Washing Machine Water Usage

[Ralph1Malph]

Hi All,
I was amazed today to actually figure out how much clothes washing our family does.
Some months ago, I plumbed our 5000L rainwater tank to the washing machine. Nothing else, just the washing machine. Now, due to where the takeoff outlet is, just below 1/4 of the way up, I'd say there is about 4200L usable litres.
So, it last rained here in June, which filled the tank to overflow. We are now, at the end of August, nearly down to the outlet. The pump will soon suck air!

In 10-12 weeks, my family has done approx 4000L of clothes washing!
Astonishing.
Even more incredible, is the fact that our washing machine is a front loader, bosch, a bit old now but still uses only between 40 and 60 litres per cycle.

Some simple math and we have done approx 100 loads in around 80 days. (assume avg 50L per load to keep the math easy)

BUT...our recent water bill did have around 3800L less usage than last time! So at least the water is now free!

Gunna invest in a second tank if I can find the funds, but prob have to reconnect to mains this weekend. When I fitted the outlet to the 1/4 way hole to allow for settling of debris, I never thought we'd run out of water so used a bung not a tap on the lower hole. I am considering fitting a second tap to this hole to be able to garner that last 1000L next time.

Who'd have thought!

Ralph

[Davehoos]

the number on our new front loader samsung 8 KG is 68 liters.
average wash.

wife tells me we do 10 30 min wash and 2 long [heavy] wash per week.
2 adults-2 children-1 toddler.


2 meters of rain fall per year on small home with dodgey gutters.
catch of about 1/3 of the house as the tanks mostly over flows.

we run a 5000 gallon concrete tank for all our water needs the rarely drops bellow half.in 20 years ive borrowed water 3 times from other tanks
another 5000 gallon and i wouldnt expect to have needed extra water.

puchased town water twice due to faulty plumbing.
recently I have run a hose from sisters extra storage tank.to flush sediment out of the tank and drain off her tanks.

most of my neighbours buy in water each year.


you need to pump well off the bottom of the tank,even with dirt flushing down pipes.

[PhilipA]

Ntice how nobody on town water cares about water any more since the drought is over?

Regards Philip A

[Tote]

We're on town water and since our 10 year old top loader died six months ago we have been using an even older top loading Simpson that we inherited when we bought the house.
Our water bill has increased by about $80 a quarter since we started using the old machine.
I hooked up the old machine to a approximately 4000 gallon underground tank and it emptied it in 5weeks with no rainfall.

regards,
Tote

[PhilipA]

Funny, but I have an old Simpson which is probably now about 15 years old. Our average water usage is about 115L per person per day, which is 17L per day under the guidelines during the drought. This is for 2 retired people and we have a 5000L tank which I currently do not use for the washing, and we don't water the "garden" . Our water bill is $60 per year which is mostly distribution charge.

During the drought several of our friends raced out and bought front loaders , and the wives have since bitterly complained to my wife that they hate them.
During the drought ,the stores could not give away top loaders, but look at the ads now and see that top loaders seem to feature equally or more prominently than front loaders so I think many wives have rebelled.

I am often amused to see that the TV stations just keep on reporting dam levels at 98% or whatever in Sydney and Brisbane. Who cares when it is that high? So much for Tim ( Hawkesbury waterfront) Flannery and "it will never rain again". We will have droughts again no doubt, but the REAL problem is population growth with no new dams.
Regards Philip A

[superquag]

What about a twin-tub for the ultimate in water-saving.... ?

[PhilipA]

We are currently staying in a friend's unit at Kirra with a brand new all singing all dancing front loader Samsung 7 Kg.
It takes 1hr 30 minutes to do a load!!!!( vs our old Simpson which takes about 40 minutes)
It is currently washing our second load and my wife is going berserk that she could not wait around all day while the thing washes.
However she concedes that it washes the clothes well.
Regard s Philip A

[austastar]

What about a twin-tub for the ultimate in water-saving.... ?

Hi,
we had one when first married, yes they don't use much and the soapy water can be recycled to the next wash.

When No.1 kid arrived however, the twin-tub was soon replaced with a top loader after a week or so of constant hands-on washing duties at the end of every cycle.

Water here is 0.9cents per 10L, so there is little incentive to not use it.

cheers

[OffTrack]

We are currently staying in a friend's unit at Kirra with a brand new all singing all dancing front loader Samsung 7 Kg.
It takes 1hr 30 minutes to do a load!!!!( vs our old Simpson which takes about 40 minutes)
It is currently washing our second load and my wife is going berserk that she could not wait around all day while the thing washes.
However she concedes that it washes the clothes well.
Regard s Philip A

Don't see what the big deal is? It's not like you have to stand and watch the machine for the entire time it takes to complete a cycle. Or do retirees do things like that???

[Ralph1Malph]

We are currently staying in a friend's unit at Kirra with a brand new all singing all dancing front loader Samsung 7 Kg.
It takes 1hr 30 minutes to do a load!!!!( vs our old Simpson which takes about 40 minutes)
It is currently washing our second load and my wife is going berserk that she could not wait around all day while the thing washes.
However she concedes that it washes the clothes well.
Regard s Philip A

Yes, ours has some fault or other and can take 2-3 hours . The fault is with a weight sensor and assumes every load is full and heavy duty. Sensor replacement is not economical. We put a load on and leave it. I usually put it on early in the morn before work, wife hangs clothes out when she gets home at lunch. Front loaders wash very well so I don't complain.