No van kitchen is complete without a sink!
It took me waaaaay too long to make this video, however, it is worth the wait. This is a walkthrough of how we did the sink/gray water set up in the van. I'm going to complain a lot about the electric pump, however I have been using it for almost a year now and it's done a very good job at doing what it is supposed to do. If you don't want to mess around with a foot pump then this is a really good solution for you. Enjoy!
*Note* Something to consider is where you will dump your water tanks! As much as I can I dump mine in RV dump stations, camp bathrooms, or down the gutters. However, this isn't always possible and sometimes I dump my water in remote areas. It's important to note I only have 5 gallons of water so my impact is very low. However, if you have really big tanks I would not recommend dumping them on the ground. Do your best to deal with your greywater ethically!
Materials Used
Process
Step 1: Cut the hole in the madrone slab. This was stressful and very slow going.
Step 2: Mount the sink and caulk around the edges to keep it as water tight as possible. The sink in the van was dug out of a friends trash pile, washed, disinfected and then mounted, so I don't have a link for that.
Step 3: Gather plastic pipe! The bottom of the sink came with a drain attachment, so I would just recommend taking your sink to the hardware store and finding the right size for your particular sink. The 'U' bend in the sink is an attempt to create a water seal so the greywater tank doesn't stink up the van, however I don't think it actually works because I can tell when the tank is getting full by how smelly it gets.
Step 4: Mount the pump and hook it up to the electrical. We spliced in a switch so the pump isn't on the whole time, if I start to run out of water I can turn the pump off. It makes this really loud buzzing sound when the tank is empty because it's still trying to suck water, so I always know when I'm running out!
Trying to show where the wires coming out of the back of the pump
Switch!
Step 5: Test the system out! Check for leaks and remember to use your water treatment stuff so things break up in your tanks more easily.
Conclusion
The sink/greywater tanks set up was a bit more complicated than I would have liked. Michael did most of the work on it because at the time I was finishing up my senior thesis. He did a really good job setting up the system so we could have water anytime we needed. The 5 gallon containers are my favorite part of this system, they are easy to fill up and easy to empty. My only recommendation is to consider a foot pump instead of just an electric pump.
