I’ve tried a few different solar powered showers for our van, all with pretty dubious results, including bags that always seemed to spring a leak, and never quite had the water coming out of the shower head as advertised. Then, a year ago, I decided to buy this battery-powered camp shower, hoping that it would at least let me rinse off with a decent spray. This weekend, I finally pulled it out and tried it, and wow, was it a gamechanger.
Rather than a shower bag where the water heats up in it, it’s a small shower nozzle connected to a hose with a little filter that’s meant to be put in a bucket of water. The water would only be as hot as you made it—so a black bucket sitting in the sun would get warm, the orange bucket sitting in the back of our van was room temperature. The filter thingy works similar to a water flosser, pulling water in and spraying it out. There’s a small battery pack attached, and when you put it all together, it is honestly kind of junky looking. But wow, it works.
I was at Rooted MTB, an amazing women only festival that offers a weekend of riding and workshops, plus the ability to camp out behind a bike shop and enjoy hanging out with likeminded women. The down side? No electricity or running water. So showers were off the table. (There was one outdoor shower, but 200 women in line to use it.)
So I finally pulled out the mesh bag that held my shower setup, expecting it to be lackluster and unimpressive, assuming I’d have to just use a washcloth and dunk myself in the bucket to clean up. But I put the filter into the bucket, attached the showerhead to the back of the van using the suction cup provided with the kit, and then hit the power button.
It WORKED. It was actually shockingly good—the water pressure was actually about as good as it is in my shower at home! I quickly rinsed off, thrilled that my hair actually felt like it was getting clean. The only downside is that two 2-minute showers used up most of my 5-gallon bucket of water, and I couldn’t turn it down. So it was a great shower because of the water pressure, but you’ll quickly run out of water because of the water pressure. Still, it’s fantastic for trailside and for camping, and it’s also nice because the shower doesn’t take up any space, you can use any bucket you want.
I think to make it even nicer, we’ll invest in a black bucket (since we also use a bucket for our battery powered pressure washer, so it already has a spot in the van). The black bucket, sitting out in the sun, will help warm up water.
