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Outdoor Wash Station / Sink ideas?

 
master gardener
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I have been considering either purchasing or building an outdoor wash station.



I'm currently considering building a 2x4 frame for some used stainless steel sink and creating a sink hookup via garden hose attachment. I would capture water utilized by letting it drop into a bucket.



Ultimately, I would like something to rinse/clean produce primarily. It would also be nice to clean up hands if getting especially dirty without having to go inside.

Has anybody done something similar? Do you like it? Do you use it?

Thanks to all replies in advanced.
 
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Have you considered a longer drying area  to store and drip dry more things?
You maybe able to capture and reuse any soil as well.
 
Timothy Norton
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That is a great idea; I am still in the planning stages and looking for suggestions just like this.

I have some space located over some chipped ground that would be perfect to drip dry onto. I am currently limited on locating the sink setup by where I can get a hose to. I'm unsure if I should place it closer to the garden itself or just outside the home where the veggies would eventually end up in.
 
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It's a good idea.

Consider scrounging the sink -- I regularly see stainless steel with taps attached at the local take-it-or-leave-it, or in the metal recycling bin within easy reach. This solves a lot of problems. Cut the fitting off the metal supply hose and clamp on a chunk of garden hose with a standard connector. I did this with a free laundry sink. Worked fine.

Drainage can be a challenge. At my parents' place, I'm going to dig a couple of 3' postholes with an auger and fill them with coarse washed rock. Should last forever.
 
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Are we dreaming here, Timothy??? If so, I'd like one with either a foot or knee control so I can use both hands to do the important stuff, and not get dirty hands on the spigots.

My outdoor sink is used when processing ducks/chickens/geese, so that hands-free thing has been on my wish list for years now.

I would suggest you consider old laundry sinks as options also. They're great if you need to clean a lot of stuff at once.
 
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While we were building.finishing our house, I had an outdoor dish-washing station.

I have also used a lot at campgrounds.

This is as simple as a garden hose, an board set on two saw horses and two dishpans.

What I like most about the one we had while building/finishing our house was that I got to watch the deer that got to watch me.  Fun, fun, fun ...



 
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Jay Angler wrote:Are we dreaming here, Timothy??? If so, I'd like one with either a foot or knee control so I can use both hands to do the important stuff, and not get dirty hands on the spigots.



If you ran the water pipe somewhere within reach of your knees, you could use a standard lever-valve to start/stop the water flow.

Lever valve for water pipe

A quick google also brought up these push-operated valves from the crooks over at 'we cut down the amazon':

Push-operated valve for water pipe

It seems like a pretty realisable dream - assuming you have decent water pressure.
 
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Neat! I wonder if there'd be value in using an old bathtub for this. You could have removable drying racks/screens above 2/3 of it and do primary washing above the other third. But you'd then also have the option of plugging it for soaking if you even want to do that. (I'm imagining retting stems for fiber extraction or scouring wool or maybe even brewing weed/compost tea, but other things will come to mind once this is in place. You could also spray off a lot more carrots or whatever all at once. The limitation of where to put it based on the hose seems a little weak since you could just add another hose or two -- though I grant it's a drag to clean up all my damn hoses every time I want to mow.
 
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I put my first (and largest) rain collection barrel up on a platform, and drilled a tap into it, with a faucet like the red-handled one in the post above, with a hose that quick-clips onto it.
The platform is kind of like a pallet, with space for me to rest baskets on, and has a smaller platform at foot level for watering cans or buckets or whatever (the whole thing is on a slope, so i needed to make a platform so they can stay level).
The whole thing is directly above a garden bed, which is one i never have to irrigate as i'm always washing something there.

I can manipulate the faucet with my knee if i need to (yucky hands) and it's my first hand-washing station after garden fun. Also a great place for washing fresh-picked produce. the only drawback is it's only the gravity pressure, and i'm limited to the volume of rain accumulated. it's probably the best thing i did in this garden so far.
 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Jay Angler wrote:Are we dreaming here, Timothy??? If so, I'd like one with either a foot or knee control so I can use both hands to do the important stuff, and not get dirty hands on the spigots.

My outdoor sink is used when processing ducks/chickens/geese, so that hands-free thing has been on my wish list for years now.  


Great idea! It's an off-the-rack item. Search for "foot pedal valve faucet".

Edit: Luke beat me to it. I need to refresh the page before I post!

foot-pedal-valve-faucet.png
Thar She Blows!
Thar She Blows!
 
