Mary: This is my third video about my sink. It's an awesome
sink. But why am I making a third video about my sink?
Because now I have a whole new system. Let's check it out. And
if you're not interested in the sink, then just you know, let it
play in the background, hit the thumbs up and come back next
time because there'll be a whole other thing going on then.
When I built the bus in 2018, I knew I wanted a sink. Now you
don't necessarily need a sink. Lots of people in buses, vans
and other vehicles they don't bother putting in a sink. Kat
doesn't have a sink, for example. But I love this sink.
It originally came from my antique store in California.
It's made of ceramic, called Talavera pottery because it's
from the Talavera region of Mexico. This sink was one of the
first things I put in the bus. And it's still here two rebuilds
later. So I guess it's not going anywhere. Besides the cuteness I
do like being able to do all those sink-y kinds of things
like washing the dishes, easily in the bus. When I put it in, I
had no clue how I was gonna set up the water part of the sink.
It sat there for the first year I had the bus just kind of
waiting for me to figure things out. And I finally did.
In 2019, I installed a foot pump sink, and I made a video about it.
I chose that because it really was a very simple option.
See how easy that was?
Most people on the skoolie build groups and
stuff like that, were installing these 12 volt electric water
pumps, and they were hooked into their fancy electrical systems.
I don't have a fancy electrical system and back then I had no
electrical system. So a foot pump sink was the best option
for me.
A foot pump sink is just - just like it sounds, it's a foot pump.
You step on it, and water comes out of the faucet.
It's a pretty simple build, like plumbing lite or
not really - like, plumbing that isn't even really plumbing. And it doesn't
require a power source except your foot and I had a couple of
those. So I was good. At one point, I had to install a new
one because I let the water freeze in the system and that
broke the pump, which is why I have two videos about my sink.
If you want to put in a foot pump sink, watch one of those,
watch both of those, and they'll get the job done. And it's still
a really valid option especially because it really saves water
because you only get a spurt of water every time you step on it.
So yeah, it's really good for conserving water.
When I rolled the bus over, as we headed into the rebuild, I had to decide
whether to reinstall my foot pump sink or go in a little bit
of a different direction. I chose the foot pump sink
initially, like I said, because it was the simplest thing
available but a lot has changed in the five years I've had this
bus and that's - it's not the simplest option anymore.
See, a foot pump sink has multiple potential failure points. If
either the intake or the output hose isn't clamped just right,
you could have a leak. Or if the membrane or the pump itself
cracks, you can have a leak. You also need to add a faucet to the
system. And again, if the output hose isn't properly attached to
the faucet, then you're gonna have leaks so there's lots of
opportunities for it to leak.
This is a USB water pump.
There are dozens of these on Amazon like an eight to $20 range
mostly and they're designed for sitting on top of a five or
three gallon water bottle and they work great that way just
plunked right on there, hit the button and the water comes out.
I had gotten this one a few months earlier and I was using
it on top of a water bottle that was sitting on the counter. But
I decided when we were heading into the rebuild to install it
to work with the sink. See this is USB rechargeable, which is
really convenient. And if it breaks you just go on Amazon buy
another one because they're like 10 bucks. The old sink vanity
had gotten smashed up in the crash so I bought this dry sink
in Tucson with the plan of making it into a wet sink. Kat
Kat and Kathie spruced it up during the rebuild and Michael cut the
oval for the sink to fit into. I caulked it in there later. I
wanted the water pumped to sit next to the sink like a like a
regular faucet and Michael came up with a great idea for how to
mount it. He used a hole saw like this Hole Dozer of mine
that I love. And he used that to partly cut through.
The center drill made a hole big enough for the hose to wind down into while
the hole cutter blade made an indentation that was like the
same size as the bottom of the pump.
I ended up getting a new water pump, though, because this one, which you know I had it for a while,
it started behaving really strangely after the crash.
When you hit the button it wouldn't stop anymore. You
could start the water but then we just keep coming out and then
sometimes it would just randomly turn itself on, just spit a
little water out, so I ordered this one. I love this one.
Largely because it is yellow like my beautiful refrigerator.
It also comes in a lot of different colors so you can get
it in any color you want. It fits perfectly in the same
indentation that Michael made for the other one. I replaced
the hose with a longer hose that I bought separately on Amazon.
And I'll show you why. Let's look at how it works.
