Hi Malcolm,

Are you wanting to pump wash water right into the drum of the machine? (if you have a top loading machine?) If so, there are many pump options- like a little sump pump with an on-off switch (not a float switch).

I never want to discourage creative ideas or the desire to save water, and at the same time I’m not sure this idea is the best way to save water. Often, when something is manual, it become tedious over time and is abandoned. And if you wanted to use wash water for the machine in an automated way, you’d need much more complex system to clean the water, to get it into the machine without creating what is called a cross-connection (a system than connects non-potable water into the same piping system as potable water, which could risk contaminating the potable supply).

There are other ways to save water in the washing, such as using rainwater, which is cleaner than greywater and easier to manage for indoor reuse.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually answer your question, but I hope this gives you some more ideas and input to consider as you plan a system.

Good luck with it!

Best wishes,

Laura

Hi Laura,

Thanks for that. We don’t get enough rain here to make rainwater a viable option. We used to live in Japan where decanting the tub water into the washing machine was a common practice so we’re happy doing the same thing here. I’ll just look for a small pump somewhere and try it out.

Thanks!

Malcolm