Peeing in the shower goes, um, viral 7

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1. 

   peo Posted 11:55 am
   05 Aug 2009

   The problem in this tip is in the plumbing. Toilet plumbing includes drain/waste/vent pipes that prevent sewer gases from entering and control odors in the house and public facilities. The bend in the stool is full of water at all times to block the noxious fumes.Showers do not include such elegant controls. Urine in the tub drain builds up. Once the odor is there it remains making the bathroom (or gym shower room) a stinky place for years to come.Better to return to Umbra's original advice and reduce the number of times one flushes one's toilet to save water. Another bathroom water conservation tip is to keep a pail in the shower to catch shower water. Then dump water from the full pail into the toilet to flush. No need to touch the handle!  

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2. 

   katmainomad Posted 1:41 pm
   05 Aug 2009

   Huh? Showers do generally have these traps, if I am not mistaken? That's what those p-traps are for that are on every sink and tub in my house. Shower drains are still eventually connected to the rest of the house drain plumbing, and if they didn't have traps, sewer gases could wend their way back up to the shower whether or not you peed in it, just from the common sewer connection. Unless your house has a seperate gray-water system that has somehow not neccessitated this, but I'm guessing even grey water drains have traps to keep the rotting dead skin cells etc from festering and smelling up the house. In any case, I've always peed in the shower and I guarrantee that my partner would have complained if it smelled!I also highly recommend peeing in a jar and then dumping it on the outside compost - once you get in the habit it is quite easy and frees you to pee in any room of the house (as long as you don't overflow or somehow miss the jar!)

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3. 

   The smart one Posted 7:17 am
   06 Aug 2009

   I'm a woman, one who has peed in the shower for the last 35 years, and I assure you that my bathroom  does not smell like pee. The only time it ever smells that way is when some male visitor dribbles on the seat or floor.
   Why would pee stay in the trap, but not the shower water? How could the drain discriminate one kind of water from another? Sorry, Peo, but your argument doesn't, er, hold water.

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4. 

   pterantula Posted 6:51 am
   11 Aug 2009

   I recall reading a detailed article some time ago (can't recall the source just now) describing how you should NOT pee in the shower (or do anything else of a less 'sanitary' nature) because of the separation of greywater & blackwater systems. (Greywater is tubs & sinks, which many cities supposedly reclaim for household use, and blackwater is toilets, which goes to sewage.) As the article said, putting bio-watse in the greywater system adds contaminants that are not filtered out, and it makes its way back into the system, whereas sewage systems are (well, should be...) heavily filtered and treated.Any thoughts or comments on that? It could be incorrect, but it was something I had never heard of before.

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   1. 

      The Rev Posted 9:37 pm
      11 Aug 2009

      In most cases grey and blackwater go to the same sewage line.  This should be changed as you can use your grey water in most instances for other uses (flushing your toilet, watering plants, etc).  However, in most cases this would be a fairly expensive retrofit for most houses.

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5. 

   The smart one Posted 7:11 am
   11 Aug 2009

   The thing is that urine, unless one has an infection, is sterile. It shouldn't make any difference, grey, black, or clean.

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6. 

   kdro Posted 8:11 am
   12 Aug 2009

   Urine is a waste product containing the end results of filtering bad stuff from the blood. All sorts of toxins could be present and while urine may be sterile in the bladder, it will generally not be sterile as it leaves the body. Not what you want for greywater, which may be used to irrigate plants.The point is moot for most home plumbing anyway. Rare is the home that separates waste water into "black" and "grey". If you are a shower pee 'er and visit some "green" friends with a newer house, however, you may want to ask about split greywater, or just avoid the possible over contamination of their system by using the bowl.Washing machines are good greywater sources until you start washing baby diapers. I think these sorts of complexities is why very little greywater usage exists. The bucket in the shower for use in toilet flushing is a great idea.

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