What Mistakes Are Made With Grey Water Systems
In the past, very few households used grey water for irrigation purposes and those households that did, made use of “home engineered” systems that were very basic in design and often lead to very high failure rates. These old grey water systems may have been simple and cheap to make yet were also very ineffective in the long run.

The are many reasons home designed systems normally did not work. Here are a few:

1.The homeowner did not consider a “return to sewer” facility whereby any water build up and excess water was diverted back to the sewer. Homeowners soon learnt the hard way when in 2008/9 Eskom cut the power to the pumps during load shedding.

The result was the flooding of the interior of the home (shower backed up ankle deep and water often pored over the rim) or the garden was flooded

2. More often than not a simple system will not effectively filter hair or other solids out of the grey water. The result-burnt out pump or unhygienic debris on the lawn. Pumps hate hair and simple filters block too easily
 

3. The homemade gravity fed system could not cope with the amount of water leaving the bathroom. This resulted in family members standing ankle deep in the shower or a bath that takes 15 minutes to empty. The result – flooding, wet bath mat and cold ankles4. Systems designed by the homeowner often did not have automated pumps and had to rely on gravity to get the water to the garden. The result – great if your garden is much lower than the home but gravity fed systems limit your irrigation field dramatically.

5. Water exiting the home by gravity, left huge pools of stagnating water at the bottom of the garden. The result – nasty odours, the ideal breeding ground for vermin including mosquitoes and the growth of pathogens. Unhappy neighbours were not uncommon

6. A basic grey water rule. Never store grey water. Homeowners, often with valid intentions utilised huge storage tanks often as much as 5000 litres,to conserve their grey water for later use. The result – unsightly water tanks that are a serious health concern.

The Garden ResQ range of products eliminated the pitfalls experienced by homeowners who attempted to design their own system. Some succeeded but many more did not. Its a question of why reinvent the wheel. There are efficient and realistic priced products available in South Africa. Why not draw on our years of grey water experience and give us a try. You, like thousand of other Garden ResQ grey water reuse clients, will not be disappointed.