Portable Camp Showers

[ninjapuppet]

I'm thinking of introducing some overseas visitors to a multiday hike over this holiday season.
My guests are happy to hike but arent too keen on the idea of NOT showering even for a day. they're cool with all aspects of rugging it except the no shower part.

HENCE, i'm now in search of a camp shower. the idea is that i camp next to a river, dump water (+ boiled) into it and let them shower to their content.
Ive never used one of these camp showers so was wondering if anyone has suggestions as to brand, type, how many litres is required, etc etc.

any comments welcome.


EDIT:
I had something like this in mind, since the bag can also double up as a dry bag
http://www.campsaver.com/packshower

[Franco]

Sea 2Summit have a 10l portable "pocket shower" . About 120 g a bit bigger than a soda can when stored.
I have seen it working. With some added hot water and some sun it works OK.
(could not find it on the S2S site...)
Franco

[Lizzy]

How about a solar shower only $14.95 at BCF
http://www.bcf.com.au/online-store/prod ... escription
only $14.95 at BCF
BCF also sell the sea to summit pocket shower mentioned above $39.95

[walkinTas]

The big problem with a shower is the amount of water. A 2 minute shower uses 10 to 15 litres of water. The average shower is 20 litres.

[whiskeylover]

The 20 litre solar showers are great and plenty for two or three people depending how you shower with it - I hope they're just expecting to have a quick wash, not a stand around under the shower type affair. We took one for a six month trip around Australia and found it was fine, even to wash my long hair. Turn on tap to wet,turn off tap, then lather up and wash, then turn on tap to wash off. Have to find somewhere high to hang it and not much pressure so you need to move nozzle around a lot to wash off. We could both share a 10 - 15 litre shower. Some places we would need to put one or two trangia pots of hot water in and other places where it was very hot we had to put some cold water in. You also need to find somewhere to stand where your legs and feet can get clean i.e. a large rock or we used a 4WD mat. If you are staying in one place then you can put them in the sun to warm up for a few hours (3-4) but we usually filled from water source and saucepan to get right temperature. If you were using it for bushwalking it would add more than the weight of the bag itself (about 1kg) because you would need enough fuel to heat water too, unless you are going to rely on the solar thing. Other good thing is they are cheap - around $20.

[etrangere]

I have both the StS shower and the MSR Dromedary bag shower kit.

The StS one works fine, it has a 10L capacity but found I was able to have a quick shower using only 2 to 3 liters. The downside is that with you dont get much water pressure with a smaller volume of water. As the volume decreases you can grab the bag and giving it a squeeze to get the last drops out under some half decent pressure. I ended up filling it up with 10 liters, taking a quick shower (2 - 3L) and pouring the unused water back into my jerry can (4WD trip), a bit fiddly to do. I found that even when turned off it still leaks a bit, not sure if thats a common thing or just a fault mine had perhaps. Slightly annoying when trying to dry yourself/put on clothes while standing on a small bit of plastic to keep feet clean!

I already had 6L and 10L MSR dromedary bags and spotted the "MSR shower kit" on sale so thought what the heck and bought it. The hose on it is pretty long which means you have to hang the bag quite high to have the nozzle at head height plus also the shower ends up spraying everywhere if you dont grab the nozzle end and direct the spray. I ended up cutting the hose to only about 10cm in length, makes it much more user friendly and easier to pack.

MSR
advantages - sealed bag, easy to fill, watertight tap, easy to turn on and off, tap doesn't leak
cons - you may end up using valuable filtered/drinking water unless you carry an extra dromedary bag for showering, slighly awkward shape for packing, you need to purchase or already have a MSR dromedary bag

StS
advantages - separate bag from drinking water container, packs up neatly in own bag which then has a more uniformed shape to fit into a mug or pack more easily in backpack
cons - slight leak even after turned off, awkward to fill and roll end to seal compared to MSR kit

And make sure you pack either thongs or a small tarp/plastic sheet to stand on otherwise you just end up with a clean body but with dust/dirt clinging all over your feet

[Franco]

The downside is that with you dont get much water pressure with a smaller volume of water.
Reading that I visualised putting some weight inside that shower bag (say a rock wrapped in clothing to get some volume or sand inside a dry sack) to increase the pressure...
(as a starting point 1 brick is 4kg, so nothing too big...)
Franco