DIY Shower

[costi]

I apologize beforehand if I missed a previous posting in my search.
I am thinking about building a portable shower for the back of my truck. I figure it would come in much handier than my hand pump garden sprayer for precleaning my gear before I get it home with the added feature of showering myself off.
A couple of different possibilities comes to mind: a 20 gallon plastic drum powered with a dc pump and a marine battery. The unit runs on demand without a pressure tank. I use this type at camp to suck water up from the river and I am a bit surprized at the volume/pressure of the water it moves.
The other method involves a scuba tank and a stainless steel holding tank with a shower head. I was at a local beach the other day and a dive instructor and his group were just cleaning up after a checkout dive. He opened up the back door, swung out a shower head, and voila...instant shower. I later heard that it was powered by pressurizing the stainless steel holding tank with an old regulator and a scuba tank.
Do any of you diy'ers have any thoughts on how to construct either type of shower?
Thanks, Bob

 

[CuriousRambler]

I'd imagine the holding tank would be pretty easy to engineer. To control the flow of the water, just have a valve that could control the air pressure going into the tank, have the air blow in the top since the water obviously weighs more and will want to go to the bottom, when air pressure builds, it pushes water down a hose through a shower head. I think the hard part would be to control the pressure the regulator was putting out, but I probably don't know half about the inner workings of scuba gear that most of the people on these boards do.

 

[dannobee]

Now ya got me thinkin'. The ski boats have an optional transom shower that tees into the cooling water for hot water. The kits included a 12v pump and a shower head and were sold for about $100. They might be higher now. Armed with that, you could use a black tank of water for warm water, and just use the truck's battery for power.

 

[Tamas]

 

[CuriousRambler]

Tamas, those offer absolutely no pressure...They're handy for 10 miles in the woods, but if I've got a truck to move it, why not get hot water with burly pressure :lol:

I think it depends how much you want to spend, and how big you want to get. You could easily take a five gallon bucket and rig it up, go to an aquarium shop and ask for an empty salt bucket with the lid - a lot of them screw on rather than prying off, probably get a better seal. If you want to go bigger, you can get a 55ga drum just about anywhere, and I'm sure you can figure out plenty in between.

I like the idea of the pressure tank...If you want to redneck it you could get a cheap electric heat platter and get something like a pressure cooker to put on it with hoses going in each side, pump the water through that continuously for warm water. I think your local climate may be a determining factor in how much time and money you would want to waste on a heater for the water. Around here the water's cool enough it'd be a sound investment and very refreshing, but not so much that I'd spend $300 on it. Other places, $300 might be pennies for a water heater..

 

[costi]

I'd imagine the holding tank would be pretty easy to engineer. To control the flow of the water, just have a valve that could control the air pressure going into the tank, have the air blow in the top since the water obviously weighs more and will want to go to the bottom, when air pressure builds, it pushes water down a hose through a shower head. I think the hard part would be to control the pressure the regulator was putting out, but I probably don't know half about the inner workings of scuba gear that most of the people on these boards do.

I would think also that there needs to be some sort of a pressure switch or release on the holding tank ...something as a safety valve and a gauge to tell you how much pressure you have in the tank. I'm thinking that you wouldn't want more than 40 pounds or so in the tank.

 

[costi]

Used one of those last weekend......at camp before I hooked my pump up. Any port in a storm as they say up here in Maine.
They really aren't bad as long as one doesn't have great expectations from them!
bob

 

[vondo]

When I was on safari, we used a bush shower which was just a 5 gallon pail with a real shower head coming out of it. You open the valve on the shower and get 2-3 minutes of water flowing out. Sure, there is not a lot of pressure, but it was a pretty good flow rate and worked fine. But, it won't be uber-cool like the things you are thinking of building.

 

[ChrisA]

[I keep some 2 litre soda bottle filled with water in a milk crate in the back of my truck. Works well enough for me.

But you could go to any marine supply like West Marine and buy a small presure pump and attach a hand shower head to the output side of the pump and plumb the input to a tank. These pumps are designed exactly for domestic water supply. This is how all boat and RV water system work.

You should be able to power the pump from the car's cig. lighter however a marine battery would power the pump for about 10 continous hours and empty a really large tank in the process. Your car batery should be Ok for a 5 minute shower. A 5 gal tank would be enough.

 

[costi]

Cheetah,
I like the idea of DIY for a couple of reasons...1. Simply because it is "fun" to develop ideas. 2. To keep the cost down.
I'm thinking along the lines of a smaller shower container say 20 -25 gals. Since I have outside access to hot water, I could fill it with such prior to a dive knowing that it is going to cool down some but it is still going to feel warmer than the water I am used to diving in. For that matter, leaving it inside the truck cap over the week is going to heat it up also. I think I am going to try the dc pump before the pressurized tank...mostly due to the fact that I have the parts on hand. I can use my plastic drum, a garden hose with a spray attachment, my marine battery, and have been wanting to upgrade my dc pump at camp anyways.
Now....what if someone developed an oversized handpumped unit such as the small garden sprayers used for spraying your plants or decks?
Thanks for the input guys.....Bob