outside shower

mjarrels · May 19, 2006

anyone ever build a outside solar water heated shower? looking for something that can be used from about may thru september. nothing expensive using solar panels... just something simple maybe using a 55 gal drum painted black mounted high on a frame of some sort?

mjarrels · May 19, 2006

anyone ever build a outside solar water heated shower? looking for something that can be used from about may thru september. nothing expensive using solar panels... just something simple maybe using a 55 gal drum painted black mounted high on a frame of some sort?

1bush2hog · May 19, 2006

Don't have a solar model but when we go camping we use a 55 gal drum set on top of concrete blocks high enough to place a couple of propane burners under. Use some garden hose, a shower head with valve mounted to a board that we bungee to a tree, and a DC pump similar to ones used on the atv sprayers. Hook up to a car battery and we have a hot shower.

Works great - especailly after a few days of camping /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

1bush2hog · May 19, 2006

Don't have a solar model but when we go camping we use a 55 gal drum set on top of concrete blocks high enough to place a couple of propane burners under. Use some garden hose, a shower head with valve mounted to a board that we bungee to a tree, and a DC pump similar to ones used on the atv sprayers. Hook up to a car battery and we have a hot shower.

Works great - especailly after a few days of camping /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

RobertN · May 19, 2006

Out on Jeep runs, I have seen folks with heat exchangers.

They started with an aluminum cylinder. They put an inlet and outlet on it. The inlet and outlet was spliced in to thier heater hoses on thier engine.

Inside the cylinder was a coil of copper tubing. The output side of the copper tubing went thru the top of the aluminum cylinder and was connected to a hose that had a shower head on it. The shower head also had a clamp on it to hook to a limb, Jeep hood, whatever.

The other end of the copper coil cam thru the aluminum cylinder, and went to a hose. This hose a had a 12v pump on it. The pump was placed in a bucket of water, a stream or other water source. The pump I saw had a reostat on it, so you could control how much/how fast you pumped water.

With the engine running and warm, the hot water from the heater hose entered the chamber. With the little 12v pump running in a water supply, the coils poassed thruogh the hot water in the chamber, did a heat exchange, and provided hot water to the shower head. If the pump was turned on fast, the fresh water was in the exchanger coil for a short period, so it didn't heat up as much. At slow speed, it had more time in the coil to exchange, so it was hotter.

The system seemed to work pretty slick. IUt was simple, and easy to build.

RobertN · May 19, 2006

Out on Jeep runs, I have seen folks with heat exchangers.

They started with an aluminum cylinder. They put an inlet and outlet on it. The inlet and outlet was spliced in to thier heater hoses on thier engine.

Inside the cylinder was a coil of copper tubing. The output side of the copper tubing went thru the top of the aluminum cylinder and was connected to a hose that had a shower head on it. The shower head also had a clamp on it to hook to a limb, Jeep hood, whatever.

The other end of the copper coil cam thru the aluminum cylinder, and went to a hose. This hose a had a 12v pump on it. The pump was placed in a bucket of water, a stream or other water source. The pump I saw had a reostat on it, so you could control how much/how fast you pumped water.

With the engine running and warm, the hot water from the heater hose entered the chamber. With the little 12v pump running in a water supply, the coils poassed thruogh the hot water in the chamber, did a heat exchange, and provided hot water to the shower head. If the pump was turned on fast, the fresh water was in the exchanger coil for a short period, so it didn't heat up as much. At slow speed, it had more time in the coil to exchange, so it was hotter.

The system seemed to work pretty slick. IUt was simple, and easy to build.

Captinjack · May 19, 2006

I used a 5 gallon solar bag shower for years at my deer camp and it was effective all year round! In the summer, we would heat the water with the sun and we used the stove in the winter. Five gallons was actually enough for three qwickie showers.

In the summer, the water temperature would actually get scalding hot so we had to mix in some cold water to temper it.

The big part about outdoor showering is protection from the wind or drafts. I would rather take an outside shower in 10 degree weather when it was calm than at 70 degrees with the wind.

This simple set-up worked great. If you are going to go to greater effort make sure you have a good supply of water and account for drainage.

Captinjack · May 19, 2006

I used a 5 gallon solar bag shower for years at my deer camp and it was effective all year round! In the summer, we would heat the water with the sun and we used the stove in the winter. Five gallons was actually enough for three qwickie showers.

In the summer, the water temperature would actually get scalding hot so we had to mix in some cold water to temper it.

The big part about outdoor showering is protection from the wind or drafts. I would rather take an outside shower in 10 degree weather when it was calm than at 70 degrees with the wind.

This simple set-up worked great. If you are going to go to greater effort make sure you have a good supply of water and account for drainage.