Infinity Recirculating Shower Technology? Anyone have a system in the Van? Awesome or gross?

Jones Kay · Dec 13, 2024

I'm planning to upgrade the shower and water system in my rig because the Admiral (my wife) loves her long, hot showers. However, as many of you know, a 30-gallon water tank doesn’t last very long when you’re a couple of days away from the nearest water source. As much as I love boondocking, this has become our biggest pain point.

So, the research began—and it led me to a fascinating solution: the Recirculating Shower. If you’re not familiar, there are a number videos of DIY systems out there. Most of them involve routing the water down the drain, through a filtration system, a water pump, a water heater, and a UV light, before sending it back out through the showerhead. Some systems even "shock" the water with chlorine every few days for disinfection, similar to a hot tub. Some systems drain the water between showers. While it sounds a bit complex, the bottom line is you can take essentially endless showers by recycling the water.

A friend of mine knows someone who has this setup on their sailboat, and they swear by it. However, I’ve never seen one in action myself.

Has anyone here used a recirculating shower system? Or know of any companies that specialize in making them? I’m not sure I have the technical skills to build one from scratch, but I’m definitely interested in learning more.

Here’s a video that explains how the system works and really got my wheels turning.

Cheers,
Jones

maki2 · Dec 13, 2024

You are in the planning stage. There are a great many things that will “get your wheels turning” in that stage. Time, cost, skills for installations, space for the equipment, added physical weight of objects, reliability of the equipment all have to be weighed against a real need.

I have been full time traveling for a number of years. Never once have I come across anyone who has installed a recirculation shower system.

Jones Kay · Dec 13, 2024

maki2 said:
You are in the planning stage. There are a great many things that will “get your wheels turning” in that stage. Time, cost, skills for installations, space for the equipment, added physical weight of objects, reliability of the equipment all have to be weighed against a real need.

I have been full time traveling for a number of years. Never once have I come across anyone who has installed a recirculation shower system.

Maki2, you are right! At this point we might have to tow around a larger water tank! But lugging water around takes up more space and weighs a lot more than, recycling the water!

bullfrog ! · Dec 13, 2024

I solved my water problems by towing a small trailer with 2 55 gallon drums mounted to the trailer. One for fresh water with its own 12 volt water pump (identical to the one in the camper so I have a spare) and 12 volt battery with a small solar panel to keep it charged. I simply pump water into the fresh water tank or leave the pump on and hook up just like city water. I have used it as a fire truck to put out a small grass fire occasionally Lol!!! The other drum is for black and gray water and is filled using a 12 volt macerater pump. Since the trailer is a tilt trailer I simply have a gate valve mounted at the rear for a standard dump hose. Tip, get good blue barrels and paint them to protect them from UV damage. I can leave the camper in place and simply take the little trailer to dump and fill which makes life easy. I spent about $800 buying everything new and other than replacing low quality barrels and RV dump hoses due to UV damage all has gone well.

Jones Kay · Dec 14, 2024

bullfrog ! said:
I solved my water problems by towing a small trailer with 2 55 gallon drums mounted to the trailer. One for fresh water with its own 12 volt water pump (identical to the one in the camper so I have a spare) and 12 volt battery with a small solar panel to keep it charged. I simply pump water into the fresh water tank or leave the pump on and hook up just like city water. I have used it as a fire truck to put out a small grass fire occasionally Lol!!! The other drum is for black and gray water and is filled using a 12 volt macerater pump. Since the trailer is a tilt trailer I simply have a gate valve mounted at the rear for a standard dump hose. Tip, get good blue barrels and paint them to protect them from UV damage. I can leave the camper in place and simply take the little trailer to dump and fill which makes life easy. I spent about $800 buying everything new and other than replacing low quality barrels and RV dump hoses due to UV damage all has gone well.

Bullfrog, That’s a great option! I’ve never heard of that before! Thanks for the info. How big is your trailer? Like 8 feet?

bullfrog ! · Dec 14, 2024

Jones Kay said:
Bullfrog, That’s a great option! I’ve never heard of that before! Thanks for the info. How big is your trailer? Like 8 feet?

To begin with it was. I assembled it without all the supplied pieces to make it a little longer than the length of the barrels and bought a commercial barrel rack which I mounted to the trailer frame. It’s deck is about 4’ x 4’. I used ratchet straps to hold the barrels in the racks. I mounted a tongue box to hold a fill hose and water filters.

LargeMarge · Dec 15, 2024

Zero interest in enormously complex components cobbled into enormously complex systems.
.
2003, we engineered our ExpeditionVehicle with the emphasis on 'primitive'.
Zero plumbing, minimal electric.
.
Glancing at the literature for the recirc concept, I can see several areas of potential failure.
.
As described in our introduction, we shower daily using a Craftsman 20v battery-operated garden-sprayer, modular and portable.
You might notice the available shower duration... about twelve (12) minutes.
If your Commodore needs more time, could you add more water to the hopper?
.
I say 'you', because I get the impression you love her dearly and would do anything for her.
And you don't mind her wearing the pants in your relationship...
.
.
Our introduction with plenty of portraits, plus our reasons for our decisions:
https://vanlivingforum.com/threads/expeditionvehicle-build.44908/#post-576110

LargeMarge · Dec 15, 2024

Jones Kay said:
... If you’re not familiar...

