Simple Shower

[wayne49]

There are ant hills on a mountain near Austin, NV, above 7,000 ft, that are visible on Google Maps satellite view.

Where on Earth do ants not exist? Antarctica, I presume.

 

[VanFan]

the bilge pumps have very low pressure and head.  they are not meant to pressurize anything.  highdesertranger

I think you are correct that this is the wrong type of pump, but I will try it anyway and report back. The manufacturer's specs under "Performance" are not encouraging.  http://www.seaflo.com/en-us/product/detail/617.html

(BTW, I came to my senses over the recirculating idea, but had to argue with you first, then try an experiment myself beforehand.  Just my nature. )

 

[VanFan]

HDR really got me going, so I searched for "bilge pump shower" and found a few examples using the pump I ordered.  While you sure can't believe everything you see on YouTube, this one (using solar panels) is pretty intriguing:    If mine works half as well, I'll be very happy.

 

[bagabum]

I have purchased 1 of these  https://www.simple-shower.com/  and will tell you it works great. Really good for shampooing.

That is ingenious with the air tube up the center so that the bottle doesn't starve. At a good price. I sower with 1 gallon of water by dipping a 16 oz cup  into a heated pot. The cup has about 25 tiny holes in the bottom. It is unbelievable how good of a shower you can take with 1 gallon of warm water. I would never consider driving to a shower location, but I understand those in a car that don't have enough room to stand up have to. I will check this out, thanks for sharing. I'm thinking paint the bottle flat black!!!

 

[VanFan]

I think you are correct that this is the wrong type of pump, but I will try it anyway and report back. The manufacturer's specs under "Performance" are not encouraging.  http://www.seaflo.com/en-us/product/detail/617.html

It works!  I'll post an update in another thread soon, since this is not really a "simple shower".

 

[GypsyJan]

"those in a car that don't have enough room to stand up"

I have been day dreaming about this and I think I will have enough room in the RAV 4 without standing. I can fit a 5-gal bucket on the floor between the front seat console and rear upright seat. I could put a leg in the bucket (while leaning between the front seats and partially over the console and holding onto the back of one of those seats). Then I could wet that leg with the Simple Shower; scrub it with a soapy net scrubby thing; and rinse with the SS; remove the leg & towel it dry. Then change position to wash/rinse/dry the other leg. Then wash/rinse/dry each arm & finish with the nether regions while sitting on the bucket. Face, torso then armpits could be done with a small bowl of rinse water, a wash rag, and soapy scrubby. Then dump the bowl into the bucket and rinse the wash rag and scrubby over the bucket with the Simple Shower (I plan to get 2 in order to have enough water for a complete wash.) I haven't come up with a plan for disposing of the gray water in the bucket yet, except to water some nearby bushes.

 

[gslanm]

I've come to the conclusion that to solve my showering needs, I'm going to build a curtain and shower area very modestly, in a corner, perhaps with a plastic large container of sorts to serve as the base, and use the item below it's not noisy, holds a lot of water, very inexpensive, and pretty much serves as a replacement shower. In cold temps, I'll just heat a gallon of water and throw it in there.

It's true I could take a 2L bottle and attach it to the fixture, but I feel like this would duplicate the shower more, keep it filled up more easily with 5 gallons.

Alternatively, the "bags" the sell for $25 that basically just hang, hold 5 gallons and you can use are also good to have a spare just in case you have an electric problem etc. That's how I effectively solved the shower brainstorming. I don't have the DIY experience or time to build an actual shower with a elevated shower floor and drain of sorts which would admittedly be easier and cooler. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sun-Joe...VGrbICh1ZKQF1EAQYASABEgJxivD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[WanderingRose]

That’s a pretty cool item, gslnm, and wouldn’t take up a lot of space.

You could stand in a bin to catch the shower water.

A word of caution about hanging bags, tho, is that a full 5 gallons is very heavy to lift above your head to hang.

I can’t do it, so bought a 2 1/2 gallon solar shower which I can lift and use to wash my hair outside in National Forest campgrounds where that is not prohibited.

I have a wet bath in my little Class B, but sometimes saving the internal water supply and holding tank capacity is important.

 

[bagabum]

This is a great no fuss option for a quick shower solution. I like the innovativeness of the vacuum breaker tube. I am going to get one and  plan on making a wrap of black dollar store fabric bonded with fabric glue. Plan to let a couple heat up in the sun until sunset  , place in an insulated cooler and then use before hitting the sack.  Thanks for sharing this OWl, good find!!!

 

[gslanm]

That’s a pretty cool item, gslnm, and wouldn’t take up a lot of space.

