Con Rpts said what?

[warmsecondrinse]

"Are we using too much water?"

I recall seeing some articles from the UK a few years ago in which it was stated that conventional urinals use far more water per person per year than washers do.

Yes, I know there're many factors involved with calculating water usage by a urinal so numbers vary greatly. However, all were a good bit higher than even the highest washer use estimate. Perhaps one of our UK members has read something about this.

My point is that if the interest in water conservation were genuine, washers and dishwashers would not be such major targets.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Urinals

I've not read anything in particular, but I know from experience.

As most blokes will know, conventional urinals had an overhead cistern, either visible or hidden behind panelling. The cistern usually trickle-filled, and emptied by syphoning, pretty much the same way that fabric conditioner compartments flush in front loading automatics. The problem was that with urinals, gallons of water were wasted throughout the day.

Different organisations and businesses have reached different solutions. Some pubs, hotels and council offices seem to have "Water-Mizer" type valves fitted to the fill pipe of the urinal - I presume operated either by infrared sensor detection, or more usually by a timer.

Government departments have a different policy: switch off the water completely, and call them "waterless"! I kid you not. Periodically the cleaners would pop-in and pour buckets of water with disinfectant solution down the urinals. Chlorine bleaches were banned by the department - only approved detergents could be used.

 

[cuffs054]

Wow Warm, I must be heading for a real problem. Not only does the Tag use no water, but I'm approaching the age when I'll be peeing in my BVD's!  Oh, the humanity!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I read several years ago about this super eco-efficient building with a green roof and the urinals were waterless; they just drained down. Well, with no water to dilute the pee, it ate through the pipes and the bathrooms smelled like something out of the third world. They had had to tear into the walls to redo the plumbing.

 

[mrboilwash]

I think CU`s statment is as usual way too general, lacking the details. There have been water hogs out there which gave excellent results and others that didn`t. Same is true for the frugal washers with more "rubbing action".
But even if it was only propaganda it is still a given fact that some parts of the USA have been facing serious water shortages for a long time. I guess some here just don`t give a s**t whether there`s a single drop left in Colorado River for the Mexicans or not.

Jerrod, my parents have a similar setup in the basement, a chamber with a pump where the washer is connected to because the sewer line is located above.
My Mom is rather frugal with detergent but she loves her fabric softener in abundance. We need to clean out the chamber about once in a year because a lot of lint accumulates which the pump fails to pump out but there is no such thing as black oily slime. I believe your plumber didn`t know what he`s talking about. The phenomenon you describe sounds like you`re having a severe build up of a bio film from a mixture of bacteria, sebum and soil from clothes, detergents, lint and so on. This has in my opinion nothing to to whether the detergents are derived from petrochemicals or from natural fats and oils. I suspect the reason my Mom is not facing a similar problem is because she is doing boilwashes on a regular basis. I wonder if an occasional use of chlorine might solve your problem.

Earthling, I think you are spot on when you say just because detergents and fabric softeners are made from fats and oils does not mean they *contain* the original fats anymore only that the fats were reacted with other chemicals to make the product. One thing I don`t agree with is that the cationic surfactants used as the main "active substance" in FS (those ester quats) are still derived from tallow, palm oil, coconut oil. However mineral oil as a raw material for FS and the resulting cationic surfactant DSDMAC has been fallen out of favour in the early 90s because of poor biodegradability and besides it had a much more pronounced negative effect on absorbance of fibers, but all kinds of natural oils are still used to produce the surfactants.

 

[uncledave]

Wether one is" running out of water" or not is wholly dependent on where you live.

We pay an awful lot for water in Southern California.

We nearly depleted the Sierra system last year and were lucky to have the first wet season in a decade fill everything up. The water municipalities switched us over to the Colorado systems much harder water and its been a relief to go back to the softer water.

UD

 

[jerrod6]

The manual for my machine says not to use chlorine bleach so I don't in the loads,but I do pour It down the sink once a week just so it will go into the pump.

I am no longer going to worry about what's in the sump, it will be what it is. Thank you all for suggestions