El cheapo pressurized solar shower & washer

[rionapo]

Nemo field test: it works quite nicely but is slow to heat, taking almost twice as long to heat 2 gallons vs. our solar shower with 5. Not a surprise, though, given its tubular shape and reduced surface area.

[rob_gendreau]

Originally Posted by rionapo

Nemo field test: it works quite nicely but is slow to heat, taking almost twice as long to heat 2 gallons vs. our solar shower with 5. Not a surprise, though, given its tubular shape and reduced surface area.

Bummer. Could you lay it flat? to try to maximize the solar collecting surface?

From my experiments with my shower (the $10 thread starter) I've found a cylinder just stinks. Too bad it doesn't work well, but at least you've got a collapsible tank.

I'm working on yet another solution. It would work especially well for you folks that carry external jerry cans; it's putting a tire valve and a stock hose fitting into a jerry can lid, with a PVC feeder tube. Use on-board air, a small bike pump, CO2 or whatever to pressurize the tank and bingo, shower. Those water cans sometimes get rather warm on their own since they're out there all the time, or just add hot water. Although not principally for showering (more for pumping into the van's water tank or other uses where I need water from the cans) it works that way. I always like a solution that doesn't require me to carry more stuff, and in this case it would just mean an extra lid.

Here's a video of the mod: posting.php?mode=quote&f=16&p=104343

BTW, he doesn't mention the tank, but they are Sceptres or LC Industries cans, and they are WAY beefier than the other plastic cans, which would likely fail with 10 PSI in them.

I'm still wondering if I could take corny kegs to store water. With those you could pump in air at even higher pressures and so run an Eccotemp or a Zodi off them if you need a propane heater. If you aren't familiar with them, they are stainless steel 5 gallon containers that were once extensively used to serve up soda. They're hard to pour but have all the hardware to serve out liquids under pressure. They're also very sturdy, and pretty cheap used, usually <$40. I've sometimes wondered why people would use metal jerry cans instead of these, although the rectangle shape vs cylinder might be part of it. I've got 'em for use in brewing and serving soda water, so I've usually got an empty around.

I still carried my garden sprayer on the last trip, however, since I needed a small container to haul some more water anyway. And the shower bag to heat the water takes up very space. Was really handy to have pressurized water, and although I can do that with a fitting to the faucet in the van, this was much more handy.