DIY Shower

[nwbrewer]

I think you guys are overthinking this problem. If you live near a college campus, 15 Gallon beer kegs (made of stainless steel) can be had for a few dollars. Pick yourself up a CO2 style tap, not the pump kind, and it will come with an OPV set to around 70PSI, but you can replace that with an adjustable one. Attach to a scuba tank 1st stage, or adapt a welding type reg to a scuba tank and you should be good to go.

Jake

 

[mike_s]

Jake, I think you hit it!

Execpt we need two of those. One to fill with water, the other to fill with BEER!

 

[nwbrewer]

That's why I have three....

You can actually get old soda kegs also, 3, 5, and 10 gallon sizes. These have their own OPV in them and the fitting to attach to them is easy to find, but the flow rate will be greatly reduced as the diptube is MUCH smaller in diameter.

Jake

 

[Dectek]

NWBrewer hit it on the head.
Soda Premix or Post mix tanks. Known in the carbonated beverage industry as Transfer tanks but Brewers call them kegs. They usually come in five gal capacity and best of all NO modification is nessasary. When you want to refill the tank just release the air pressure and yank on the lid to open it. Need more than 5 Gallons? When you want to cascade them just plug the liquid outlet of tank one into gas inlet of tank two with a small jumper.
You can also use it to test your depth guages, dive watches , and computers. I even used one to leak test a camera housing.

Diagram and parts supply

FREE**** Several years ago the industry went to Bag in the box for Post mix and many of bottlers are now phasing out the premix program and have thousands of these tanks sitting around. You can usually find at least one of these tanks sitting behind any strip mall that has a restuarant because the Bottlers don't even spend the time to Pick them up.

 

[trstange]

this looks pretty cool
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11123647&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

 

[Stoo]

Just move up here to the Great Lakes.... nice fresh water! No shower required! And gear last forever!

 

[spectrum]

The idea of the keg with the integrated and correctly rated opv valve slashes the design risk in a huge way. Great idea.

Pete

 

[lowwall]

How about using gravity to increase the pressure of a simple bucket shower? Just toss another bucket on top of the water column and drop in your weight belt. You'll need to leave enough space in the water bucket to avoid overflows.

If you wanted to get slightly fancier, you could cut a rigid foam float to fit any appropriately sized cylinder that you can tap a camp or RV shower hose fitting to. Something like a Gatorade cooler or old water tank with the top cut off would give you the advantage of keeping your water warmer longer as well.

 

[gt3073b]

If you dont put a water valve on it (keep the shower head above the water tank) then you could just use the valve on your scuba tank to put air into the water tank and force the water up the shower head tube (connected near the bottom of course). If the head were just near the top of the water line, then the pressure in the tank would always be limited to the backpressure of the shower head (couple psi at most). That way you dont need any pressure rating. Just shut off the scuba tank when you want the water flow to stop.

You run into trouble when you use a valve on the water side, because now you have lost all means of keeping the pressure near 0. If the scuba tank is on and the valve is closed, you better hope the tank is full of water so it doesnt explode.

I tried it the other way when I was a kid. I made a "super soaker" out of a plastic bottle with a water valve and a tire valve threaded into tapped holes in the top (yes, I'm a nerd). Even wrapped with a ton of duct tape, it couldn't take more than 20-30 psi before the screw-on top would blow off.

I later made a top-off for my salt water fish tanks when I was single and out on business trips alot (1 gallon of evaporation per day). I used 5 gallon salt bucket with two holes in the snap-on lid. I put a tube in each hole (tight fit), one to the bottom and one just barely in there. A float switch in the fish tank from Granger turned on a small air pump (the kind that blows bubbles in fish tanks). The air pushed the water up the tube from the bottom of the bucket and into the tank. The air pump would stop at about 3 feet of head so no part of this rig ever saw more than 1-2 psi. I didn't even have to do anything to hold the lid on. The snap fit was enough.

Sorry for the rambling post...

Bryan.

 

[costi]

this looks pretty cool
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11123647&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

I have the coleman style that I use for camp. The main problem with it is that there isn't much pressure. Having the hot water source is nice though!
I have to say after all of this great input.....that I think the keg idea is great for a pressurized system. A couple of different types of showers have been introduced: One dc with a pump, and the pressurized system. Both are definately worth developing and I hope to see this thread continue.
I also stopped at Boaters World today to talk to them about boat showers`. They had a couple of ideas but pointed me to the section that had their basic ShurFlo 12 volt 1/2" pump that delivers about 200 gph. I use the same pump at camp to lift water to a holding tank but I loose a lot of pressure in the 300 foot push it is delivering so I haven't tried it on a shower. FWIW, they agreed that sticking one end of hose into a water source, add a shower head to the other side, and 12 volt source, and the unit would be more than enough to power a shower. In Northern Hydraulics the pump can be purchased for 79.99. Simple, but not as fun to develop! Bob