It's A Laundry Room Miracle!

(photo of bucket over drainpipe)

Here’s what I’ve had to step over every day (who am I kidding - like three times a week, tops) since we moved in three years ago. Tonight, I decided to run a little experiment. Duly documented and photographed, of course. I’ll spare you the worst parts, LOL. I used the Aware Eco Choice washing powder as described in the previous post, in the amount suggested (three tablespoons).

This is the drain. We’ve tried to pry this little baby open innumerable times. I took this picture as a ‘control’, fully expecting to be knee deep in water by the second rinse.

(photo of drain in floor)

I watched it like a hawk. Not a single trace of a bubble appeared…for the entire cycle! I took some pictures of the inside of the washing machine but once you’ve seen one of those, you’ve seen them all really, LOL. There were hardly any noticeable suds in the water and I was beginning to wonder if it was doing anything to the clothes at all. I wasn’t so concerned after I saw the drain water:

(dark water)

YUK. I timed the different parts of the wash cycle so that I would know when to collect the final rinse water if I ever decided to use it for grey watering. The sink is too small to collect it all and we’re not ready to put in any kind of permanent grey water system so it would be hand-collection for starters. See the little hole in the top right hand corner? That black hose hanging down usually fits in there and drains directly into the pipes under the house, leaving the sink (usually) empty. I’d set the timer (now that I know at what point in the cycle the water begins to drain) and drain it into some sort of really big container outside the door you see in the top picture, then fill the watering cans from that.

At first, I thought the black icky water can’t have been good for even the garden…until I realised that was just the first rinse. This is much better:

(light water)

Question - this is the last rinse cycle, so is this okay for general garden use (it did have a small amount of suds, as you can see) and more specifically, for vegetables? I’m yet to research this fully but I was hoping I could do a little container gardening when spring hits down here in a few months but I don’t know how grey water affects things you’d later eat. Being an eco powder the ingredients are biodegradeable, but I don’t know.

Bottom line, I’m very happy the suds issue seems to have disappeared with this particular powder. Clearly the dirt was lifting even without the suds, although one item I threw in with this load as a ‘tester’ didn’t fare so well. It was slightly-more-than-average dirty including a tough stain so perhaps I was a little excited - next time I’d pre-soak. I’ll try another load using ‘regular-dirty’ clothes (spilt food, etc). On the fragrance side of things, I was quite used to the strong ’softener’ smell with the BioZet so it was quite refreshing not having that smell about. Tomorrow I’ll run a similar load with a similar amount of BioZet to confirm the differences but I liked what I saw tonight :)

And thus ends another scintillating Monday in Lizzie’s Home, LOL.

Later that evening…
I ran a load using our regular BioZet washing powder but I used exactly the recommended amount (ie, the same as the Aware Eco). There was the merest slip of a bubble just visible under the drain guard but none made it to the surface. Hmmm, confusing. I can’t help but think this was partly due to the very cold breeze coming in through the laundry room door…I could see some of the bubbles popping as if someone had blown on them. And yes, I’m aware that I’m probably developing a reputation as the Crazy Bubble Lady, LOL. Signing out.