Portable propane shower

[woytovich]

Beta v1
Still need to mount the pump and propane tank in the case and need to source a 7-10ah small 12v battery (to replace the jump start pack) to also mount in the case - to make this that much more portable... but for now it works as it should... a little over 4 minutes of shower volume water on a 5 gallon water can... plenty for a "Navy" shower...
Gas and water in/out all on quick connectors for fast set-up.

 

[woytovich]

Planning on using one of these as the shower room...

 

[woytovich]

Long term plan is to build out my camping/cargo trailer. It will have onboard water and a battery. I'll use the heater I have now and design a "shower room/bathroom" off of the side of the trailer... There will also be a camping sink that can have hot water too.
I'll need to figure out the "gray water" collection plan too...

 

[greentruck]

You must have some rank to pull to get the whole five gallons
No way would I get away with that in our family "unit."

Discipline in the lower ranks is such that everyone gets about two gallons, but my better half's dad was a submariner so that may account for the comparative stinginess.

More seriously, I've found that these units put out too much water, too fast. Your pump would definitely put ours to shame, so suspect yours is similar in operation, like drinking from a fire hose. Throw in the heating capacity of the heating unit and there's the potential for kids and drunks to get burnt. To mitigate these hazards to a fun weekend, even for us [mostly] adults, and conserve water, I've taken to drawing the water, heating it and returning it to a separate bucket. Then I use just the pump, without the heating unit online, to draw the water that's A) limited in quantity and B) had it's temperature adjusted to the user's preference.

You could also recirculate the water into the container, provided it's rated for the water temp you aim to achieve, if you have multiple users and don't want to take another bucket to serve to hold the warmed water.

My wife was actually a bit fearful about using the heater initially. Now that we do it this way, she's convinced she won't scald herself. YMMV

 

[woytovich]

Yeah, I know I need to do some field testing to get a sense of the scald possibilities and to figure out the best way to set the heater controls... it SEEMS that this is a low risk situation for scalding with this unit though... I was thinking of putting a small tank inline after the heater to "cache" some water to, hopefully, even out any spikes, cold or hot, in the water... but that would just increase the amount of water needed to fill the system that is potentially then not available for a shower. Shorter hoses etc will make better use of the limited water supply.
We shall see... I hope to take it wheeling/camping next weekend.

 

[spressomon]

The L5 is a great water heating tool for larger groups! If unlimited water supply...oops can't say that in Cali ...it works just like home; set the water temp and let 'er run. Otherwise for 99% of our dry/dirt camps its recirc to heat the water to ~110*F for showers.

I have a couple different water heater set-ups including my Helton which happens to get the most use because of typical smaller group counts ; regardless, all my shower heads (kitchen sprayer for most stingy water usage) gets the 3/32" drill bit through a penny trick to cut back water flow...from the typical 2-3gpm down to as low as .5gpm. Most spray/shower handles have just enough space to allow insertion of this old school water saving trick.

You'll need to experiment with whatever pump you use...start out with 1/16" hole and move up. OTOH experimenting only costs you...a penny

 

[woytovich]

So the set-up got a preliminary, beta test at the BBRC Fall Crawl. I used it for hot water for washing but I didn't set it up as a full shower. It worked very well and was a welcome addition to the camping/cooking experience, especially since "room temperature" water was almost too cold to wash your hands in... it was in the 40s 2 of the 3 nights...

I learned a lot...

It is a good idea to run it for the first few seconds (while waiting for the hot water to make it to the sprayer) back into the source container so as not to waste that water.

I will be looking for a foot valve I can put inline to keep both hands free while running water. Ideally a 2 button valve of some sort to turn flow on and off, rather than a momentary on... I think.

I will need to rig a stand to hold the sprayer, again, to keep hands free.

1lb propane tank lasted through 10 gallons of water, and it was partially used when I started.

I need to limit flow, as spressomom suggested...

 

[tag3]

You get that link I sent for the modified cap?

 

[woytovich]

Yes... good idea but the price seems pretty steep. I think it would be easy and cheap enough to source some Home Depot PVC parts to make something similar... Besides, it appears that I'll need to swap out the 5 gallon cans fairly regularly, until I cut the flow rate at least...

 

[Land Shark]

Nice build. I have been running this type of set up for several years. Easy and inexpensive imo.

 

[tag3]

Yes... good idea but the price seems pretty steep. I think it would be easy and cheap enough to source some Home Depot PVC parts to make something similar... Besides, it appears that I'll need to swap out the 5 gallon cans fairly regularly, until I cut the flow rate at least...

I wanted a separate cap, and this was only a few($6) more than a cap that I would have had to fab up the siphon.