If you're a surfer or a swimmer, you know how good a hot shower can be, especially in winter. Back in the day my uncle used to carry a 2L plastic milk carton for washing his feet. In winter he'd fill it up with warm tap water, but it'd be very dependent on how long he was in the water.
These days you can get gas hot water systems for your van or car that supply hot water on demand, such as Kickass, which is plumbed into the gas and a water tank and heats the water as you use it. There's also pump showers, which you have to fill with hot water yourself, and ones that work off mini gas canisters, and 12V ones.
All with a price tag.
We also didn't want to set up a permanent hot water system and have a gas bottle inside - more trouble than we believed it was worth, and it'd take up space. So in the Defender, we simply carried this Companion lithium powered pump. Pop the pump into a bucket of water that you've heated with a kettle, and away you go. It uses up about 2 litres of water to wash and condition hair and soap your bits and luxuriate a little, so we were really pleased with how it performed. Plus, the lithium battery seems to last for ages, and I haven't plugged it in yet. It simply plugs into the USB in the car, so super easy, and the pressure is reasonable. They retail for around $60 AUD and I really like it.
But, what I really wanted was a surfing shower for my van, one that's easy to set up and that can wash me off after a surf in the morning so I can go to work reasonably unsalty and unsandy. I have no problem standing in my wetsuit bucket to wash off my feet, so the shower basin was sorted.
What I ended up getting was a $19 drink cooler from KMart, and utilising an insulated picnic bag I had, which cost around $30 at the time. The cooler is pictured below - you can also get 15L ones. 5L is plenty for my personal use. The large opening at the top meant that I could drop my pump right in. Luckily, as you'll see in a minute, it fit perfectly inside the picnic bag with room to spare at the side.
The aim is to get an perfect shower temperature, which is meant to average average of 98°F (37°C) to 101°F (38.3°C) or no more than 105 °F (41°C). I like it on the hot side, and figure I can always add some cold water, so ideally I'm aiming for 41 to 45 degrees. That's actually the average 'hot adult shower' temperature.
Test 1
The first test was in the cooler without any insulation, using hot tap water at 50 degrees.
After 2.5 hours, the water had cooled to 38 degrees. Given this was in a warm house, I worried that on a freezing day, the water wouldn't be warm enough for my liking.
The second test was putting hot water from the tap AND a full boiling jug of kettle water in there, bringing the temperature up to 68 degrees in total.
After 1.5 hours, the temperature had dropped to 58 degrees - too hot! However, this was also fantastic, because in theory I could run the shower to drain a little, and add 1L of cold water from a bottle I could keep for this purpose.
If I surfed for two hours, the water temperature would, in theory, be a lot cooler. If it dropped another 10 degrees it'd still be 48, thus to add a splash of cold would bring it down to the right temperature.
However, I imagine that a full kettle of water is time consuming as I usually make two coffees first, one for Jamie and one for me, so to boil another full kettle takes too long and use up too much energy.
***Interlude: Setting Up the Shower in the Van
Whilst I was waiting for the time to pass, I set up the shower unit in the van. It sits nicely behind the seat, where I have my sunblock, toothpaste, deodorant, foundation and so on, just in case I have to work.
I'm super happy with the set up as it doesn't take up much more footprint in the van that usual. When I get changed out of my wetty, the black bucket slides outside and onto the ground, and I stand inside that to get changed. It's now super easy to carry the bag and cooler inside.
I also realised that in winter, I could feasibly throw my jean and tshirt in the bag next to the drinks cooler as it was pretty toasty in there. Can you imagine that after a cold surf? Sooo good!
Test 3
Of course I skipped a step here - I could have tried just hot water from the tap in the insulated bag. This is what I do for this test, except I top it up with a third of a kettle so it's 55 degrees. This seems easy and feasible for the morning routine - wake up, boil kettle, make takeway coffee, fill the jug with hot tap water, top up to 55 degrees.
At 2.5.hours, the water was still hot at about 48 degrees, so with a splash of cold water in there it was perfect!
But when it came down to a dawn surf, guess what I did? Filled it up with hot tap water and chucked it in the bag and rushed off. Thermometers be damned, surf was on....
Actually, the surf was terrible, but the shower was a 10.
I even took a photo of me in shower mode for the Surf Hive crew....Pamela Anderson I ain't, but hey, authentic definitely..
Final Verdict
Oh my freaking god. I am a genius. To the absolute envy of everyone at the beach, I have a perfect hot water system for less than $100 dollars, less if you take away the fact I already had the picnic bag and you can pick up a drinks cooler at a charity shop for virtually nothing.
Yup. I'm a genius.
What do you use for a camp or surf shower? Did you make your own or buy one?
With Love,
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