Use of drippy water

[Kris10Leigh]

Here's an interesting question to get the brain juices flowing! I'm hoping to do a little brainstorming with all of you.

We have a leacky faucet which we tried to fix, but it didn't work. DH wants to call a plumber, but I don't want to have pay him because I think we just need a new faucet. A new faucet isn't in the budget...so....

I've been keeping a pitcher under the leak and am rather disgusted by how much I get! My 2 gallon pitcher fills up within a few hours, so a good gallon of water drips down the drain every hour. I'm trying to think of good ways to use this water.

1. I put it in the fridge for drinking water
2. Water plants
3. use for cooking

Do you think I could use it in the washing machine? How would I do this? The only thing I can think of is to watch the water level and shut it off when I know it is right. Is there a sensor in there and even though I manually added it water it will shut off when it's supposed to?

Any other suggestions?

[Kris10Leigh]

Here's another thought. I've seen it suggested to keep a bucket of water under the shower faucet to catch the water while it heats up, which I think is an excellent idea! So this thread might help some of you out there move toward that idea. I think it is an excellent one. Between my leaky faucet and collected water from the shower, I may never need to turn on a water faucet again! LOL!

[Ima saver]

Do you have to pay for water? If so you are wasting money every month. I would use it for drinking water, I think.

[Ima saver]

Another thought, could you just shut off the water valve??

[Kris10Leigh]

I know, I know. One of the many, many baby steps we are taking to be more careful with our money. Our water bill is $35 with the leak and that just never bothered me. So step one is to at least use the drip water. Step 2 is to actually fix it.

[Kris10Leigh]

Hmmmmmmm...shut off the water valve....under just the kitchen sink? Hadn't thought of that! By cracky, I think I just might have to step away from the keyboard and go try that! Believe it or not, I am not being sarcastic. Let's see, is my little one actually napping? (I sit in the office next to his room to make sure he is)...yep I do believe he is. Then I am off to explore!

[getforfree]

I do not have meter on my water right now. But I will about a month from now. I would pay 14c for every 100 gallons. I have no leaking fausets anywhere right now.

I came up with som strategies that I am going to use.

I will take faster showers. Right now I allow myself to use 20 min hardly warm shower, and it's summer now, so I don't need really hot water anyways. But when I will have to pay for every gallon of cold water, I will have to limit it. For the kids, I fill up half of the tab with the warm water, wash them and let them play in it, then I rinse them with clean water for about 1 min each. But because they are boy and a girl, I would have to wash them separatly a few years from now, now they are 1 and 3 yrs old. Now I even can take them to the shower with me, they don't care.

I will also collect the water from my shower and water plants with it. Yes, the dirty water too. I wonder if it's possible to flash the toilet with the used dirty shower water.

In the rain season, I plan to have a few clean backets outside and collect the rain water to use in washing machine for cold washes, but for hot washes, I will still have to use nomal water. I can add water to my washing machine, and then it will just add less to the full load. I have a really old washing machine, and I think it has a water level sensor. So the newer machines must have it too.

Once I used some hot water in my wash after I cooked eggs in it, but it was like 1 quart of water, so I saved about a quart of hot water, probably 1-2cents.

I will also ask everybody not to flash the toilet every time, or make sure everybody uses the bathroom and than make only 1 flash after few people use it. But I am not planning to keep my toilet dirty for a few hours untill someone decides to use the bathroom again.

[creditcardfree]

Make ice cubes!

I think it can be used in the washer very easily. Just start pouring it in as it accumulates. When it's time to run the washer, add clothes, set water for appropriate level, turn on and it should stop when it reaches the right level.

Good luck.

[getforfree]

Did anybody try to flash the toilet with used after-shower water. It's not that dirty, but I wouldn't do my laundry with that water. But I think, for the toilet it's ok.

[cptacek]

You can use the new water in the toilet. Take the top off of the toilet and watch what happens when you flush. You will see the level of water go down and then as the water fills up again, there will be a float that comes up that is attached to a valve that stops the incoming water when it gets to a certain level. You can hold the float up, flush and then fill the tank with the water from your shower. If you want to do this all the time, you could tie the float up and use that water at all times...depends on how many people are using that toilet if it will be too much of an inconvenience.

