Comments on: Brac Graywater Systems Nightmare

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:53:41 +0000

Wow! It was almost as if you were readifng my mind. I could not agree more based on my own personal experience. I too, built a green home in Florida to the USGBC LEED green building rating system. I decided on the BRAC system because, in theory, greywater recycling is a great idea. But, this company is not ready for the residential market. My local distributor, Eco-Smart of Florda was great! They actually replaced my first BRAC unit (at no cost) and I was convinced that I just had a lemon when I got the first one. Nope, the second just stopped working. Now, I will be taking off work (again) to meet the plumber for the 5th time. He is actually on my speed dial and when I call he knows exactly why I am calling. I have had over a hundred builders and dozens of architects tour my home over the last several months and I always point out the good, the bad, and the just plain dumb decisions that I have made in the design and construction of our LEED home.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:14:27 +0000

Thank you everyone for the reviews, I was sold on Brac and was ready to buy until I read all of the reviews. Thank you for saving me my $$$$$

By: Gennaro Brooks-Church

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:27:24 +0000

Hi Gus,
Thanks for the tip. The Brac I have is in a show house and was meant to show the best of gray water technology. Clearly Brac is far from the best so I have to remove it and either find another manufacturer or build one myself. I get a lot of guests coming through and right now Brac is simply an example of what doesn’t work. I pointed this out to Brac but they didn’t seem to care about the bad press. Showing a broken Brac has some value educationally since a show house shows mistakes as well but I want a positive example to help Brooklyn homeowners who are looking for a good graywater solution.

By: Gus

Gus — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:20:10 +0000

Gennaro:
If you still plan to fix or give it another shot to the Brac System, back in last year I got ahold of Blair Gaustchi, kind of head honcho at BracSystems Canada (Headquarters), He was helpful in helping me fine tune the brac. His email is excel@bracsystems.com.
He is very knowledgeable about this, seems to me that He was involved in the system design.
I have to say that my system works fine besides than the filtering issue (sock-filter or “suck-filter”)
Good luck with that.

By: Gennaro Brooks-Church

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:01:12 +0000

It is funny you mention waterlegacy.com. I just discovered them plan on asking them for prices. i can’t wait to get rid of this Brac system. Yesterday my son left the gray water hose on so the tank ran dry. Because my fresh water intake is broken on the Brac the tank just empties and the pump eventually shuts off because it overheats. No problem. But when I filled the tank up again the pump still didn’t work. My toilets needed flushing, it was late, I was tired and boy did I have bad feelings towards Brac and the distributor New Eco. What a joke they are for selling these badly made units with such pitiful support. I finally discovered I had to unplug the pump to reset it. I just hope this post warns people of Brac.

By: Gus

Gus — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:59:14 +0000

Hi there!
I had the same problem with the pump, but instead I bought a new model for the manufacturer, walrusamerica.com, I obviusly I paid for it. The pump was a newer model, but it fits like a glove, no modifications to do. It’s been working perfect for ten months straight. Regarding the sock-filter system, really sucks, I’ve doing some research but couldn’t find any practical solution to replace it. I am thinking on having a small sand filter (like swimming pools) attached to the system with will be a lot easier to clean and will actually filter the water, a chlorinator could be add to the filter in order to dye the water (instead of chlorine tablets, drop those blue tablets that are sold for toilets).
Other than that, everything else works just fine.
Gennaro: Check out http://waterlegacy.com, they have a WL55 system that requires cleaning ONCE a year. Too late for me.

By: Gennaro Brooks-Church

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:23:20 +0000

Hi,
That tube sock was such a joke. It got clogged in a matter of weeks and caused the water to back up the pipes. I don’t understand how they can continue to sell the product.

Where are you located? I have not found a solution either. But I am building four gray water systems right now so maybe I can help you in some way.

By: doug

doug — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:14:59 +0000

I installed a Brac system in my renovated house almost two years ago and it “worked” for three months and then the pump burned out like you mentioned. I also couldn’t keep the highly innovation “tube sock” filter thing clean enough to get water into the actual tub.

Brac offered for me to get a new system but actually admited that the pumps burn out. THey then suggested I buy a newer model…!

I have searched for another company but haven’t found another one. I’m not a ‘build it” kinda guy…more “buy it”.

Do you have any recommendations?

By: LHH

LHH — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:24:36 +0000

Thanks. Very helpful to have this review.