The hose runs down through this hole and comes out here under the sink,
the old hose was short, so it could only pull water out of this
three gallon jug to about the halfway point. And then I'd have
to pick up the five gallon jug and pour water from the five
gallon jug into the three gallon jug to fill it back up. And this
jug is heavy. Water, water is heavy. So the new hose I put on
is long enough to reach all the way to the bottom of the five
gallon jug without me having to move the jug. So I can for the
most part, empty this entire bottle. And then when that's
empty, I can take the hose out and put it in the three gallon
jug. And then I can drain that one to the bottom too.
I'll tell you about this other bottle in a minute. After both of these are
empty, I switch out bottles, I keep another five gallons up
front. And then when all of it's empty, I go to a water kiosk.
Most of the water stations here in the desert towns have five
gallons for a buck. So you know to fill up all of this is under
three bucks. How much water you carry is really going to be up
to you. I carry a total of 13 gallons, because it's pretty
much all I have room for. That's broken out into two five gallon
jugs and one three gallon, I would have all fives but this
space here is slightly narrower because of the wheel well and
the five gallon jug is just a hair too wide. Now Kat, on the
other hand, she's got two dogs, and one of them drinks like a
couple of gallons of water a day.
So she carries, I don't know, like 85 million gallons of water but she doesn't have a
sink. So she prefers to keep her water in one gallon jugs because
they're easier to pick up and pour out of. I could fit a lot
more water under here if I chose to. But I'm using the other side
of the undersink area for my toilet, which is also new. And
I'll tell you about that in another video. Captain is tiny
and he doesn't drink much. And I drink a lot of these things,
these carbonated waters. You can really do water any way you
want. But if you want to sink that feels like something like a
sink in a house, a version of what I've done here is really
going to be a good option. And the build is so easy that it
feels weird to even call it a build. Up here, all you do hit
the button and you get water. If I hit this button, I get 600
milliliters which is like 20 ounces. So I'll use that if I'm
filling up a pot to make pasta. But otherwise, I use this
button. You push it once to start it. Push it again to stop
it. It just feels like a regular sink. Except it doesn't have hot
water. I have a different system for hot water but I rarely use
it because unlike this setup, it's not simple. It requires 12
volt power, it requires propane, I use it only for showers. And
if I need a small quantity of hot water I just heat it up on
the stove. I'll show you the shower system in another video.
This little one gallon jug here. This is where my grey water
goes. After I wash the dishes or drain the pasta or whatever the
water runs down the drain. And the drain pipe on this is a
dishwasher hose. It's just connected to the drain and it
runs down the drain and into this bottle. If you saw the foot
pump sink videos, I had a big blue four gallon thing. And I
don't have that because I don't have that kind of space in this
setup. Plus, I decided it's better to use my space for
actual drinking water. I only keep a one gallon bottle here
for now. I'll get a bigger one if I find like a two gallon
that's narrow enough to fit there, but it's kind of a good
thing because I don't like to let the grey water sit for a
really long time because it can get a little smelly. Though it
gets a lot less smelly since Skoolie Carol told me to put a
little white vinegar in the bottom. Thank you Skoolie Carol,
that works great. The one gallon size is very easy to empty. I
make a point of using environmentally safe soaps so
that if I have to dump any of my little grey water bottle out
here in the desert, I don't feel guilty about that. I do it if
that's necessary. But if you're planning to use more
conventional detergents, it's better to dump it down a toilet
or at an RV dump station and that's what I do if I have the
option, even with with the soaps I'm using. If you want details
about setting up the actual sink and the drain and all that
stuff, watch the other videos because I go in a lot more
detail about the drain in those but it's very simple. It's a
regular sink drain attached to a flexible plastic drain hose -
last time I used a washing machine hose - running into the
grey water bottle. That's, that's pretty much it. If you
think this setup could work for you, there's links in the
description that are going to show you how to buy all the
things that I used here. I can't get you my exact cute sink but I
did put links to a couple of Talavera sinks on Amazon. You
don't even need a real sink to do this though. I mean you can
just use it a big bowl or a metal trough type thing or even
a little plastic wash basin, you know, mount that into a sink or
just pull it out and use it as a sink. I'll be showing you the
whole rebuild soon, along with the transmission story. I bet
you're waiting for that one and what a story that is! Plus more
travels from '22, new travels, a million other things. So
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