Camping Showers : Staying Clean in the Field
Posted Under: Gears & Equiments
By Mike Scoville from Bushnell Elite 3200 scope
For anyone who camps, whether it’s for two nights on a weekend canoe trip or a week long stay on Grandpa’s land in the north country, one issue that will come up is bathing.
While a camp shower might seem like a luxury item to some, especially for those shorter duration outings, it can be an indispensable comfort for many of us.
The most basic of these camp showers are simple bladder - type bags ranging in size from just a few liters to as much as five gallons, some have a short section of hose with a shower head at the end - others have the head attached directly to the bottom of them. Most are dark in color to absorb heat - you simply set them out or hang them in a sunny location for a while and soon you’ll have a warm shower. Some of these simple showers, like the Sea To Summit Pocket Shower, which retails online for about twenty-seven bucks, are designed so they can double as a dry bag until you’re ready to use them as a shower. This particular model weighs only a few ounces and holds 10 liters of water, giving you about 8 minutes worth of continuous shower time.
For those who spend a lot of time camping and don’t mind spending a little money for the convenience and comfort of an instant hot shower there are other options available.
For about one hundred-fifty dollars you can purchase the Hot Tap Travel Shower, made by Zodi. This unit has a stainless steel burner powered by standard 16.4 once propane cylinders. It’s soft-sided carry case doubles as a four-gallon water reservoir, which will provide about a ten-minute shower per fill-up. The water is pushed through an eight-foot hose via a battery-operated pump (four “D” cells). The manufacturer claims around sixty gallons of water can be heated up and delivered between propane and battery changes. When broken down this system all fits into it’s carry bag and is about the size of a hiking boot. Pair it up with the Zodi Hut shower enclosure for another ninety bucks or if you really want to go for it, check out the Texsport deluxe camp shower/shelter, which is a four-and-a-half foot square full enclosure with rain fly and no-see-um panels and even comes equipped with a corner rack for your shower supplies and an external towel bar. With either of these you’ll have a pretty luxurious and private shower by camping standards anytime and anywhere you want one.
When a more permanent set-up is what you’re after, say for seasonal campsite or other location where you actually have access to a water hook up, take a look at Cabela’s Outdoor Shower. This one hundred-eighty dollar unit is an in-line water heater that hooks up to a twenty-pound gas cylinder. It can be mounted just about anywhere including the outside of a camper - just hook it up to your water supply with a garden hose and it will deliver up to eighteen hours of hot water per cylinder fill-up. It comes with an eight-foot hose and a showerhead, which has four spray settings.
No matter what type of camping you do, if a shower is something you just can’t live without, do a little research and you’re sure to find one that will suit your needs perfectly.