Timothy Norton
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Jay Angler wrote:Are we dreaming here, Timothy??? If so, I'd like one with either a foot or knee control so I can use both hands to do the important stuff



This is a great recommendation, it was not even on my radar as being something I should look at.

I can't tell you how many times my hands have been covered in something and I HAVE to dirty the handles. I'm going to look parts and pieces but it seems like a straight forward concept!
 
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I would love to have one for sure! I can see getting a ton of use out of it. The guy who makes stuff at Planet Whizbang, Herrick Kimball, had me intrigued with this toe-tapper switch (sadly, no longer available for now). I am not super handy with stuff like that, but if I was, this would be at the top of my list for sure.
 
Jay Angler
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Timothy Norton wrote:This is a great recommendation, it was not even on my radar as being something I should look at.

I can't tell you how many times my hands have been covered in something and I HAVE to dirty the handles. I'm going to look parts and pieces but it seems like a straight forward concept!

Glad you approve, Tim.

We looked on the web at one point, but that was over 5 years ago and didn't seem to find any. I think they became much more "main-stream" when we were all getting nagged about hand-washing to discourage viral transmission. It was easy to find fancy electronic sensor ones which don't work reliably with my hands (I'm not just a Dinosaur with computer stuff - *all* electronic stuff is hit and miss with me - wrong magnetic resonance!)

For people who don't want to go the foot root, Luke's first picture showing a lever style shut-off is also awesome. If it's fastened down, or is one of the fancier kitchen faucets where a lever handle is an option, some of those can at least be elbow operated. I would never buy round handles again as I find they're much harder to keep clean.

It may be possible to find used versions of kitchen faucets if you look in the right places...
 
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Oh, I LOVE this idea! Especially with the foot lever! Almost invariably, when I try to hit the kitchen sink (which I already hate to do, if my hands are covered in whatever farmish stuff I've been doing!) John is cooking. Um. Ewww... Seems like it would also be a great addition to an outdoor/summer kitchen!
 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Jay Angler wrote:For people who don't want to go the foot root, Luke's first picture showing a lever style shut-off is also awesome. If it's fastened down, or is one of the fancier kitchen faucets where a lever handle is an option, some of those can at least be elbow operated .


I think old-school surgical scrub sinks had oversize lever handles that could be shut off with an elbow. (I watched a lot of MASH in the long long ago haha.)
 
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To free yourself from pressurized hoses and dirty handles, this can be used anywhere: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S59ULW0?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details


I've built two sink setups with this model, the hoses running from a 5ish gallon bucket/pot and to a piece of brake line bent to resemble a kitchen sink faucet and bolted to the opening on a sink.

I like it a bit better than the ones used at Wheaton Labs. Those seemed to produce more water flow per pump, but their complexity also seemed associated with more failures (though mileage on those was also likely much higher). The simple round one also gives a bit of control over the rate of flow depending on how much pressure you place on the diaphragm.

I do like that the pressurized valve ones are all metal though. Whichever one you do use, just be sure it isn't left set up on a night when a hard frost is possible...
 
Coydon Wallham
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This is inside my yurt, but translates easily to something outside. Plastic pails are light and easy to work with for the source water.

Here I used an old turkey fryer and silicone hoses. It is next to the RMH barrel with the water supply on top of the cleanout before the vertical exhaust, hoping to warm the water passively as much as possible in the winter. No room for a bigger counter here, but planning to rig up something that can be placed next to it temporarily to do dishes when needed indoors.
2024-07-05-01-37-19-518.jpg
footpump sink
footpump sink
 
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I have been wanting to build an outdoor sink as well.  The property that I got came with two stored sinks which I plan to use.  Just need to get an electric pump or a marine foot pump
 
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we make one - but in Europe!!

The electric pump taps are designed for water cooler bottles

https://rhino-pods.com/
 
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Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Consider scrounging the sink -- I regularly see stainless steel with taps attached at the local take-it-or-leave-it, or in the metal recycling bin within easy reach.



If you have a ReStore nearby you might want to check there. I've often seen perfectly usable stainless steel sinks at ours for a decent price.

If you are going through the trouble of building a frame with space for drying, perhaps also include a small countertop-type piece on one side of the sink. I am sure you will end up with dishes or tools or other items that you will need to put down and/or wash. Having a space next to the sink will end up being convenient for that!
 