But, you need to make sure that there is some water in the toilet bowl at all times. If you don't, the gases from the sewer can make it up into your house. If you have a bathroom that you never use, you should make sure that all the water doesn't evaporate out at some point or you could have problems with this.

Also, the washers don't monitor how much water comes out of the hose into the washing machine. It has a similar float mechanism to see high how the water is. You could use the drippy water in the machine, and then the machine will know when the float is high enough and it won't fill up any more.

I've heard before of people who get 55 gallon plastic drums and catch the rain water from their gutters. There are schematics on the internet somewhere...can't remember where...but the basic idea is that you put a spigot at the bottom of the drum so you can attach a water hose. Put a release valve at the top so if you get a gully washer the water has somewhere to dump out of...you could get another 55 gallon drum to catch the water coming out of the first drum, but this probably would only be necessary in very wet parts of the world (i.e., not in the midwest right now). Then, you put the drum underneath the end of the rain gutter run-off. You need to run the rain gutter into the drum and seal it so that it is not a breeding ground for mosquitos. This will help keep the water cleaner too. Remember, this system is using gravity. If you want to water your lawn or other plants and be comfortable, you need to have the level of the water higher than the level of your hand that is holding the hose, or else the water won't run out. So, you may need to build a sturdy (water is HEAVY) platform to put the water barrel up high enough.

[cptacek]

Oh, and when I was growing up, our water heater didn't work for a while. So, we had a five gallon bucket in the shower. We had to boil the water and then add it to the 5 gallon bucket and then add cold water from the faucet. We had a gallon measuring cup with a handle and took showers using that...pour water on yourself, lather up, pour water on yourself to rinse off. A lot quicker showers and a lot lower bills.

[Kris10Leigh]

Cptacek, you are a wealth of information! Thank you so much! I personally do not wish to take showers like that, but that is very useful tip for someone who may. I am going to use the toilet flushing tip! That's a really good one! My poor husband is going to think I've lost my mind.

[Kris10Leigh]

I posted this in another thread, but it fits both places.

I just used the collected water from my dripping faucet to get dishes ready for the dishwasher. Usually I stand there with the water running while scrubbing food off the dishes getting them ready for the dishwasher. Tonight, I filled the sink with the collected drip water and rinsed them off in there. The water got filthy, of course, but they ARE going into the dishwasher, so who cares?

[rob62521]

Do you have a freezer that has some empty areas? You could use the water in empty jugs and put in the freezer to make it more economical plus you would have these frozen jugs in case the power went out or if you needed to put something in the cooler and wouldn't have to use ice.

[Kris10Leigh]

Oooooh, I like that one too, Rob. Thanks.

[getforfree]

Too bad, my freezer is always full. Whenever I find something on really good sale, almost free, I would buy tons, and freeze most of it. Right now I still have about 30 lbs of ground frozen turkey, which cost me 49c for every 20oz with the coupons. I bought 50+ lbs of it, couple weeks ago. Then I also have about 3 lbs frozen berries, which I picked a few weeks ago. I have bread there, some cooked meals----tons of all kinds of good stuff.

I was thinking about getting an extra freezer, but then I don't have any space for it, and it will use extra electricity, which I don't want to splurge on.

[rob62521]

Actually, you are smart to have a full freezer. So my tip isn't much help. Sorry!

[getforfree]

But it might be a good help for someone else. My feezer is full because I even freeze some items that would normally be kept in the frige, but because I bought lots of it, I freeze it so it wouldn't spoil.

[getforfree]

They will place a meter on my water a month or 2 from now. But now I am paying flat rate, so should I stock up on water now? But how? I am already planning to do my laundry, including all the bedding with comforters a few days before they would place a meter, if I will know the exact day. I hope, they will tell me the exact day at least a week in advance.

[rob62521]

Dear Get,

I think whatever you could do to stock up on water or use it, would put you a little ahead of the game.