Off grid water question

T

TSPIRI

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Montreal, CANADA
I've got a moose hunting camp that runs on a generator. Our water supply is pumped while the genny is running but at night we have no water at all. With 6 hunters sharing a toilet we need a source of water so we can flush the toilet at night. I was thinking of maybe mounting a barrel up as high as possible under the roof and using gravity to fill the toilet at night. My question is if the water is about 6 -8 feet higher than the toilet tank will it have enough water pressure to fill the toilet? I'm the youngest hunter in the group at 36 and the next youngest hunter is in his 60's... there are a lot of trips to the can at night. We tried filling a bucket to flush the tank at night but it's not enough. I figure I can just put a "T" fitting between the valve and my toilet supply and the other end of the "T" can go to my gravity fed supply. So if i have 2 valves I can choose which supply runs my toilet and if both valves are open I can also refill my gravity system.

Does anybody follow? sorry for going on and on I've just been thinking about all this for a while now and I didn't want to do all this and have it not work out.
 
Enough pressure won't be an issue, you need zero pressure aside from gravity to fill the toilet's tank which even a drum on pallets beside the toilet could do. Unless you don't have a tank and flapper on your toilet...? Or just have two five gallon buckets of water beside the toilet and fill the tank by hand at night.

I'm blown away there are hunt camps with toilets by the way!
 
Water pressure is 1/2 lb per foot in heigth
8 feet up = 4 psi
Have you thought of putting in a large or larger pressure tank
or a dual flush toilet ?
 
As far as pressure goes water will siphon no matter what as long as the source is higher. There are plumbers on this board that are far more knowledgable than I. Have you considered a port-potty for night time use? Save a lot of BS.

Scooped
 
Thanks for all the replies. And as far as the flushing toilets in a hunt camp comment yes we have all the conveniences of home. As I said the hunters in my group are all older men the oldest is in his mid seventies roughing it ended years ago.
I'm happy you guys read through my post and we're able to figure out what I was rambling about.
 
Hey Tspiri,
Couple of thoughts, being an off grid kinda guy myself...
Problem with a regular flush toilet and a say 45 gallon gravity feed is guaranteed the bloody float or seat valve in the toilet will leak, rapidly draining your barrel and pissing off the next guy going for a deuce.
Best bet would be what you describe, but instead of plumbing to the regular 1/4" or so fitting to the toilet tank just pop the lid and use a ball valve with a fixed 1/2" or so hose to fill the toilet tank, when you need to flush, fill the toilet tank as much as you need then let her rip. Put a piece of tape on the inside with markings and you could make a game of how much water you needed to flush, I'd bet most of the old guys don't need much (we call it rye butt in sask)!
The genny part sucks, with the price of solar panels etc dropping like a rock you might want to go with a better setup eventually, silence is golden...let me know if you need info on a simple solar setup, been there etc...
Cheers
 
Last edited:
Kamlooky
Yah, that's what I got, unfortunately the 45 drum ####ter is now near full. Winter in sask, need a stick to knock the #### cone down so it don't poke you in the personal bits when you sit down. My boys are fine with it, they find it funny, wife and girls, not so much!
 
You will have no issues filling the tank. The only problem is that, depending on height, it may take longer if you have less pressure. If it is a real problem, you could use a diamond bit and drill the supply hole on the tank larger, then use a bigger hose to fill the toilet. Going from 3/8 in. supply to 3/4" would more than quadruple the volume of water entering the tank.
 
Neo said:
Ardent -- You can tell Ted now that the next time I climb up a mountain looking for goats, I expect to find a flush toilet waiting for me. He'd best start packing one up the hill! :)
Click to expand...

I'll get him right on that project and call it training for the season! And I'll get Luke packing the bidet. :d

To the OP we're not making fun of the luxuries, I would probably flush that toilet and clap madly, then have to do it again for the novelty. Pretty neat to have such luxuries.
 
Bidet, fruck, pewt yer arse in the krick.
Might make yer eyes.........................................:sok2
and frawst yer bawls, but heck, hunt'in izz bowing
in tuh Mah Nayture.

Bidddaye.................aye?........................ H:S:
 
your query got me thinking about my camp. The trips out back are not something I look forward to in cold weather. (not getting any younger)
I could do the same thing because we have a toilet in the woodshed that used to be used by the ladies years back but then I thought where is the flush going to go?
You must have a holding tank of sorts plumbed away some distance and buried ?
 
At my cabin I use the following:
four 200 liter plastic barrels with the heads cut out of them, with a 3/4 inch hole drilled about 2 inches from the bottom
3/4 inch thru-hulls from a marine store, 2 bucks each
buy 3/4 inch clear RV hose, plastic elbows and tees, hose clamps, and plumb all four barrels together and put them on a somewhat level area or stand so now all barrels will fill at the same time
eaves trough from the cabin fills the barrels
one barrel on the end has a second thru hull for the outflow hose
flo jet 12 volt pressure pump (about $120), can be bought at a marine or RV store, fittings are with the pump. Plumb the pump to the toilet tank
I have the pump hooked to a 12 battery with a solar panel.
When you flush the toilet, the pump will cut in, fill the tank, and cut out when the tank is full. I have installed a low flush toilet (6 litre, I think)
All goes to the septic tank
Been using this a few years now because it was not much fun carrying 5 gallon buckets to flush since we usually have 9-10 people at a time over a weekend.
800 litres gives me around 130 flushes, but we don't usually use that much, if unless we are eating a lot of Mexican lol
 
Like I said the hunters in our group are aged 63 to 73 I am the exception at 36 so to keep these old guys hunting as long as possible we have these little luxuries. Yes we have a holding tank buried for our waste water. The municipality insisted on it and it would have been installed even if they hadn't asked for one. We are trying to keep our camp clean and limit the damage we do to the area

It's decided I'm going to mount one 55 gallon tank on its side as high up along my roof line and whatever pressure I get should be enough to get it done. It may not be ideal bit it'll do and the system will be easy to fill as well so that's another bonus. 1 barrel will be more than enough to get through the night I figure we should be able to get 30 to 40 flushes out of one tank so unless we all get a bad case of the runs we should be fine.

Thanks for the advice boys!
 
TSPIRI said:
I've got a moose hunting camp that runs on a generator. Our water supply is pumped while the genny is running but at night we have no water at all. With 6 hunters sharing a toilet we need a source of water so we can flush the toilet at night. I was thinking of maybe mounting a barrel up as high as possible under the roof and using gravity to fill the toilet at night. My question is if the water is about 6 -8 feet higher than the toilet tank will it have enough water pressure to fill the toilet? I'm the youngest hunter in the group at 36 and the next youngest hunter is in his 60's... there are a lot of trips to the can at night. We tried filling a bucket to flush the tank at night but it's not enough. I figure I can just put a "T" fitting between the valve and my toilet supply and the other end of the "T" can go to my gravity fed supply. So if i have 2 valves I can choose which supply runs my toilet and if both valves are open I can also refill my gravity system.

Does anybody follow? sorry for going on and on I've just been thinking about all this for a while now and I didn't want to do all this and have it not work out.
Click to expand...

We own a off grid cabin with a drilled well and the water is pumped with a genny to a water holding tank of about 500 gallons that is 20 yards away and about 10 feet above the cabin and is gravity fed. The cabin toilet tanks fills slow, about 3 minutes, so with just two persons using the toilet for number 2 once a day maybe twice is not a problem. For number 1 I go outside and the wife flushes every 3rd visit. We also have an outhouse that we use most of the time plus it's a nicer view with the occasional deer walking by or a squirrel saying Hello.
 
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