anyone with experience with propane camp showers?

I'm toying with the idea of making a portable, trailer-mounted shower for use when my friends and I go to these mtb bike races. The facilities at these places hardly ever have any showers. Drinking water is available though, in the form of a water hose connection.

We would make a shower stall out of weatherproof plywood and mount this to the utility trailer we take along with us. The trailer floor is expanded metal, so the water would just run right on through.

The heater is the unknown variable. I have looked online at several models. They are all fired with propane cylinders, usually the 20lb size. Most of them have temperature rise specs (40 to 60 degree F rise at 2 gallons per minute usually). NONE of them talk about the rate of fuel consumption.

Anyone have an experience with these things? I'd like to find some hard data here.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

Do you actually NEED hot water?
Cuz you can just get those camp showers and fill em up when you get there and then leave em in the sun.
They are usually black so that they can warm up the water. You'll get warmish water. Hell if it's hot, you can just leave in your cars and they'd get pretty warm after a few hours.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

I used to use a small inline one after we went SCUBA diving. I never looked at what it was, but it worked pretty well. You basically adjusted the water temp by adjusting the flow rate, the faster you made it come out the colder it got. He had a setup that had like 60gal of fresh water with a small pump, but he could also hook it up to a water faucet if it was avaiable.

I wish I could tell you which one it was. It was fed with a 20lb tank and we used it for at least 2 hours and never ran out of propane.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

I did a google search on: propane shower hot water

It came up with this site and a lot of others....

http://www.zodi.com/

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

Yeah, internet searches are turning up plenty. But they all are lacking fuel consumption data. Yes, we need hot water. We need lots of it.

The ONLY data I can find is on a tabletop coleman unit made for washing hands and dishes. It says it heats 40 gallons of water on a 1lb cylinder. At that rate, I calculate we need 160lb of propane based on the # of people in our group, the # of days we will be there, and the # of showers we are likely to take. I can get a 200lb propane tank (empty) for a couple hundred bucks. If the 40 gallons/lb is right, this may work pretty well.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

i wonder if them soar ones work that use black plastic..but i forgot where i saw it turbo.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

Sheesh, I'd think that a bunch of tough mountain bikers would be able to handle a cold shower or two... lukewarm showers are for tough criminals at Camp Cupcake like Martha Stewart.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

TD- Am I reading this correct? You need to heat 6,400 gallons of water? Sounds like you guys are trying to fill a large Jacuzzi, not take quicky showers. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

I attend an annual pyro event (in the boonies) where outdoor hot showers are provided, and they use some sort of diesel fueled heater. I don't know the particulars, but I will inquire and post back soon.

Peter

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

lol litefuse thats a lot of water . the average low flow head can use as little as 2.5 gpm. so thats 42 hour if i did math corect which im sure i didnt

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

[ QUOTE ]
turbodog said:
It says it heats 40 gallons of water on a 1lb cylinder. At that rate, I calculate we need 160lb of propane based on the # of people in our group, the # of days we will be there, and the # of showers we are likely to take.

[/ QUOTE ]

That can't be right, can it? Regardless, I don't think Coleman is going to have a solution for your application. It's likely that you will need a "homebrew" type plan.

Peter

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

Mebbe these guys can help??

http://www.zodi.com/

"Got a Question??? Call Us Toll-Free 800-589-2849

We are here to help! If you ever have a question and it is between 7AM - 4PM Pacific Time, call us toll-free. We have a very knowledgeable customer service and technical support team here to help."

http://www.zodi.com/contact.html

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

In response to above comments:

Yes, we're tough mtn bikers. But if we're gonna do something, we're gonna go all the way. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I have sent the people at zodi an email. From their web site, they list the CHEAPEST unit at a grand. I would not be the only person paying for this stuff, and we would use it race after race, year after year.

Homebrew... I am wodering if I can take a fish cooker burner, coil some copper tubing on top of it, fit water hose ends to the tubing, light it up, and turn on the water. It might not be as efficient as a manufactured unit, but it would be a LOT cheaper.

Diesel fuel has a good bit higher energy density than propane, especially when the cost is considered. But if I home built a device around this, I'd spend a LOT of time scraping carbon buildup off the heat exchanger.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

How small does this need to be?

You can get inline propane heaters, like whole house units. They are a lot more $ and larger but are tested and know to work.

http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm?dv=3&dp=309&ts=1045105&kw=water%20heater

or

http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm?dp=2201&ts=1045505&kw=water%20heater

You can buy them at places like Home Depot or similar.

Re: anyone with experience with propane camp showe

My idea has been shot down. Turns out they were a little concerned with what we were going to do with several thousand gallons of dirty, sudsy water.