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

Trying to show where the wires coming out of the back of the pump

Switch!

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. 

 

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