaay too expensive for a family of 7, plus they all come in plastic. I've been wracking my brain out trying to find something that'll work but not break the bank. Thanks for sharing!
To sum it up, don’t worry about the detergent you use. Just too much over hype on using a “Greywater” approved detergent that is uncalled for.
Here is the detail explanation:
I know the feeling, when I started out on this journey I discovered all the websites around greywater are just repeating what some else said years ago. What has happen over the last 20 to 30 years is the detergent companies have reformulated the ingredients to be nicer and safer for our human skin, in the process this has improved the interaction with soils and plants. At my house I use Tide and have started to use ecos.com when I can get it at a reasonable price.
After a couple of years, I had the soil tested at my house and what came back was the greywater soil was free of arsenic (natural occurring), boron and chloride. The control group (standard potable water irrigation) came back with levels of all of these and the chloride was elevated. Bottom line the greywater soil was better and cleaned of harmful trace elements than the potable water soil.
Now I would not use borax power, which is a sodium based detergent and was popular additive in detergents over 20 years ago. You can still buy 100% borax powered and we have a few customer who still use borax powder on their whites. These few customers change the greywater to the sewer system when washing whites, then switch it back when done.
_ thank you for asking this question, I get it all the time.
@@grey4green49 Thank you!
If you’d like to use a more natural detergent, you could try diluting Dr.Bronners
Trader Joe’s has a cheap laundry detergent that is biodegradable and free of this and that. Check it out.
use soap nuts, buy them at Trader Joe's
Can we make a laundry to lawn system without drilling a hole in the house? I don't want a hole in my house.
Run the hose out a window... lol short of that the water can't flow through walls without a hole.
No pain, No gain
Is the filter that we throw out recyclable?
It is like all plastics, theoretically recyclable. What I have found is that you can hose off the lint and reuse the same filter multiple times.
Can't you use a biodegradable filter instead?
Yes, We have started to talk with a company out of India, that will supply us with a coconut base filter that you can then be reuse for mulch around your tree. Just flip it over and let the soil microbes have a field day eating up the cloth fibers. Expect it on our website around the 4th quarter of 2020 and in the Lowes' distribution channel the first quarter of 2021.
you can buy a roll of coconut mat landscaping fabric, but it's over $100 a roll, probabaly give you several hundred filters.
How can we increase the Aquafir pipe moisture plume? 4 feet wide is not enough to water the 1,500 foot lawn.
Thank you for your question: Your other option is to use a "NSF 350" greywater system. A NSF 350 type of greywater system will clean the greywater to crystal clear quality, and the greywater is allowed to be sprayed on with sprinklers. In 2022 the going cost is about $14,000 for a NSF 350 system that can clean about 200 gallons a day.
You will need to run parallel aquifer pipes space three to four feet apart
I sure hope you don't use tide in your yard... lots of chemicals in tide... yucky. It is terrible for the yard, and the soil.
Thank you for the question: Sorry to say, I do use Tide and is my preferred detergent. The soil analysis I had done after using it for two years on my lawn was that the soil with Tide was in better health than the ground with direct tap water.
Now I am changing the from Tide in 2022 to ECO for two reasons: 1st) because of the greater good of plant base detergents (sustainable) and 2nd) The orange tide bottles are much harder to recycle, because of the color, ECO bottles are clear
cause it all ran off- illegal