porta shower reviews

[flagstaff]

Hello All, I am considering the porta shower option in my soon to be built Sprinter w/PH top. Do any of you that have selected that option have anything to say that may help me in my dicision? My main concern is how it might hook up to the sink faucet and if it might leak or have low pressure. Any comments will be welcom.

[Ford_6L_E350]

You should hope it has low pressure, or you will drain your water tank in short order. Low pressure and turning off the water when not needed will allow a shower using less than one gallon of water.

Mike

[JJSporty]

Building Our Own Shower

This is what we were seeking in constructing our Sportsmobile shower:
1.) It should be located inside the van for warmth, privacy, and easy access to our clean clothes and shoes.
2.) The van interior should not get wet.
3.) When not needed, the supplies should be easily stored.
4.) It should not require more than one gallon of water to shower, shampoo, rinse, and dispose of.
5.) It should not be expensive.

Our DIY shower configuration ended up being similar to the $300 Sportsmobile Porta Shower. Most of the shower components are contained in a 12” X 6” X 6” toiletry kit. The shower pan for collecting the used shower water is a scavenged 23” X 17” X 12.5” 58 quart plastic storage container which fits nicely into our isle and is also used to carry camping equipment on the road. Our enclosure is made from two ready-made black microfiber shower curtains sewed together. The curtain is hung by easy-to-use open shower curtain hooks hung from two 36” parallel bungee cords spanning the width of the van. The bungee cords are hooked into holes in tarp clips that clamp onto protruding window seams of the raised penthouse top.


The bottom of the shower curtain is tucked into the plastic shower pan and the open side of the shower curtain is overlapped facing the counter. A 24” bungee cord which can take the weight of a gallon of water is hung from the penthouse “J” hook. (The “J” hook is part of the mechanism that secures the penthouse in the lowered position.)

An empty one gallon milk jug is our measuring device. If we have access to hot water from the campground or our water heater, we use that. If we need to heat water, we fill our coffee pot from the gallon jug and bring it to a boil on our propane Coleman stove. The remaining water is poured into the Seattle Sports camping bucket which is made of a rubberized fabric and folds up flat. The boiling water is added to the cold water and mixed. We fill a 20 oz. plastic Snapple bottle with the warm water, add a couple of tablespoons of liquid shampoo, put the cap on and mix. The bucket of water is hung on a bungee from the “J” hook on the van roof inside the shower enclosure.

To shower, pour the Snapple bottle of diluted shampoo over your hair and body and wash. To rinse, dip the heirloom Tupperware tumbler into the warm water and rinse your hair and body. A gallon of water is more than you actually need to take a good shower but the hot water feels so wonderful that we always use the entire amount. After drying off, we step out onto a 20” X 27” synthetic chamois. We empty the used shower water into the sink or outside if that is allowed where we camp. After all the shower parts are dry, they are packed back up into the toiletry bag.

We decided against connecting a shower wand hose to the sink faucet at this time as we plan to do most of our camping without hookups. A few unregulated volume showers would quickly deplete our 12.5 gallons. Water is also wasted obtaining the correct temperature mix with a two handle faucet. Another thing we discovered as we experimented with different methods was a fine spray actually feels colder than pouring a stream of water over your body.

We found the tarp/canopy clips for attaching the bungee cords to the seams of the penthouse canvas to be a quick, removable solution in this application. They look like they could be useful for other tasks as well.

[larrie]

Originally Posted by jlsenge

Building Our Own Shower
.

That is a great setup. Very well thought out. Have been thinking about ways to do a shower outside the van but your solution is much better and very private. Thanks for sharing.


Larrie
89 Ford 2WD penthouse

[tmtm]

Nice job.

[MikewTV]

I think the home made set ups are interesting and much more affordable. I did order the porta shower. i am happy I have it but - I admit it is made of very basic stuff and yet is pricey. While I have used it in the van on occasion, I would say the best way I like to use it is just attaching the shower hose to the sink and putting the shower out the kitchen window to outside. If I am remote - I just shower beside the van. If I am in a campground with others, I have a shower shelter I can set up. I replaced the contantly dribbling/never off shower head that comes with it by getting the shower head from camping world that someone mentioned on this site in another thread. So, I have 3 options, in van, beside van, or beside van with shower tent. (the latter two probably could have been achieved by just buying a quick connect sink adaptert and shower hose attachment at a plumbing supply place?) I have found the inside shower is a bit tricky becuase I am 6'1 and 225lbs. I have nearly slipped and fallen a couple times since space is tight and pan is slippery. If I feel, the bungees might rip down the penthouse paneled cieling and a pan of water would wash over the SMB floor. Not so good. But, I have not fallen, just nearly. I still like to have this option. I have the 110volt hot water heater and 17 gallon fresh water tank. On short weekend boon docking trips i can get away with this and not totally kill my batteries or water supply. But, It comes close to killing it. If I had hook ups the showers could be unending outside the van, and inside limited only by full tub of water.
OF COURSE, as said many times here in other posts, if you are in a campground - you are likely going to use their showers.

[JJSporty]

Here are some photos of tarp clips we used to attatch bungee cords to penthouse seams. They are very inexpensive at 4 for less than $4 at Walmart. The other is the toiletry bag everything stores in.

We have stayed in a number of California State Campgrounds which have fairly nice hot showers fueled by rolls of quarters. What we dislike is the challenge of redressing in the shower enclosure. It can be difficult to keep your clean clothes dry as the “dressing area” usually gets wet. Since the shower floor is generally of questionable cleanliness, shower shoes are required. After getting clean, there is the shower dance of standing on one foot on top of your shower shoe, drying off, dressing one side of your body then switching for side two. This is repeated if you want to put clean, dry feet into clean socks and shoes. One option is to wear minimal/dirty clothing and shower shoes to the shower and to change into clean clothes after returning at camp. If it is cold out, it would be nice to change only once.

[flagstaff]

Thank you all so much for your great design options. For years my wife and I were content with sponge baths when we got crusty on extended camping trips or after a long run. Nothing beats a warm shower.

[John and Dana]

We use our indoor shower quite a bit and have made a few change with the plumbing.

The shower faucet didn't work well because there was not way to easily shut off the flow of water. The first thing I did was install a tempering valve so we didn't have scalding water from the flatplate water heater. I think SMB West installs these as standard equipment now. I set the hot water temp. so it was comfortable for showering so there is no wasted water trying to get the temperature set. I then cut into the hot water line under the sink and installed a diverter and flexible line with a hand held shower with a shut off. It works great and you can get clean and wash your hair with about 1.5 gallons of water. All of the parts with the exception of the tempering valve was purchased at our local Ace Hardware.

Cheers,
John

[OttoVolcomSMB]

I have the outdoor shower. It works but gets messy. We use a bucket to stand in. If I could do it again I would get the eb with the highest roof available and have an indoor shower potty combo. Good luck.