DIY Shower

[costi]

[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.

I probably am thinking a bit of overkill with 20 -25 gallons of water..Thinking about gang showers I guess! Also, rather than wearing down the car battery, I could use my rechargeable battery booster /compressor that I carry behind the seat for emergencies. I'll check out the marine pumps. I like the idea that they are more compact than the one I use at camp.
If all else fails...i can continue to use the soda bottles and garden sprayer.....or wait until I get home!......thanks, bob

 

[james croft]

If it is sunny, use a solar shower. Or iInstall an eberspacher hot water heater for a vehicle or boat. They work good. Uses diesel. I had one in a camper. Cheaper on ebay.

 

[CuriousRambler]

I *think* I know what you're talking about for the garden sprayers. We use them to keep tile from cracking while we're drilling it to install *real* showers

They could work, but the amount of water that comes out is extremely limited and the pressure runs down pretty quick..I think the pressure tank idea would be generally the same thing, except running off a scuba cylinder rather than a hand pump. At least that's how I'm seeing it in my mind..

About what pressure are the "low pressure" ports on a scuba first stage? If it's anywhere about 450-850psi, you could get an inline regulator for a paintball gun and use that to dial it down considerably more, I've never experimented to see just how low mine could go, but I'd guess around 100psi or so. That would probably be pretty high for a pressure tank to shower from, so you can get low pressure regulators (used in a different capacity) for paintball guns as well...If you know anyone who plays or have a field nearby, these parts can show up in excess. From the guns I have I've collected quite a few spare of each.

The only thing I might worry about is if the LPR would have enough constant flow to keep the tank pressurized enough. I might just have to toss this around this summer and see what I can come up with, might be nice out in the woods..

 

[mike_s]

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

The company that watered out plants where i worked used soemthing like that. They had a 30-40 gallon fiberglass pressure tank on wheels that they rolled around the building. It had a "nipple" on top similar to what you had on your tires to fill them, but just all steel (no rubber). It also had another opening to insert a garden hose with a pressure cap.

They filled it with water then topped off the water with something like 100psi and then the pressure forced that through a sprayer, which they used to water the plants.

I think your plan of using a scuba tank is an excellent idea to push this. Especially the use of the last 500-800psi that's left in a tank after a dive.

Here's some helpful suggestions/thoughts.

A home/house shower head (made in recent years) is designed to deliver I think 1-2 gallon/minute. So 25 gallons would deliver about 12-25 minutes of shower time. (which might be overkill). Of course all this based on water pressure also. While water pressure will vary depending on where you live, most are in the 40psi-80psi range. I think some of the "camper" shower heads/faucets use less GPM and PSI.

If you use an old regulator, the intermediate pressure out of the power LP side will be 130-150psi. A little high for pushing water. You can pick up a air pressure regulator to hook inline with this for under $10 bucks if you want to lower your incoming air pressure.

If you want to fill your tank to 130-150psi and want to lower your outgoing water pressure, you can get pressure reducers made to screw on a garden hose at camping supply stores.

Anyway, you should take some pics and do a JPEG diagram of whatever your final working design is to show us all.

mike

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

This guy has some interesting ideas.

However, it seems you are supposed to pack the Portable bathroom inside the 5 gallon bucket that's also used as a toilet?? That might be fine on the way to the dive/camping site, but what about on the way home??

 

[Sideband]

This guy has some interesting ideas.

However, it seems you are supposed to pack the Portable bathroom inside the 5 gallon bucket that's also used as a toilet?? That might be fine on the way to the dive/camping site, but what about on the way home??

Those "bucket toilets" usually use a liner bag. Remove the bag and the bucket is clean.

Joe

 

[CuriousRambler]

Looks like that guy's just using a single Rule bilge pump to power his shower. I can't remember exactly, but something like 35 bucks gets you an 1100 gallon/hour pump, which is 18.3 gallons per minute. We've got a pretty burly shower head that dumps about 6 gallons per minute, and that's a LOT - 18.3 would be more than enough flow-wise, I'm not sure how pressurized that would be though.

I've got a couple friends recruited to help me out, we're going to get together in a couple weeks and find a bunch of 5 gallon buckets and pump them up with air until they explode to see how much pressure they can hold. A 2 liter pop bottle can hold an astonishing amount of pressure, so I'm curious to see what a 5 gallon bucket can do. Either way I'm willing to bet it'll hold a lot more pressure than you'd want to put on it for a shower anyway.

The only thing I'm curious about is that as the pressure tank drains water, the pressure in the tank is going to reduce. How can you regulate that pressure to keep it at exactly 40psi or whatever you choose? Think a welding regulator would be the easiest route?

 

[mike_s]

ee're going to get together in a couple weeks and find a bunch of 5 gallon buckets and pump them up with air until they explode to see how much pressure they can hold.

Where's WhalerKyle with a "I want to see a pickle bucket explode" thread when you need him.

The only thing I'm curious about is that as the pressure tank drains water, the pressure in the tank is going to reduce. How can you regulate that pressure to keep it at exactly 40psi or whatever you choose? Think a welding regulator would be the easiest route?

go from the first stage LP side (which is 130-150psi) to an air compressor regulator, which you can dial in almost exactly 40psi and then hook hose to tank.

something like this for the inline air compressor regulator.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=36797

 

[CuriousRambler]

I'm actually kind of hoping we come out unable to make the 5gal bucket explode, honestly. It's kind of a split opinion in my mind though. On one hand, you pump the thing up to 500psi and it doesn't explode. Ok, that's all good and well, but what if it was going to explode at 510psi? I think I'd rather make four or five blow up so I can find an average pressure they pop at and a minimum, depending how far apart they are, knock a fair PSI off of that and call that your "safe" max pressure. I get the crazy feeling the lid's going to be the consistant failure point though. I'm wondering if I should try various types of lids or just go with the sturdiest kind I can find (screw on, if I can get my hands on them)

I can't find any tanks with pressure ratings, but there are plenty of cheap plastic storage tanks. 25 Gallon for $75 shipped. Maybe emailing them to ask the safe pressure of the tank would come back promising..

 

[mike_s]

I can't find any tanks with pressure ratings, but there are plenty of cheap plastic storage tanks. ..

These will do the trick for you.

http://www.swtwater.com/catalog/1291_fiberglass-abs_tanks.htm

Composite Pressure Tanks
Fiberglass Wrapped with ABS Liners


Features:

Inner shell is blow molded from engineering grade plastic (ABS)
Wound with continuous fiberglass to provide superior strength under pressure
Corrosion-free
150 psi maximum operating pressure
120ºF maximum operating temperature
ANSI/NSF certified to Standard 44
Available in natural, blue, or black
Made in the USA
5 year warranty