Saniflo Donates Grinder Toilet Plumbing Systems to Suds of Love’s Mobile Shower and Laundry Truck for the Homeless

Saniflo’s Sanibest Pro donations allow Suds of Love Truck to provide additional services on top of their mobile laundry/shower services to unhoused individuals and those in need.

Problem

ST. PAULS, NORTH CAROLINA — Suds of Love Truck (SOLT) is a mobile shower and laundry truck for people without housing in the South Eastern Region of North Carolina (Scotland, Hoke, Robeson, Bladen Counties). SOLT was founded in July 2021 by Tina M. Bowen, a retired Special Education Teacher with 31 years of experience.

In 2019, Bowen discovered one of her students washing his clothes in a nearby creek, inspiring a vision to create a mobile laundry/shower service to assist unhoused individuals and those in need. By creating SOLT, Bowen hopes to have volunteers work together to impact others positively and make a difference in their local communities.

SOLT operates with compassion, kindness, and respect for all in need, providing opportunities to increase dignity and hope for those who are unsheltered and in need of laundry/shower facilities and hygiene products in their communities. They are committed to building an inclusive and diverse environment where all people served are given resources to facilitate their physical and mental well-being.

Some individuals and organizations SOLT helps are the homeless (veterans and individuals), McKinney Vento (children without permanent housing), domestic violence victims, those experiencing substance abuse disorder, disaster relief, and orphans.

Recently, Bowen decided she wanted her vehicle to provide toilet facilities as well as showers, so she needed a pumping system that could handle black water as well as gray water. After consulting with a similar mobile shower organization, Bowen decided on the Saniflo Sanibest Pro. She also read reviews to confirm that they chose the correct model.

Considering that plumbing had to be done inside a mobile truck, there was no solution involving conventional plumbing to explore. The challenge lay in moving the wastewater from the bathrooms across the truck 6 feet into a 325-gallon black water tank.

Solution

Noting that no other macerator or grinder systems were considered, Bowen and her staff knew that the Sanibest Pro unit would be their best option because it had performed well in similar circumstances.

The Sanibest Pro combines a rear-discharge toilet with a 1-horsepower pump system that is usually situated on the floor behind the fixture (and sometimes, for aesthetic reasons, concealed inside the wall behind the toilet). The system can be used to install a complete bathroom, including a toilet, sink, tub, and/or shower.

The wastewater from the toilet drains into the pump unit, which incorporates a grinder system to quickly reduce the incoming effluent before discharging it through small-diameter plastic piping up to 25 feet vertically or 150 feet horizontally to a sewer or septic system — or, in the case of SOLT, to a storage tank. The Sanibest’s heavy-duty grinder technology is ideal for uncontrolled environments in high-traffic, residential, and commercial applications.

The only hesitation Bowen and her staff felt derived from the fact that this was their first hands-on encounter with above-floor plumbing technology. “We are more accustomed to using a standard toilet system,” explains Bowen, “but after reading the manual, we felt comfortable about the installation process.”

Bowen also leveraged the abilities of her installing contractor, Alan Locklear, who has about 40 years of remodeling, plumbing, and basic electrical experience. Locklear was pleased with how easy it was to install the system. “The installation was quite similar and took no longer than a standard toilet system you would see in a home,” says Locklear.

Locklear installed two Sanibest Pro units on the Suds of Love truck, about 8 feet apart. As noted, the Sanibest Pro can discharge not only black water from a toilet but also gray water from two other fixtures, including a laundry tub. However, in the SOLT application, the Sanibest Pro units were kept separate from the laundry and shower sections, which have dedicated supply and output lines. Discharge of the wastewater was done via a 1-inch discharge pipe into the black-water storage tank.

Results

Since the installation of the Sanibest Pro units, there have been no performance issues, Bowen reports. Considering there was no need for an additional pump for the system, Bowen and her staff helped save some money for their nonprofit organization.

Locklear also agrees that he would have done everything the same about the installation of the project. The manual that came with the Sanibest Pro units helped immensely in his understanding of the ins and outs of the system.

“Suds of Love Truck would like to thank Saniflo for their generous donation,” says Bowen, who continues to provide sanitary care to those in need.

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ABOUT SANIFLO
SFA SANIFLO U.S.A. – whose parent company originated macerating plumbing technology — offers a complete line of waste and drainage pumping systems for residential and commercial applications. Saniflo developed its innovative, “above-floor plumbing” technology more than a half-century ago and has led its commercialization worldwide. Today, the company markets macerating technology through 24 subsidiaries in 50 countries and has sold more than seven million units worldwide since 1958. Saniflo markets through independent sales agents throughout North America, and the product line is currently available at distributor and dealer locations throughout the United States and Canada.

For more information, contact Saniflo at 1-800-571-8191. Or visit the Saniflo website at saniflo.com.

For editorial assistance, including photography, contact John O’Reilly c/o GreenHouse Digital + PR: 708-428-6385 or [email protected].