Swampdog's shower enclosuer/evap pond

[swampdog]

I've actually had a few people ask about this, so here goes. This is more detail on my shower enclosure/evap pond from last year, complete with pix.

The basic idea: Make a small evap pond. Build a square towel rack above it out of PVC, use the towels to mop up shower water (and potentially any other low-stink non-toxic gray water) and then dry in the sun.

I cut pieces of PVC to the height I wanted the frame to sit, I think it was 4.5 ft. (as long as you're making a privacy screen you might as well make it high enough to cover your ladies boobs (or your own, for that matter)). At the top of each upright I put 2 tee fittings like so:
- assembled upright

Then I took 4 similar horizontal pieces (I think I went with 4') and attached them to ends of the tees to make sort of an outline of a box like so - assembled frame

I made a small evap pond with some black plastic liner wrapped around some 1x3s all duct taped together. (duct tape the 1x3s into a square, lay it out on the black plastic, roll the excess black plastic up over the frame and duct tape it to itself.) - pond
(This picture seems to be before I rolled the black plastic up over the wood frame and duct taped it down to itself)

I drove some rebar through the black plastic into the playa and stood the frame up on it. - pond with frame. (I also ran some tie-downs through the top cross pieces and staked them down to the playa. This was overkill - there's friction between the uprights and the rebar (esp. if you do as sloppy a job as I did) and I can't really think of a force of wind that's trying to tear this apart. It was solid as a rock with the tie-downs, though).

Then I hung towels on it, and clipped them together so they didn't blow about so much that they ruined the privacy factor. (not that I care so much about privacy, but if I'm going to build a shower enclosure it should at least perform as and enclosure) I used some big spring clamps from the hardware store, but clothespins would probably have worked as well. You do need to clip the towels to each other and the frame some how, though, or you'll be chasing towels across the playa. - final product

Improvements? More towels could be good. You could make this a double-decker if you wanted to. You could make a smaller one for Stank-water and keep one just for showers.

All in all, fairly cheap, easy, effective.

Caveat - I put VERY low load on this system. Probably averaged a garden sprayer shower a day in the thing. In hindsight the evap pond alone would probably have worked for me last year. So I can't claim it as "playa tested" other than that it held together for a week and didn't fail.

Ok, I think I'm done editing and adding parenthetical comments. I hope someone finds this useful.

[peachandpapa]

Swampdog... Nice design but one question: didn't the evap pond leak from putting the rebar through the plastic?

[Lord Of Ruin]

Yep...bet it leaked.

Also, I like the inventiveness, but with an open design like that dust is going to choke it within a few days. Also, unless you put it in the back somewhere, people start tossing crap into it.

How did you clean up at the end? This is always my biggest thing....evaps are moderately successful and then you still have a horrible fargin muddy mess to clean up and haul home.

On yours, I don't know that I'd proceed with the frame. You could build your base and bring a milk crate. Buy some very loose fitting running shorts (those light nylon kind) Simply sit on the crate and bathe yourself. The loose fitting shorts allow private access to the naughty bits while providing privacy.

Done and done.

[swampdog]

Leakage - I didn't have a problem, the plastic to some extent self-sealed to the rebar when I drove it through. Also, since I strapped the frame structure down pretty tightly (see under overkill) it kept the water from getting to the rebar. Last but not least, in my minimal usage I never had standing water. You could throw some duct tape at it if it worried you.

The plastic is really catchment, the towels do most of the actual drying. It's really about getting a support to expose maximum towel-age to the wind and sun. The privacy screen thing is just an added "bonus" (depending on who you've got using your shower). I wouldn't bother with this just for privacy.

Since I didn't have standing water the plastic didn't get very playafied so it didn't lose evap capacity - but again, it's all about the towels. Cleanup was a breeze for the same reason. Everything was dry and reasonably clean. Disassemble, roll up the (dry) plastic with the 1x3 to carry out as trash (you could burn or save the 1x3), throw all the (dry) towels and crap into a tote box, and you're off.

[MoonSplash]

When you say, "It's all about the towels" - what do you mean?

Did you lower the towels down to the water level to wick up the liquid and dry in the sun?

[swampdog]

Hah, didn't I mention that? Yeah, after a shower I'd mop up the plastic with a towel and hang it up to dry. You could also use a towel to soak up relatively clean kitchen gray water. You could even build a structure like this JUST for ugly gray water - maybe put a few extra bars down the middle.

[maryanimal]

I like this! I'm going to make it and bring it this year! It'll keep my tent from getting all wet!