Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,
My princess of a girlfriend is demanding a shower be installed so we can free camp around ireland.
this has followed on from the inverter i installed specifically to drive her GHD hair straightener!!!

has anyone sourced a water heater, pump etc and set up their own shower, any manufacturers that would suit??

any of the marine chandliers i have tried look very expensive. i just need a small hot water and a pump from gas and 12v really would link um up myself.

i'll frame up a shower curtain off one of the awning posts i have with the van.


shane

Maplins sell a small shower for about a tenner. Simply boil the kettle a few times, pour it into a bucket and top up with cold to get the required temp, drop the pump into the bucket, turn on (12v or battreries), and hey presto, instant shower, the shower head comes with a suction cup so you can sucker it to the side of the van. Or you can get solar showers where you fill the bladder up with water and leave it in the sun for a few hours to heat up.

Be careful with the invertor as something like hair straighteners will flatten the battery fairly quickly

Dave

Hi,

I've got a couple of the solar showers (one in use, one 'charging' in the sun).

If its sunny the solar shower works surprisngly well - however, if its cloudy then the shower is 'refreshing' at best....

Still the easiest way to have a shower though, with no need for wiring/gas etc, plus if its warm enough to stand around outside without much on having a shower, its warm enough for the water to heat up!!

Cheers,

Alex

I always felt there must be scope to make an independent hot water system that is heated by the engine and independent of the cooling system. Granted its not much use first thing but at the end of a long drive, something like that could be handy.

CovKid wrote:I always felt there must be scope to make an independent hot water system that is heated by the engine and independent of the cooling system. Granted its not much use first thing but at the end of a long drive, something like that could be handy.

One of the campervans I hired in New Zealand had just such a system. The engine coolant went through a heat exchanger and heated an insulated tank of freah water so that after a drive, hey presto, hot water!! Didn't have a shower attachment though.

And that principle is very dooable I'd say.

Remembering to fill it back up again ofcourse....

I did have a bit of a search on t'internet when I got back but I couldn't find anything. Thought it might make a nice addition to the van. It was quite big though - about the size of a holdall bag.....

A couple of solar camping showers on the roof does for us.
It's boiling at the end of the day, but refreshing in the morning.

I have a heat exchanger from Oz which plumbs into the cooling system ready for hot water for a shower / washing up, just gotta plumb it in.

Found it on ebay in oz...

Do you know the manufacturer name? I tried oz and nz ebays but couldn't find anything when I looked.

Titus A Duxass wrote:A couple of solar camping showers on the roof does for us.
It's boiling at the end of the day, but refreshing in the morning.

I just fill mine up with hot water out of the kettle 'cos I always forget to leave them in the sun......

Nigel made a 'shower' to clean his bike with at races using an old whale pump, a water container and a 12v cigar adapter. His has a hosepipe type adaptor but could be easily changed to a shower adaptor; this too could be filled up with kettle water (and topped up with cold to get the desired temp )

Peter Gunzl does an add on or replacement for the sink tap which looks like salad shower thing you get in kitchens and can be extended through the drivers door/sliding window.

I've seen copperpipe rolled around so it wraps around the exhaust as a heat exchanger and linked up to the water tank, giving good warm water after running the engine for 1/2 an hour.

Add the two systems together (and a thermostat if you want to be really posh) and you can clip a simple shower tent outside the van and enjoy a warm shower simply.

What you need is something like this. (its not mine)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/hot-water-calorif ... 255b67472e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If you are going to heat it from your engine coolant you will need a blender valve to bring the water down to a sensible temperature to use it.
They are very effective and heat the 9L of water in no time at all.
I have one which also has a small immersion heater in it so I can heat water when 240V is available without running the engine.
I don't have a shower but it can be nice to have some hot water on tap. I think you would need a big pump for a decent shower but that would empty the tank very quickly.
You can just see the tank behind the seat base, which sits in the bottom part of the wardrobe

Circuit looks like this. You can obviously get away without the ebber.

Cheaper and easier to find a new girlfriend?

Cruz wrote:Cheaper and easier to find a new girlfriend?

Speeking from experience............. That would be YES.