My Playa Shower

[Jovankat]

I see it fine..

[Elderberry]

I see it fine..

Interesting. I even copied the direct link into my address bar and can't see it.

[TT120]

It's in a public photobucket account.

[Elderberry]

Thanks. Today I can see it just fine. Another interweb mystery.

[graidawg]

the only flaw i see is it's only really big enough for one and i am sure the rules say showers on playa should be for 2 whenever possible. Also i think a pump sprayer is far more....interesting

[Thecatman]

Hoolie.
How did you attatch the 2" or so fittings to the pallet? I see bolts but that's about it.

[SquirrelHead]

Hoolie,

Have you ever thought about making the side walls so that the fabric hangs down into the evap pond to soak up water and help evaporate it in the wind?

[Elderberry]

Yuk! That would be gross.

[FreePeacelove]

nice showers. I am looking forward to use them in 2015 BM

great ideas!

[Joeln]

Here is our camps shower and evap pond. We had 47 people in our camp and it was dry every evening. It worked very well. Even with all the rain it collected on Monday, we never had any issues evaporating the water.

I was in this camp (Hi Bill!) and it did work very well. If all 47 of us were showering every day I think it might have been harder to evaporate everything. I frequently used the broom to spread the water around because it naturally would go into puddles leaving much of the tarp surface dry. Another thing about these ponds is you have to keep an eye on them. People in our camp or neighboring camps began putting food waste in which needs to be stopped as soon as possible. Also some camps have problems with neighbors contributing their water to the pond - we didn't this year.

[jfeaz]

@Hoolie, just wanted to thank you for posting this great design. I bought all the parts today for my own 4' x 4' copy!

[rideincircles]

For anyone who plans on using a shower in a bucket type enclosure, this portable shower is available. No clue how long the battery lasts or how well it holds up to the playa, but it does seem like a useful option.



I am pretty sure I will just use a soapy hand towel most of the time. Need to discuss with my friend going with me if she needs more capabilities.

[tamarakay]

For anyone who plans on using a shower in a bucket type enclosure, this portable shower is available. No clue how long the battery lasts or how well it holds up to the playa, but it does seem like a useful option.



I am pretty sure I will just use a soapy hand towel most of the time. Need to discuss with my friend going with me if she needs more capabilities.

I purchased one of these a couple weeks ago and we have been taking showers on the front porch. The hubs and I can both shower using two +/- without hurrying too much. Shower down, turn it off, soap up, then rinse. Battery has made it through six (dual) showers. Buddy showering is always best I bought a bucket heater but I think that was a bit of overkill. You can just heat water on your camp stove as needed just as easily.

[tamarakay]

geez, 2 +/- gallons.
If we try hard we can get it down to 1 1/2

[Weebdog]

you can use a solar shower bag to heat your water. No stove needed!

[Flint]

Finished.

I used left over cedar planks and 2 x 4's from my garden fence to make the base. 1 1/2" PVC and eye bolts I had from another project. I purchased fleece for the sides for only $11 - using 50% off coupon at JoAnne's. I'm concerned about stretch, but this material is so absorbent I figured it would tighten back up after drying in the sun.

Of course an evaporation pool will be added; I plan to try one of the suggestions of placing old towels on the bottom to collect the water and then secure them across the tie down lines over the evap pool to dry and to wick the rest of the water out.
Plan on placing an 8 x 4 evap pool.

Pretty excited thanks for all the awesome pictures and inspiration!

See you soon! Flint

[LowePro]

Hi Flint, that's very similar to our shower setup--great minds must think alike--a few tips we learned:
the cloth-absorbent shower curtain is smart, better than a plastic curtain; the fabric absorbs a lot of the shower water anyway and automatically evaporates it, so it serves a dual purpose.
The constant wind and vibration caused our PVC connectors to pop out several times a day, even when they seemed stuck in tight. I didn't want to glue them together b/c we wanted to be able to disassemble and re-use the shower kit. So, we drilled a hole thru the corner joints (capturing the PVC connector and the tube) and threaded a zip tie through the hole, to keep the pieces connected temporarily. You could also use a sheet metal screw and just drill thru the corner joints to lock the connectors and tubes together. Looks like you have eye bolts at the bottom, is that for stakes? Do the eye bolts also pierce the PVC poles and keep them from being pulled up and out? You'll need something to hold the whole structure to the playa because those curtains flapping around will try to tip it over. We used a few stakes thru the base and a guywire over the top. Good luck.
(I'm going to steal your eyebolt design for the curtains, but I'll add a dog-leash clip to each corner--so if the wind gets too crazy, I can unclip them quickly and break it down. )

[Flint2]

asr9754 - for sure we'll be staking it down. I had the eye bolts, so we figured out how to incorporate them for the connectors at the base - went ahead and incorporated the rest to tie the fleece curtains onto and they make a great towel holder.

I thought about using them for tie downs, but I'm going to "string" it out so I can use the same line as a means to secure a towel that will dip into the evap pool and wick the water out. I am gonna follow your lead and secure the joints with zip ties! Thanks for the tip!

This shower is a direct result of all the awesome posts I found here!

Flint

[LowePro]

pump.jpg

FWIW, I found the standard solar shower bag uses a lot of water and our camp had excess graywater that yours-truly had to deal with on exodus since evap couldn't keep up. Offering a shower to campmates is a great project but beware of water vampires. We switched to one of these pump sprayers. It uses much less water and has better pressure, so was a more pleasing shower experience. I had to search for a threaded 90 degree adapter to put on the spray tip, but once I found that piece in a hardware store, I could bungee the sprayer wand up in the shower stall and it sprayed downward, like a normal shower.

[LowePro]

1235143_10151583898067172_1641106226_n.jpg

This was our first draft in 2012.
Looking a little beat by the end of the week! But you can see the pump sprayer setup. Painted the pump black to get some solar heat.

[Hoolie]

@Hoolie, just wanted to thank you for posting this great design. I bought all the parts today for my own 4' x 4' copy!

Cool. I just checked it out on your other thread. Looks great.

Finished.

Nice one too. I like the orange fabric.

Here is our camps shower and evap pond. We had 47 people in our camp and it was dry every evening. It worked very well. Even with all the rain it collected on Monday, we never had any issues evaporating the water.

Yeah, the evap pond worked fine for our small camp. Very impressive that you were able to accommodate 47.

[tattooedreceptionist]

THANK YOOUUU!! As posted in a similar thread, I've been looking for these threads for a week. Exactly what I need this year.