camp shower question

[Dan]

Do any instant heat camp showers produce a shower similar to a home shower?

I'm setting up a temporary shower on a holiday block for a year or so, we have mains water but no power or gas yet,
and a wife that wont stay more than 2 nights without a good shower.

Thanks in advance Dan

[DannyG]

I can't speak for any other brand of hot water unit for camping but the Coleman instant hot water unit will give a satisfactory shower especially on mains.

[AJC]

Dan, red rock or country comfort instant gas systems are the go. All you need is a gas bottle and water. Closest you'll get to home. We use it in the camper and the wife loves it.

Cheers. Al.

[Beatle]

Yeah, if you have mains pressure water supply, then that's most of the problem solved.

Have you considered a domestic instantaneous gas hot water system?  You should be able to find a secondhand older style that uses a pilot light.  Most newer ones need electricity for the starter, but the old style with pilot needs no electricity.  Just start the pilot light wnen you arrive, and extinguish it before you leave.  Hook it up to a decent sized gas bottle and you can stand under hot water until either water or gas run out.

Be a bit careful.  The older style may not have a good tempering valve, and they can be a bit finnicky when the flow is low, especially if it's built up calcium in the guts of the unit  You can get a burst of very hot water if the system isn't tuned properly (flame intensity Vs water flow).  They can also be tempremental if adjusting the cold water tap takes a lot of flow away from the flow into the HWS.  Easily fixed by adding a restrictor into the cold line.

You'll need a specific LPG unit, not a natural gas unit.

A mate of mine just built a McMansion for the family of four.  He opted for instantaneous gas HWS.  One unit at each end of the house so you only wait a couple of seconds for hot water at any tap.  He's on bottled LPG and still reckons it's an economical choice.

[Renno]

Dan, red rock or country comfort instant gas systems are the go. All you need is a gas bottle and water. Closest you'll get to home. We use it in the camper and the wife loves it.

Cheers. Al.

Yep, can't beat em I reckon.
Renno

[Woodsie]

Dan, red rock or country comfort instant gas systems are the go. All you need is a gas bottle and water. Closest you'll get to home. We use it in the camper and the wife loves it.

Cheers. Al.

x3

[Dan]

Thanks for the advice so far,
Beatle I did consider a domestic unit but my thinking was a camping unit could go into a trailer down the track. and im not to keen fitting any plumbing that requires a licence.
Dannyg does "satisfactory"  mean close to a home shower' ie wife washing hair ect or great for a bloke?
I will look into the brands mentioned so far 

[DannyG]

Thanks for the advice so far,
Beatle I did consider a domestic unit but my thinking was a camping unit could go into a trailer down the track. and im not to keen fitting any plumbing that requires a licence.
Dannyg does "satisfactory"  mean close to a home shower' ie wife washing hair ect or great for a bloke?
I will look into the brands mentioned so far 

Yes mate on mains water your wife won't be disappointed. Even using the little pump when off mains it's still quite a good shower.

[Dan]

thanks Danny

[Hefty]

I have a red rock one and the wife and I used it out the back in a shower tent when we renovated our bathroom a month or so ago. As far as women and hot showers go, she didn't complain at all and the heater didn't skip a beat.
If I shut my eyes and there was no breeze, to me it felt just like a domestic bathroom shower.

Cheers!
Jono.

[GGV8Cruza]

They are running a special at the moment as well

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=35993.0

GG

[KingBilly]

The Coleman HWOD is on special also

http://www.tentworld.com.au/searchproducts.aspx?searchitem=Hot+water&search=Search

KB

[duggie]

Hi Dan,

I use the Coleman everytime I go away camping.

The set up that I use is the same as having mains at the camp, I have a 12 volt pump in the creek suppling water to the camp site via a long hose and lead, I have a stand pipe ant tap at the camp end of the hose and I run a short hose to the coleman hot water system via the coleman pressure reducer, give a great shower and supplies enough water for the missus to wash her hair .

http://www.colemanaustralia.com.au/product/hose-adaptor-for-hot-water-on-demand/1218024?contextCategory=0602#.Uy9IMoX-WV0

Coleman pressure reducer.

The coleman can be used with a large gas cylinder or with the coleman small screw in cylinders.

cheers duggie

[Renno]

The thing I liked with the redrock style is I had the unit mounted on the drawbar in a fitting I had made up it and it stayed there set up for the whole trip. (when travelling unit went in storage box) The Compete Campsite had a water outlet tap at the front which made it easy to use and we used the onboard water/pump most of the time.  I had another pump mounted in a small box for the times we had to draw from a creek, fill jerrys or the camper tanks. I only ever put town water in the on board tank using food grade hose, anything else we would pump out of a jerry with second pump.

The shower tent could be anywhere the hose reached, I put a cheap garden style inline tap on the hose about 4ft from the shower head so the flow could be controlled from inside the tent which is important to conserve water.

Mrs Renno used to like the hair washing as well and I found that if you can get a shower head that adjusts to a narrow harder spray the missus will be right. This setup worked well for us and I think for the price is a good option.  It never failed us. We had two other setups before settling on this one, you just have to find one that works for you.

Now we have sold it and have been swaging for while I heat a steel bucket up near the fire and use the spare pump in the same way, the last 2 times I found if I laid the jerry cans flat and made sure they were in the sun for most of the day they were actually to hot to use. 

If I had to do it again I will go with this set up, good luck.
Renno

[Dan]

Thanks for all the replies/advice I have decided on the country comfort unit witch I have found on ebay for $299 it will be getting a workout at Easter.

[Renno]

Some pics how I mounted mine
Renno