Water system

[ObsessMuch]

So I've been thinking about water and how to make it convenient to carry. The issue i have had has been jugs that leak, Cans that are hard to pour, Containers that are hard to clean and water that is hard to filter or use. Over the last few months i have been messing around with a system that uses compressed air to push the water out of a sealed stainless steel container - actually a beverage keg. At first i used these mainly as a way to spray off after i mt. bike but i soon started to mess around with filters, and drinking water and found that it works great for camping. These things are easy to carry, use and are indestructible. I use a bike pump to pump mine up but you can also use CO2 or onboard air. I'm working on a few other attachments like a shower and a hand washing setup. I have a few other ideas as well concerning stringing multiple up for more capacity. I wanted to be sure that the drinking water was safe so every part that touches water is of beverage industry quality and NSF certified. So far it is working really well with some minor tweaks here and there. I’m working on a 3 and a 5 gallon system. The 3 is good for a car and spraying off dog paws or legs after a ride. The 5 is good for camping and longer trips with more people. My kids and i used a 5 gallon for a camping trip over the weekend and it was perfect. Nothing like having running water in your campsite!

 

[ObsessMuch]

hoses

Here are the hoses i've made so far...an air hose with a tire(schrader) valve, a sprayer and a drinking water hose with quick detatch fittings for an inline water filter. If you use the water filter (a sawyer in line filter) you can put any water in the tank and it filters on demand - that part works really well with some of those campsites with the pumps and the nasty tasting water.

 

[Traveling62]

Great idea.....thanks for sharing. Where do you source the containers? Cost? Keep us updated on your improvements.

 

[greentruck]

Interesting. We use a couple of the out of production Reliable water pump/shower systems to pump water from jugs for various uses. They're OK, but they're also mostly plastic and no longer available if something goes wrong. So this could be an useful substitute.

How tall and what diameter are these?

How long do you get decent pressure? I'm mostly interested in whether it will sustain a typical shower, when you really can't interrupt things to pump it up standing there all naked with shampoo in your eyes

By the way, re jugs, yep, the cheap ones leak. We've had good luck with the mil-spec 5 gallon Scepter containers. In our case, I can still see having a number of them and maybe using air pressure oe some other means to pump from them into this contraption. Buying 4 or 5 of these would be kind of pricey, but I'd like to know more, so interested in hearing more about your project.

 

[B-RAD]

Great idea! I have the same questions as above regarding price etc...

 

[ObsessMuch]

The tanks are 8.6" dia. the short on is about 16" high and the tall one is about 24" high.
as far as pressure if you pump them up to 100PSI they will push most of the water (depending on how much room you start with for the air.) For drinking water the limit is about 20-30 PSI and you would need to refill the air part of the way. You could also hook them up to onboard air or CO2 (although the later would carbonate the water. One option is to get both a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon and pump the 3 gallon with air to push all the water from the 5. These can also be daisychained or attached together for a continous supply of pressurized water.

I'm still working on pricing. The tanks are made in italy - so really high quality stainless steel - the majority of the parts(with the exception of the plastic spray head and the italian tank) are made in the US.

A full 5 gallon set up weighs 10 lbs and a 5 gallon weighs 8lbs...so pretty light too.

 

[Bogo]

Many bottling plants are getting out of premix canisters so there are allot on the surplus market. Many beer brewing places sell both new and used ones as kegs for brewing. I've seen them in 5, 3, and 2.5 gallon sizes with 5 gallon being the most common size. There are a couple different standards for the keg in and out fittings, so get the right fittings for the tank you get. Replacement parts like new down tubes, fittings, pressure relief valves, and seals are available. I've seen taps that have a faucet on an output fitting for a tank. I've also seen fittings for both input and output that provide a hose barb for connecting a hose up. Never bought from these guys, but they have all the bits: www.kegkits.com

Biggest problem with on board air to pressurize is oil in the air. It will need to be filtered out of the air. An air regulator can be used to set a specific pressure.

A thread where using the kegs was mentioned before for onboard shower use: https://forum.ih8mud.com/expedition-builds/308564-onboard-shower-ideas.html I ran through a bunch of ideas for onboard hot water in it, and showed some potential parts from the merchant above.

 

[rusty_tlc]

Good idea but mine would wind up full of Homebrew once my son saw it.

Not that that would be a bad thing.

 

[Bogo]

I must know of at least 50 in the hands of home brewers. They now seam to be the "bottle" of choice among those I know.

 

[ObsessMuch]

yeah they do work good for that too

The beer is where i got the idea from The one in the fridge has a nice IPA in it. it's a 2.5 gallon keg which fits perfectly in there. I got a line on those too . The CO2 system is a paintball tank.

The one in the front is the water keg a 3 gallon and it is pumped up to 100 PSI ready to be used as a hose.

If these can protect my beer then drinking water should be great. These kegs have also been used as industrial sprayers, portable eye wash stations and plant watering. The issue with the referb kegs is that they are REALLY used. Yeah they work after you clean them replace the really bad parts and all the gaskets. the stock of them has been really dropping since the beverage companies stopped using them a long while back. Now there is only one company that makes them. The kegs i'm using for my beer and water are new and still certified by the NSF. The parts of course are the harder part to piece together.