You could stand in a bin to catch the shower water.

A word of caution about hanging bags, tho, is that a full 5 gallons is very heavy to lift above your head to hang.

I can’t do it, so bought a 2 1/2 gallon solar shower which I can lift and use to wash my hair outside in National Forest campgrounds where that is not prohibited.

I have a wet bath in my little Class B, but sometimes saving the internal water supply and holding tank capacity is important.

That was the plan. I'm still in the brainstorming phase due to timing of all this for me.

It was either get a bin with a mat in it and makeshift a shower floor, or build some wood into a square base, and leave a large space underneath, put a shower floor on top of the wood with drain and underneath either conceive some DIY piping setup or just put the bin under all that to empty later.

 

[VanFan]

Looks cool, but seems pricey to me if you already have a power source.

 

[WayOutWest]

Thanks for your post...I have tried and/or explored a few different ways of taking a shower while camping, and ended up buying one of these just in the last couple weeks because I felt it would work better than most all other options. 

I have two sunshowers, which are large black plastic bags with a showerhead attached.  There are two problems with these for my style of camping.  First, you have to be spending enough time in the campsite to hang up the bag and have it heat up, or you have to be able to attach it to your vehicle on the outside of the vehicle and heat up as you drive.  Neither of those works for me.  I spend little time in camp sites.  Second, the sunshower takes more storage space than the simple shower, and ends up being wet when you store it, so that you may end up getting other things wet when putting it away.  

The various battery powered pump showerheads I researched seemed to have numerous problems with them.  Pump not working strongly enough, battery wearing out fast, etc.  

The most effective shower technique I'd used thus far was heating a pot of water and then pouring the pot on my head while standing outside.  So, the simple shower was an improvement as it slowed down the rate of the shower.  I could heat the water before putting it in the bottle and have a longer shower than with a pot. Problem solved!

 

[WanderingRose]

I heated water a couple of times to add to my 2 liter bottle this past trip, but found that laying the bottle in the sun for a couple of hours warmed it very nicely.

My Simple Shower was here at home when I returned, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

 

[gslanm]

I heated water a couple of times to add to my 2 liter bottle this past trip, but found that laying the bottle in the sun for a couple of hours warmed it very nicely.

My Simple Shower was here at home when I returned, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

If I had the expertise to build a hot water setup I probably would but that's infinitely outside of my range. A $100 induction cooktop battery powered on low settings to heat up some water to warm then put it in a vehicle to deliver it definitely seems like it makes the most sense for me especially in the cold.

If the "simple shower" worked with 3 liter or gallon bottles it might quasi replace the 5 gallon bags, but I'd go through 10-15 of these bottles for one shower. It's so easy to use and inexpensive, I'd probably buy one for emergency or so, and the bags are heavy and hard to put somewhere obviously. That's why that sun joe everyday sprayer where could put the hot water in with cold water then just spray 5 gallons out solved my brainstorming needs. I mean the product was actually designed to shower on the go or clean dogs so it's literally made to shower.

 

[jacqueg]

I haven't tried the Simple Shower yet.

I like using a 3-gallon bucket and a big sea sponge, the kind you get for washing cars. Boil a couple quarts of water on the stove, add a gallon or so  of cold water, fill the sponge with water, and squeeze away. I have longish hair, and it worked fine.

 

[Dingfelder]

Black Home Depot five-gallon buckets/lids are cheap. Leave one(them) in the sun until it declines or your patience runs out. One is good enough, to is luxury. Two five-gallon buckets hold a lot of things. They are not a waste of space.

 

[GypsyJan]

"Two five-gallon buckets hold a lot of things."
Plus, you can stack them to save space.

 

[highdesertranger]

at the moment I have 30 five gallon buckets with me and an assortment of other buckets. buckets are very useful. highdesertranger

 

[flying kurbmaster]

I have two square black buckets that fit into each other when not being used. They were originally used for kitty litter not sure of the brand but store nicely in a cupboard, heat up in the sun or with a kettle full of boiling water. There not very big maybe 4 litres, work great if you know someone with a cat they may have a few hanging around that is how I got mine.

 

[rokguy]

Apart from the commercial (Joolca) gas hot water shower I recently installed in the cabin, this is the simply DYI shower I like to use both inside and out of the truck MH. Outside I just hook it on the side cargo.
Just a 15ltr water container in a black shopping bag with a plug in 12v pump running through a camping shower head I had lying around. 
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]All the pieces fit in the one bag.[/font]
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=small][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Left in the sun while I work, the capacity gives me a long hot shower.[/font][/font][/size]