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Luke Mitchell wrote:

Jay Angler wrote:Are we dreaming here, Timothy??? If so, I'd like one with either a foot or knee control so I can use both hands to do the important stuff, and not get dirty hands on the spigots.



If you ran the water pipe somewhere within reach of your knees, you could use a standard lever-valve to start/stop the water flow...[images snipped]



I probably just broke the formatting and made a mess on that quote, sorry. But thank you so much for these ideas! I'm not sure if I'll make these dreams a reality, but I joined a community garden this year and became part of it's "backend crew" at the composting outhouse. The place we wash our hands after dumping the most recent poop+wood chips into the active composting toter and pumping urine into a large tank where it ages just has  circular spigots we turn with our upper forearms, and it would be great if we replaced one of them with a lever so we could turn water on and off with a single elbow or knee. I might look into that. There's usually something closer to the outhouse where most people wash their hands, but we still don't want to touch it with our hands until we've cleaned them.

 
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I'm getting ready to set up an outdoor processing station for poultry and such, small scale.  If you have or plan to have poultry or rabbits, it might be a good idea to set up your station for multi-purpose use.  That's my intent, although positioning for convenience becomes more difficult when you have multiple areas it needs to be convenient to!  

I recall from grade school days, the half-round rest room sink, large deep heavy stone/concrete thing, with a central half-round sprayer and a curved foot bar that anyone at any position around the sink could press on to start the water flow.   If you have water pressure, a foot pedal would be a great idea.  If you have low or no pressure, one of the foot pumps like others have mentioned (as are used in porta-potty auxiliary handwashing sinks at larger events) sounds like a good way to go.  
 
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Hiya!
I’ve set up a couple washing stations for veggies (no sink) in the field using metal shelving from old deconstructed heavy duty “wire”utility shelves.
One is is zip tied to 4 t posts over a small drainage ditch, another attached directly to the fence with zip ties, chain and carabiner clips and a third hung from a tree branch again with zip ties chain and carabiner clips. All are supplied with water via hose and hand held sprayer. Soap, clippers etc are kept in an old mailbox also attached w/zip ties. A dish pan serves if something needs to be submerged otherwise and most often Veggies set on grating and rinsed/scrubbed there. I toss trimmings etc on the ground or in a basket to go directly into the compost there in the field. Clean up is way less than when we used to bring everything up to the barn. Been a few years and have not found the need to modify the set up but it’s simple construction makes changes a snap
 
pollinator
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First, for a drain, since you are likely to have considerable dirt and even small stones, when I worked as a geotech in soils engineering, we had a lab sink with a rolling tub underneath that the initial drain water fell into.  This had a drain that flowed water into the regular sewage drains while the sediments settled into the tub.  Depending on the size of the tub and the amount of soil being introduced, it could last a month between rolling the tub out and dumping it.  The water drain plugged into the back of the tub with a swaged fitting that kept it from leaking.

For a quick and easy foot or knee spray faucet, how about using a regular hose spray head fit into a box that held it in the correct orientation for either foot or knee to activate?  The spout of the spray head would preferably have a male or female garden hose connector to allow it to remain inline.

 
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The farm I work at has two rolling double sinks with a lot of space on the side of each - I believe it's originally restaurant stuff, but we can fit two crates of produce on each side. They have a normal faucet and a spraying attachment (I'm led to believe it's called a flush valve but I could be wrong) that can be attached to the garden hose, but we also often just fill the sinks. Usually we just let the sinks empty onto the paving and flow into the flowerbeds, sometimes we put buckets under if there's soap or anything involved. In yacon season we pull a lot of deeply muddy tubers out of the ground so then we roll a sink into the garden proper and attach it to the hose there so we can spray them down asap.

We also have a big basin with a grate over it and a hose so we can spray down large things roughly, like muddy crates or things like carrots or beets that don't need to be 100% clean. That basin is directly connected to our pond so it's good for things with a lot of sediment.

No specific tips except for the lever that's already been mentioned, but hope this helps anyway!
 
Sherri Puchalsky
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Phil Sabin wrote:we make one - but in Europe!!

The electric pump taps are designed for water cooler bottles

https://rhino-pods.com/



The general idea of making something portable with a detachable source water container, which could encourage grey or rainwater use when appropriate, and water collection containers beneath the drains is pretty cool to me. It would be interesting to develop cheap, probably less pretty portable sink setups for veggie washing for around the yard for those of us with distributed garden areas who also might want to bring it to other areas.

I'm not in Europe, but your product looks great.

 
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