Showering aboard

  • 29 Sep 2017 00:04
    Reply # 5285425 on 5281783
    Deleted user
    Annie,

    I have used this sort of shower at various festivals and while camping, keeping the tail end in a bucket of water. It is very good for washing hair and face! What you do is you focus on washing your face first, then your hair and you keep yourself over a second bucket to retain the waste water. Now, since the waste from washing your face and hair isn't very bad, you can use the rest to wash your body, simply by switching buckets. You just put a cloth into the water, wash your body that way by scrubbing and squeezing the cloth out back into the first bucket, then use the rest to rinse off the soap and grime.

    I actually don't use the shower head at all once I am done with washing my hair and face, as it is less convenient than a nice rag. I end up using biodegradable peppermint soap and just wipe it all off with a damp rag I keep squeezing into the bucket, and then towel dry. However you could shower rinse off the body soap with the waste water from washing your hair and it works fine.

    You can easily patch in an extension and power it off of 12v mains ;-)




  • 27 Sep 2017 20:45
    Reply # 5283047 on 5282018
    Richard Brooksby wrote:

    I recently bought a Rule IL200 submersible inline pump for under GBP 20. It runs from 12V and sits on the end of a hose. It's been very handy for bailing out the dinghies at my sailing club, as an auxillary bilge pump, and I've used it for a sort-of shower once. A shower head with a hose attachment would turn it into a proper shower. It draws about 1-2A.

    One item, many uses!


    It's as well you have an outboard engine, Richard.  I'm not sure I'd want to shower with the bilge pump on a boat with an inboard diesel!!
  • 27 Sep 2017 11:13
    Reply # 5282018 on 5281783

    I recently bought a Rule IL200 submersible inline pump for under GBP 20. It runs from 12V and sits on the end of a hose. It's been very handy for bailing out the dinghies at my sailing club, as an auxillary bilge pump, and I've used it for a sort-of shower once. A shower head with a hose attachment would turn it into a proper shower. It draws about 1-2A.

    One item, many uses!

    Last modified: 27 Sep 2017 11:13 | Anonymous member
  • 27 Sep 2017 09:21
    Reply # 5281917 on 5281783
    Deleted user

    When I was cruising the Pacific on my Searunner Trimaran I used a 15 litre pressure garden sprayer with a shower nozzle on the end of the hose. Even though it was not painted black the water seemed to heat up pretty well if left in the sun for a few hours. So that gave a good outdoor shower at some pressure, and still did not use too much water, and no power of any sort required apart from some muscle power to operate the pressure pump!

    On Footprints we manage very well with a 10 litre Solar Shower which usually follows a swim in salt water. And at the cost of about $20 every three or so years for a replacement solar shower is very economical. I have also found that at night in the cockpit one can achieve a lot with a large bowl of warm water and a sponge.

    I have never particularly liked inside showers on boats because they lead to all sorts of complications including the need to then pump the water out.

    Last modified: 27 Sep 2017 19:24 | Deleted user
  • 27 Sep 2017 08:07
    Message # 5281783

    I came across this rather natty alternative to a solar shower.  All the advantages of a pressurised shower with none of the drawbacks!  Well, not quite perhaps, because it only runs for a minute, in which time it uses 2l.  Maybe I'll stick with my bird bath.

    However, similar items are already made that plug into the 12v.  These are a bit greedy on your water, but still a lot simpler than all the plumbing required for an onboard shower.  Certainly, you can't complain about the cost, although I have no idea how long they'd last.  If I were a cleaner person, I might consider one!

       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

                                                              Site contents © the Junk Rig Association and/or individual authors

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software