.
If you are familiar, it would be pretty much the same...

maki2 · Dec 15, 2024

It would not need to be done in an open trailer. The barrel or even secondary extra tanks setup could be done inside a cargo trailer.

twomountainlions · Dec 15, 2024

LargeMarge said:
Zero interest in enormously complex components cobbled into enormously complex systems.
.
2003, we engineered our ExpeditionVehicle with the emphasis on 'primitive'.
Zero plumbing, minimal electric.
.
Glancing at the literature for the recirc concept, I can see several areas of potential failure.
.
As described in our introduction, we shower daily using a Craftsman 20v battery-operated garden-sprayer, modular and portable.
You might notice the available shower duration... about twelve (12) minutes.
If your Commodore needs more time, could you add more water to the hopper?
.
I say 'you', because I get the impression you love her dearly and would do anything for her.
And you don't mind her wearing the pants in your relationship...
.
.
Our introduction with plenty of portraits, plus our reasons for our decisions:
https://vanlivingforum.com/threads/expeditionvehicle-build.44908/#post-576110

Back when I got my RV I really wanted to have a rig with shower, it has two built in showers, interior and exterior...which I never use.
I also got portable rechargeable immersible pump shower, which I modified to have any gpm I want by adding a valve ...which I never use.
Bucket baths can not be beat. As much as I love long hot showers on shore...
I'm skeptical about using reclaimed shower water, it should be tested for stuff that is found in fecal matter btw....sounds yuk to me!

JT646 · Dec 15, 2024

It’s been done before…in a van:

(Shower portion is about the 8:30 mark)

YMMV

twomountainlions · Dec 15, 2024

Aside from sounding like yuk water it also sounds like a lot of extra maintenance and winterization headache, plus additional power requirements, more leaks potential, protecting filters from freezing and possibly more sanitizing efforts to prevent bad stuff growing in that system as it deals with water full of organics.
Even having basic plumbing is kind of overrated and can be extra headache like when I was hit by -20 cold spell and had to winterize asap while RV antifreeze was sold out, I had moved away from using plumbing.

Jones Kay · Tuesday at 8:57 AM

JT646 said:
It’s been done before…in a van:

(Shower portion is about the 8:30 mark)

YMMV

Wow JT646 sweet van and awesome shower set up. I've lived on a sailboat for 3 years and taking a sponge bath, or a salt water rinse is all fine and dandy when the air temps are in the 80's, but when the temps drop to the 30s it's a different story. I could see that the recirculating shower (and radiant floor heating) would be incredibly comfortable after a long cold day snowboarding. Do you still have the system in your van? You mentioned in the video that it would be for sale soon from van life tech.

twomountainlions said:
Aside from sounding like yuk water it also sounds like a lot of extra maintenance and winterization headache, plus additional power requirements, more leaks potential, protecting filters from freezing and possibly more sanitizing efforts to prevent bad stuff growing in that system as it deals with water full of organics.
Even having basic plumbing is kind of overrated and can be extra headache like when I was hit by -20 cold spell and had to winterize asap while RV antifreeze was sold out, I had moved away from using plumbing.

Hey man I hear yea. It is more maintenance. A lot more. But my wife wouldn't go spend any time on our rig if we "moved away from plumbing". But I do understand your reasonings.

twomountainlions · Tuesday at 11:15 AM

Jones Kay said:
Wow JT646 sweet van and awesome shower set up. I've lived on a sailboat for 3 years and taking a sponge bath, or a salt water rinse is all fine and dandy when the air temps are in the 80's, but when the temps drop to the 30s it's a different story. I could see that the recirculating shower (and radiant floor heating) would be incredibly comfortable after a long cold day snowboarding. Do you still have the system in your van? You mentioned in the video that it would be for sale soon from van life tech.

Hey man I hear yea. It is more maintenance. A lot more. But my wife wouldn't go spend any time on our rig if we "moved away from plumbing". But I do understand your reasonings.

Regarding sponge baths ...not sure why you say they are uncomfortable when its 30 outside ...
You have heat in your boat, heat up the air a bit more and warm up the water for the bath bucket too, on a stove or in the water heater. Sponge baths are great at any outside temps. And they don't create as much humidity in the air as showers and no messy thoroughly wet curtains to dry.
In fact I stopped using my portable shower because in cold weather hot water sponge bath felt so much comfier and warmer overall

Just an idea...can you get your wife interested in backpacking? She might lose interest in showers, that how it was for me, tent camping and backpacking got me used to that and I'm a clean freak and squirmish AF. I just wonder if your wife refuses to camp in the rig without long shower because she just doesn't like to camp in general but lack of long showers is a psychological excuse sort of so you may build that reclaimed water system but she still wouldnt camp. My mother even dumped my stepdad over boat living but the reasons were much deeper than what was stated outright, she just didnt care for this type of travel

bullfrog ! · Tuesday at 3:03 PM

twomountainlions said:
Regarding sponge baths ...not sure why you say they are uncomfortable when its 30 outside ...
You have heat in your boat, heat up the air a bit more and warm up the water for the bath bucket too, on a stove or in the water heater. Sponge baths are great at any outside temps. And they don't create as much humidity in the air as showers and no messy thoroughly wet curtains to dry.
In fact I stopped using my portable shower because in cold weather hot water sponge bath felt so much comfier and warmer overall

Just an idea...can you get your wife interested in backpacking? She might lose interest in showers, that how it was for me, tent camping and backpacking got me used to that and I'm a clean freak and squirmish AF. I just wonder if your wife refuses to camp in the rig without long shower because she just doesn't like to camp in general but lack of long showers is a psychological excuse sort of so you may build that reclaimed water system but she still wouldnt camp. My mother even dumped my stepdad over boat living but the reasons were much deeper than what was stated outright, she just didnt care for this type of travel

Experiencing living on a boat, extended backing trips or living on the streets can change your perspectives but not always your desires! Lol!!!

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