Quote:
Originally Posted by bennelson
Anyone have any suggestions for how I can fill and drain BOTH through the same hole?
If I can just have one hose permanently connected to the waterbed mattress, then it acts as a "bladder" with no place to leak out of!
I believe that this would also eliminate the need for a low point because the entire mattress would simply go down as it "deflates".
I am imagining some sort of a "T" a bit up a section of hose that connects to the mattress, but I am not sure exactly what or how I could connect the washer/filter and pump at the same time!
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If the mattress is on a platform and you have the mattress connection at the lowest point of the mattress with the T below that, then you won't be getting air into the mattress unless you've pumped all the water out of all your piping; and the mattress should act like a bladder.
Also if you're using a garden hose between the filter and the mattress, than you're probably right that a 5 gallon bucket won't be big enough to capture all the water (though thats the good thing about the overflow spout: if the mattress is full or the filter clogs or can't pass enough water, it goes into the sink). Though, maybe if the filter was in the bottom of that 30gal container: the washload of water could slowly filter down to the mattress, and if the mattress is full or you have to do two loads back to back then you move the washer hose to the original drain.
Something I just thought of: you may end up sucking air into your pump through your fill hose. If there's enough water in the mattress it may not be an issue, though I guess you won't know until you try. My only suggestion to counteract that if it is an issue would to make a "reservoir" of water available to the pump: for example, have some the fill line flow into some pvc pipe before the T, so there's much more water volume between the pump inlet and the static water level. (hope that makes sense)