Simple Handheld Camping Shower

An excellent hand held camping shower can be made by adding a vent tube to a 2 liter water bottle:

BTW: I use Pert Plus (shampoo+conditioner) to wash my hair and whole body. This is because it rinses off quickly.

Remove these ads by Signing Up

Step 1: Install air vent tube

Using 1/4 inch flexible tubing

gpay10 says: Apr 11, 2013. 7:51 AM

Very ingeniuos!

jblanton1 says: Sep 10, 2011. 1:30 PM

These days, when I take my family to the beach, I take along a 30g plastic barrel filled with water in the bed of my pickup so that we can use it to wash all the sand and salt off of us prior to getting back in the vehicle. I used to just use a bunch of 2 liter soda bottles for the water -- it took at least two 2-liter bottles per person. The 30g barrels can be acquired fairly cheaply -- often free, sometimes up to $10 each. My truck is tall enough that as long as you are sitting on a stool by the tailgate, gravity water flow is sufficient to give you an acceptable shower flow rate. The bungs of the barrel have 3/4" FNPT treads on the inner portion, so all I had to do is get a barbed hose adapter to go from 3/4" MNPT to whatever barb size is appropriate for the hose that I have on hand. You can install a valve at either end of the hose, dependent upon where you prefer to be able to turn the water off from. Another option is to install a schraeder valve in the other bung of the barrel and to pressurize the barrel in order to get a bit more water pressure. There should be a code something like "1H1/X1.8/150/05" stamped / molded into the plastic barrel. On my barrel, it is molded into the side of the barrel a few inches from the bottom. The last group of numbers is the pressure rating of the barrel (psi). In this example, it is rated for 150 psi. You don't need to pressurize it much... 5 psi is the equivalent of having the barrel water level at 10.9 ft above the ground. Using this method requires you to be able to add air to the barrel as the water gets depleted since as the water goes down, so does the air pressure. A 12V air air compressor for tires will work or even one of the 5g portable air tanks if you filled it up before leaving home. Also, the shower that you receive might actually end up being a *warm* shower thanks to the solar heating of the barrel during your day at the beach.

I choose a 30g barrel because that even when full, they're only about 240 lbs and as such, they're easy enough to pick up when they are on their side (since you are only picking up *half* the weight). Of course, you don't want to fill up the barrel on the ground and then have to lift it into the bed of the pickup. Put the barrel in the bed of the pickup and *then* fill it up.

This is definitely not a lightweight shower solution, but it sure is nice not having to worry about salt corroding the inside of your vehicle or ruining your vehicle seats.

I probably should consider doing an instructable on this, but I guess I'm too lazy to take the photos...

tchiarito says: Jun 21, 2011. 6:17 PM

This is excellent, I made one and it works great! Also made one a little differently, out of a liquid laundry detergent bottle, one with a flat-top, cup-shaped lid. Poked holes in the lid and added vent tube thru center, the water pours out freely similar to a shower. All my camping buddies are impressed! Thanks!