bringing a jacuzzi to the playa could it's own thread......rather ot of used school buses...sort of. A successful jacuzzi on the playa is made of a number of what seem to be complicated systems. These systems are actually quite simple when you break them down.cullen wrote:i have a question about your jacuzzi bus and the playa dust. how well is the jacuzzi filter work for the dust. or are you using an additional in line filter?lapeer20m wrote:here are links to youtube vid's of two of the buses. I wasn't into video yet with my first 2 buses.
an ounce of prevention is worht a pound of cure! Clean people = clean water. I set up a crude shower using clorinated, filtered recycled water. I make sure to post a sign stating the shower water is recycled.
Rule 1, shower is required before entry
rule 2, no hair in the jacuzzi! Hair holds so much playa dust. Keep your head out of the water!
rule 3, no clothes. Even a pair of boxer shorts hold a ton of playa dust. I do make exceptions to this rule occasionally
rule 4, the bus driver is exempted from all bus rules....
standard jacuzzi filter will not keep the water clean. standard filter is good to have, as it filters particulate matter from the water. A standard paper element filter does maybe 50-100 micron. The problem is that playa dust particles are small enough they pass right through the filter.
I put tons of research, time, and money into water filtering.
things that didn't work (at least by themselves)
sand filter for a pool, rated to filter the volume of water in the jacuzzi once every 6 minutes.
standard jacuzzi paper element filter
0.5 micron drinking water filter, plugs up too fast.
What does work??
whole house drinking water filter's rated at 20 micron.
They are fine enough to remove playa dust, but coarse enough to last for a while before changing them out. How many do you need? A LOT! During heavy jacuzzi use, i change a filter probably once per hour. However, once everyone get's out, i can leave one filter going for several hours when i sleep and wake up with sparkling water.
Another big problem with jacuzzi's is their power consumption. A standard 8 person jacuzzi is often rated for 240 volts and 40 amps. that is more energy than i care to waste on the playa. That would require 0.5 to 1 gallons of gasoline per hour. 10 days X 12 gallons/day = 120 gallons of fuel. Way too rich for my blood. To solve this, I replace the energy hog 220 volt electric pump(s) with cheap 110 volt low amp draw pumps. I can run 2 of these at peak jacuzzi usage times, and a single pump to run when nobody is in the water. I like to filter water 24 hours/day on the playa. You absolutely cannot beat an eu series honda geni in my opinion. With an eu2000 i average 15 hours/gallon of fuel on the playa. That includes the jacuzzi, chest freezer, toaster oven, several camera charges, lighting, etc. And the geni is so quiet you can barely tell it's running.
jacuzzi will occasionally get like 10 people in it and overflow. it is ok according to the bm guide book to put filtered treated water directly on the playa, but rangers still get grumpy if the bus is leakign water on the ground. to solve this, i just build a simple evap pond under the bus out of black visqueen and 2x4's.
i also bring 220 gallons of extra water for the jacuzzi....just in case. plastic 55 gallon drums are your friend.
what would i like to do to better the system in the future?
I end up with like 100 dirty wasted paper filters. They are expensive, take up lots of space, and this is very wasteful as they are not reusable. I think you could filter water using a centerefuge and be much less wasteful.
i also think that building a real shower into the bus and a big evap pond to handle the waste water would be ideal.
some things to keep in mind.....Inviting people into your bus will also bring in tons of playa dust. don't be one of those people who can't tollerate playa inside your vehicle. You'd go mental trying to keep all the dust out.
i also like to use a hepa furnace filter and a fan to keep the dust down inside the bus. I pretty much only use this during dust storms, but it sure is lovely! I turn off the geni and use batteries/inverter to run things during a bad dust storm so the geni doesn't suck in so much playa dust.
there is almost nothing better than sitting in the jacuzzi eating bacon in the middle of a dust storm. seems almost surreal watching people walk by leaning into the gale force winds.
you also need to heat the water to about 90 degrees. it might sound silly, but if the water is only 70, it's too cold to get into. i'm from michigan, i know cold, and i can't sit in the jacuzzi for more than a few m inutes in the desert when the water's only 70 degrees. solar heater would be most efficient, but i use either engine heat from the bus motor, or i brought a fuel oil boiler one year just to heat water.
One of my favorite thigns to do at the burn is to find a random stranger in the heat of the afternoon and say "would you like to go swimming?" at first they don't really believe you, but hey, this is burningman and anythign is possible. The most enjoyment i get out of the jacuzzi is watchign other people enjoy it. You can't measure the amount of joy and excitement produced by allowing people access to a swimming pool in the middle of the desert.
Ha and yes the bus is a 1960...older than me too!!!
