Shower Secrets

[eamarquardt]

In a moment of weakness I read your post, but only because it started with my name!

I put in a fitting from a old air compersor on mine that I can let off the pressure with a pop off valve.

Be careful. Air compressor pressure relief valves are set to go off at over 100 psi. Way too much. Get one from WW Graingers that has different springs for different pressures and set it to no more than 15 psi otherwise you just might get a "Darwin Award" if you over pressurize it and it BLOWS.

you say a bike pump will pump it up. have you used the manual ones to get the 15 pounds on your pressure cooker before?

A bicycle pump will work fine.

I am conseredering geting a cheapo 12 volt cigerate lighter one to pump mine up and pluging it into my teardrop's 12 volt outlet in the galley.

That is what I plan on doing.

Slowcowboy. I got one of these pressure cooker hot water heators built and ready to go!!!!!!!!!!

Good job

Cheers,

Gus

[eamarquardt]

Thanks Gus...so at 15psi...do you get a good spray? Just wondering about the lift on the hose. Does it need a re-pump to run out all the water? Doug

I misspoke a bit. If you fill it with 4 gallons of water the pressure gets used fairly quickly and you'd have to recharge it to get all the water out.

If you fill it with two gallons of water (and leave the rest of the volume for air) you get a pretty good spray and end up with about 5 psi or so when the water is used. Two gallons is sufficient for a good Navy (or Marine) shower unless you have hair down to your waist! The spray weakens as the water goes down but as Klatu said to Professor Barnhart when the professor questioned Klatu's changes to his "equation": "I find it works well enough to get me from one planet to the next.". The pressure cooker/water heater/sprayer works well enough to increase my chances (by not smelling) of "getting lucky" considerably!!!!!!! As a plus, it does double duty as a dishpan that allows you to reheat the dishwater (I hate doing dishes in cold water) at will if it gets cold!

If anyone is interested I can post the WWGrainger part numbers for the schrader valve, pressure relief valve, pressure gauge, and a detailed picture of the dip tube assembly.

There are pic's of the relief valve and schrader valve currently in my album along with a pic of the cooker with the lid removed.

Cheers,

Gus

[Trackstriper]

I use a generic 2.8gpm rv pump for the shower in my van. I just heat the water in a 5 gallon insulated tank, located under my bunk, with a 425 watt heater element. Pump the "hot" water to the shower head. No mixing valves, just an on/off switch for the pump.

Whatever the temperature the water is heated to is what I get. I use an indoor/outdoor cheapo digital thermometer with the outdoor probe taped to the outside of the tank. For me the normal shower temp runs about 105-115 degrees, depending on the ambient temperature.

The pump has no problem handling water directly at this temp. My pump is overkill in the gpm department. Northern Tool has a small 12v pump that might work well if you didn't need a lot of flow. In order to take a longer, more relaxing shower I throttle down my adjustable shower head to where the flow is quite low. My pump has an small external expansion tank but it still cycles a good bit, that's why I think I'd use a lower flow pump if I had to do this installation over again. A lot would depend upon how forceful a shower you were looking for, or how long you wanted to shower before depleting your hot water.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200394109_200394109

You could heat the water in a suitable container over the stove, fire, whatever. Monitor the temp. Remove heat, pump right out of the container.

No chance of over-pressurizing a tank, no chance of scalding. Fairly constant water pressure .

[hawk]

My reply will be specifically about the Zodi portion of your question. Since you mentioned Wally's place, I extracted and summarized the negative review comments about Zodi heaters from that site. My comments are exclusively those of a consumer/user. However, if you decide on this method, I think your closeout price discovery represents an excellent dollar value for the return you get. I felt really uncomfortable ($$$) about buying mine, but got over it after the first use, and the unit continues to amortize the initial cost quite nicely.

* "Cheap plastic battery clip hinge is weakest point, subject to breakage"

Me: Maybe, but holding the case halves closed, then pressing the clip in place instead of slamming it shut would probably help -- has been working for me. Remember hinge breakage problems on early laptop computers? Those problems were invariably caused by the user repeatedly slam-dunking the screen to a closed position. Plus, the writer said "subject to breakage". Sounds more speculative than real. Finally, parts (or just the the pump/battery) are available. Duct tape to the rescue in the interim?

* "Pump floats to surface -- won't stay under water"

Me: Secure a weight loosely around either the pump body or the hose to keep it submerged. Plastic zip-style wire ties or a length of nylon cord come to mind. Or try my method: in addition to the water hose, the pump also has the power line connecting it to the remote battery case. Just add a clothes pin or other small spring clamp to hold the wire captive against the edge of the water container. I'm sure there are other methods, I just happened to have a clothes pin (but no clothes on) within reach during this discovery. <g>

* "Cannot turn off the water while water is heating"

Me: BTW, this means both at the pump and at the nozzle. The water must continue to flow while the heater is working, otherwise things could turn ugly pretty fast.

* "Okay for warm weather"; "Okay if water not reallly cold to start with"; "Doesn't get hot enough", along with similar statements.

Me: This is a water heater, not an on-demand instant heater. Options are to heat a container of water to add to the abient temperature supply water, AND/OR, put the opened nozzle into the supply container to recirculate the water until it gets to -- or over -- the desired temperature. This is also from the user manual.

