The ultimate in water recycling: we try taking a bath in our dehumidifier water

When life gives you waste water, don’t put it to waste.

Japan is all about trying to live as eco-friendly as possible, and they’re not against trying new, seemingly crazy things. We’ve seen wearable, sustainable grocery bags, and even generating electricity via the power of adult entertainment before.

But recently one of our Japanese writers, the almond-toast aficionado Chie Nomura, was struck with a potentially new way to reuse and recycle: by using the water from her apartment’s dehumidifier.

▼ Sometimes inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places.

With it being rainy season in Japan, the constant downpours result in a daily humidity of 75 percent and higher, meaning there’s a lot of water in the air. The dehumidifier sucks that moisture out of the air in the apartment, making it feel cooler inside compared to the wet outdoors.

Typically you’re supposed to dispose of the dehumidifier water every few days, but Chie figured rather than tossing that water down the drain, she could put it to work instead!

After getting permission from the capsule apartment staff, Chie made the preparations. She got a portable bathtub, and collected two weeks worth of dehumidifier water.

▼ It was a lot of work, but hopefully it would be worth it.

One other very important item on her shopping list was chlorine to clean the water. Even though it looked clear, it wasn’t guaranteed to be hygienic, and Chie had read in her research that dehumidifier water wasn’t usually safe to give to plants or use for laundry.

So she decided to play it safe and dumped a bunch of chlorine into the tub before going in herself.

▼ Once all that was done, there was nothing left to do but step in and try it!

▼ And what was her first impression of the dehumidifier bath?
“It’s… cold.”

Unfortunately that was to be expected. Even though the air that the water had come from was humid, there was nothing about the water itself that made it any warmer than regular room temperature liquid.

Not only that, but it had been sitting around for two weeks, so any semblance of warmth the water may have once had was long gone. Combined with the portable bathtub just being a large plastic container with no heating whatsoever, it was a bit chilly.

▼ But with the air conditioning off, the coldness was kind of refreshing amid the summer heat, and Chie soon found that she enjoyed the experience.

Aside from the initial coldness, the water felt perfectly fine. It wasn’t any more slick or sticky than regular bath water, and aside from the chlorine making her apartment smell like a public pool, Chie had no complaints.

▼ With a towel on her head and a slight change of photography angle,
it was almost like she was in a private hot spring… or cold spring?

▼ In fact, she enjoyed it so much that she went in for another dip that evening.
This time, with drinks! A beer and a ramune.

▼ Her home planetarium made for a real outdoor cool-bathing experience.

▼ All in all a water-recycling success!
…with perhaps a few caveats.

Afterward, Chie said that even though she enjoyed the experience, it was way too much work to do as a regular thing, and she doesn’t recommend it for regular families. Not only did it take two weeks to collect enough water, but making the entire apartment smell like a pool was a serious drawback too.

At the end of the day, reusing dehumidifier water may be a fun experiment, but it’s far from the most impactful thing you can do if you’re concerned about recycling. If you’re someone who uses lots of water bottles, you may instead want to first make use of those in fun new ways before worrying about the liquid itself.

Images: ©SoraNews24
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