Hurricane Prep-shower

[Tupenny]

So looking for a hot shower solution to run in the home. We figured out all the other necessities (if anyone else is dealing with this also hit me up I'll break down all the prep we go through), but not how to get a decent hot shower. We have a gas generator and a few solar batteries

We're on a well, so we provide any water to use once the power goes out

So basically, from that info, how to get my wife a hot shower. Thanks in advance

 

[grubworm]

looks like you were in the path. how'd y'all make out?

we just got tagged with a cat 2 a few weeks ago and had a few days without power. ida hit us directly a few years ago and we were without power for a month. we have natural gas at the house, so cooking and heating water wasnt a problem. not sure what size genny you have or what appliances you have, but if you are limited, you will have to probably do a sponge bath or similar.
i would imagine that well water is a good bit colder than room temp, so i guess get a 5 gal bucket and fill it and let it warm to ambient to help reduce the degrees you are having to raise the temp and then heat the water with whatever electrical appliance you have. a stove is 220v and probably more amps than a small genny will support, so you will have to use a 110v appliance like a coffee pot or microwave. microwave a big bowl of water and use a washcloth to do a sponge bath. when the wife and i desert camp, we have a small single burner propane stove we use to heat a 1qt sauce pan of water and either use a washcloth and sponge bathe or add the hot water to some room temp water and use it in bug sprayer or something. we have a 1 gal bug sprayer we use to shower and one time when we forgot to pack it, we used a 2 liter coke bottle and poked holes in the top and one in the bottom and turned it upside down as a gravity shower. nothing nice, but it will knock the stink off of ya for the most part.
depending on how ghetto you want to get...you can also get a heavy duty black trash bag and put some water in it and set it outside in that nice florida sun and it will heat up enough to bathe with.

youre married...so as long as you both stink EQUALLY, it will be OK

really hope y'all made out good and hopefully will be back to normal soon!

 

[Tupenny]

Thanks for your reply. Yes it was sketchy here for a moment but overall not the worse one we've gone through

We have the Onan 4500i, very efficient, plus a few jackery solar inverters. So we're not too bad off in that regard

Sponge bath is what we do now since my waterport is now empty. We don't have a manual way to bring water out of the well so what we have is bottled/contained from our prep beforehand. What I'm wondering is if there is a decent working kit that would run off a generator/battery that would actual heat and push water? This is our fourth one so not really new to the situation however this time we're looking at some longer than normal down time

 

[Viking1204]

You don't have a way to power the pump for your well? Amazon link won't work, couldn't you use a tankless water heater that uses propane?

 

[grubworm]

ok...i see what youre saying now...

we bought a camplux portable hot water heater off amazon and before mounting it in the camp trailer, we did use it out in the wild once. hook up LP, even a little green bottle will last a while and for water, i used a 12v submersible pump in a jerry can that powered off either my 50ah battery or small jackery. that gives a gal and a half per minute of very hot water. worked very well. we use it now boondocking in the camper and it all works off 12v and is very portable. the hot water heater uses 2 "D" batteries to ignight the burner once it senses water flow. i just bought another heater for back up and it was on sale for $116. pretty cheap way to have a HOT shower



your genny has a 30a receptical, so you could also buy an electric instant hot water heater and wire it to plug into the genny and use that instead of the LP version. not much help right now...but might be worth looking at for the future. i have several strip malls and a lot of the tenants are offices where they only have a bathroom and small kitchenette in the stall and i use the instant heaters in there with excellent results. i have some units that are nearly 15 yrs old and still working fine. any 12v pump will work fine to supply water. you want a slow flow anyway to ensure the water has enough time in the heat chamber to get hot

 

[Viking1204]

What @grubworm posted is exactly what I was talking about!

 

[ProjectCleanSlate]

We used the Joolca Hot water system. I have the little 5lb propane tanks and 2 D cell batteries. Get hot very quick. We rigged it with the hose at home when we ran our hot water tank out. Hot water tank stays pretty hot for awhile without power. I have also used the 12v pump In a bucket of water to shower as well. The 5lb bottle lasts about 10 days of showering for 2 people with the Joolca. But we rinse, shut it off, lather and wash and then rinse again. Saves water and propane. Very quiet and don’t need a generator.

 

[Tupenny]

Hey there thank you all for your inputs and suggestions. Not ignoring you just didn't receive notifications there were responses. Now that things are back to normal I can get into these ideas and be better prepared for the next one. The idea is to have a shower crate to keep things organized and pull out the one kit

I ordered 2 more 7 gallon aquatainers(?) to dedicate to some sort of shower setup

If anyone is interested the onan 4500i was beyond impressive with efficiency

 

[grubworm]

Now that things are back to normal

glad you are back to good and didnt take too much damage...
looks like hurricane season went into overtime this year and hopefully we are ALL done with them for a while