* "Won't pump water from ground to head height"

Me: I'm free-styling here, since my unit is in storage. I believe we're talking about 4 'D' cells for a total of 6 volts nominal voltage (the initial voltage drops off pretty fast, then remains fairly constant for a long time). I believe the pump to heater hose is a smaller diameter than the shower hose portion, which is about 3/8 or 1/2" diameter by 8 feet or so. I can't do the math, but with these parameters, it's like pushing a train up-hill with a rope. Even bilge and fountain pumps usually have an "amount of rise" specification. I'm further supposing that Zodi found and settled on the optimal combination of components for production, based on the intended application. This did not necessarily include the up/over/around and through scenario of a shower tent, as opposed to kneeling down next to a pond or stream.
The solution is to elevate everything onto a table or other higher surface. (I haven't had this ground-to-head problem exactly, but have used this raising scheme to gain additional "reach" for the shower hose portion)

* "Leaks while heating, doesn't leak when cold"

Me: This is also documented in the manual. It's not broken. It's called condensation -- a glass of iced tea does the same thing..

* "Batteries corrode inside container during storage"

Me: Not going to touch this one, since it's a universal no-no in the world of infrequently used battery operated devices. I remove the batteries following every use, to make sure I don't forget later on when packing up. (Also relates to learning how to work the hinge/latch portion of the battery box).

* "Not like home/hotel/motel shower"

Me: True, and there's no power massage feature either. However, it does a great job when home and motels are just out of reach.

One final note regarding flow rates, low pressure, etc. Many folks don't realize that the pump has a twist-off screen filter. This is to collect any sand, sediment, or "cooties" that might be drawn into the pump when the water supply is ... questionable. This screen reduces the chances of jamming the pump impellers, and burning out the pump. It might be that some of the power and flow rate complaints failed to notice that (if any) portion of the user manual.


Good luck in your decision!

~hawk

[Boodro]

Make sure if you shower at night in a shower tent, DO NOT HAVE A LIGHT ON BEHIND YOUR TENT!!! I think I scared a couple of old ladies one night ,when I was back lit & did not know it.
Sure made for some interesting camp talk tho!

[Dant]

If I'd known about the Zodi shower I might have ordered it instead, but when the cheap plastic $17 garden sprayer didn't work, I spent $85 at ACE for this stainless steel 2 gal. from Chapin. Has a heavy duty Viton gasket you can see in the photo.

[/url]

[Dant]

The nozzle that came with it actually works pretty well and has a lock 'on' feature. But I used a hose clamp to add a kitchen sprayer.

May add that Zodi stand. I'm planning to power this one by letting it sit in the sun like a solar shower, but it's going to be a shame to paint that nice looking stainless steel black.

Anyone know of a black spray paint that will come off easily if I hate it?

[john warren]

zodi is good stuff. they also make a battery powered propane forced air tent heater that works gret on teardrops if you camp in the cold. mine has dryer vents in the cupboard to plug the zodi tube into. the heater unit itself sits on the ground outside of the galley.

i have been known to camp in sub zero temps .

[Noob]

If you are in southern utah, then a black garden hose coiled up on concrete is all you need.

[Laredo]

The nozzle that came with it actually works pretty well and has a lock 'on' feature. But I used a hose clamp to add a kitchen sprayer.

May add that Zodi stand. I'm planning to power this one by letting it sit in the sun like a solar shower, but it's going to be a shame to paint that nice looking stainless steel black.

Anyone know of a black spray paint that will come off easily if I hate it?

NO!!!
Wrap it in a heavy duty black trash bag to heat. No need for paint!

[InternetPilot]

I was looking long and hard at these two on demand portable water heaters:



Eccotemp L5 Portable Tankless Water Heater and Outdoor Shower $119





Camp Chef HWDS Triton Hot Water Heater $149

Both would require a cheap pump if you're water supply is a bucket of water. Both units look pretty good. The cheaper of the two seems to be better reviewed when searching the internet (and not just considering Amazon's ratings).

I decided against them purely because I have never boondock camped since I sold my motorhome. Now I'm in a tent with my two youngest children so we only camp in State Parks or nicer private campgrounds so we just use the public showers. I was still thinking about getting one, but not all of the campgrounds that we go to are able to handle the water run-off at the campsite. I don't want to flood my own tent, or worse -- someone else's. I was going to rig a raised shower pan with drain pipe to direct the water away. But it's just not worth the hassle when the places we go have pretty nice showers. If you boondock, these two units are about the nicest you're going to find, and not a bad price.

It sure would've been fun to build...

[the other side]

boodro!!!!

[newimage]

Have both the tent heater and the Hot Camp Shower by Zodi ...Love them both.

[bobhenry]

The nozzle that came with it actually works pretty well and has a lock 'on' feature. But I used a hose clamp to add a kitchen sprayer.

May add that Zodi stand. I'm planning to power this one by letting it sit in the sun like a solar shower, but it's going to be a shame to paint that nice looking stainless steel black.

Anyone know of a black spray paint that will come off easily if I hate it?

Use stove black ! It is a mineral oil carrier and lamp black it should remove fairly easily with an alcohol or petroleum based agent. You might do a test patch on the bottom for peace of mind.

[nevadatear]

Dant, I use the same kind of garden sprayer for the last two years, but I heat by either my cook stove, or the single burner stove we have left over from backpacking days. Works quite well. I usually have to pump up once during a shower, but works for me! Didn't think about painting black. Might consider that.