Pressurized Water & Storage

[southernfire97]

Years ago I bought a heat exchanger, a copper tube with another copper tube inside it so it is a heat exchanger. Has inlet of one end and outlet on the other. You put a hose into a bucket of water, stream, etc., and pump sucked up water with a 12 volt pump through it and out into a shower hose and spray down. Uses the dash heater settings for warmer or colder. The company that made it was in CA but is now out of business.
Easy, versatile, always there.
Does anyone know of a company that makes such a device today?

There are a few companies in Australia that are making them. I've considered that myself, but ended up going with a 12v pump, water tank and then a Camplux portable shower system for heated water. Just use ambient temp water for cooking, washing dishes, etc.

 

[69machguy]

View attachment 96447

Here are some pics of the Karibe water heater I recently bought from Equipt at OE West. I can port my (pressurized) RoadShower directly into it, eliminating the need for a 12v water pump to move the water source. I tested it a week ago and it worked great. You just can't let water sit in the unit or it will get really hot, gotta maintain flow. I'll post a YouTube clip at some point soon and insert the link.

Wally

 

[Viking1204]

That thing is pretty pricey, I was thinking along the lines of something like below.

 

[dr_r2r]

I use a Sun Joe. Cheap as hell and works perfectly. Battery lasts many water refills and easy to fill in and discharge. It holds 5 gallons and very light to carry.

 

[Viking1204]

I use a Sun Joe. Cheap as hell and works perfectly. Battery lasts many water refills and easy to fill in and discharge. It holds 5 gallons and very light to carry.
View attachment 104173

You're using a Sun Joe what? I tried Googling to find it and I find all kinds of stuff made by Sun Joe like pressure washers but not anything like what you have pictured, what is it exactly?

 

[Tundra thompson]

Found it online, types in Sunni water tank, looks like it comes in different colors

 

[Tundra thompson]

Sunjo no Sunni lol! Auto correct trikes again

 

[Viking1204]

Found it, thanks! Curious, how long does the 2 ah battery last?

 

[dr_r2r]

Looks like they don't make it anymore. I got it from flea bay for $50, brand new. Never run out of battery on a single charge for more than 10 refills or you can power it up directly from your car.

 

[bmwguru]

Looks like they don't make it anymore. I got it from flea bay for $50, brand new. Never run out of battery on a single charge for more than 10 refills or you can power it up directly from your car.

I see them available on Amazon and Home Depot for about $120

 

[Viking1204]

Well after much deliberation going back and forth on the kind of pressurized water solution I want I think I'm going to build my own using 4" PVC due to the ease of finding all the parts I need versus the 6" PVC. If I buy a 10' piece of 4" PVC it will hold 6.5 gallons of water and by using air pressure to pressurize it I don't need to worry about charging it or it draining my truck or Flexopower battery. I can use the Flexopower to power my fridge, a small fan and some LED lights. Once I complete it I'll post up pics of it in my RTT rack build thread in the Overland Vehicle Builds section.

So for those of you that have built a pressurized PVC water system, what kind of pressure do you need to put in the PVC pipe to get good water flow?

 

[Trigger]

My 11 year old son bought me a Nemo Helio for my birthday after hearing me talk about wanting pressurized water. I had looked at the different mounted systems but I decided I wanted something I could remove just for ease of convenience whether that be filling it up or taking it away from the truck. I also hunt so this was a dual purpose for me as well. I used it for the first time this weekend and it surpassed my expectations not just with showering but doing dishes after making breakfasts. It made clean up so easy. The foot pump is great. It doesn’t take much to get the pressure up.

I filled it up before we left camp with tap water. We drove about an hour to a swimming hole and after about two hours of swimming we sprayed off and the water was very comfortably warm. It sat in the bed under my RTT’s shade and still got warm. It holds about three gallons which is plenty for two people to shower and have enough to do the dishes. I highly recommend it.

 

[Viking1204]

After some online research and measurements of my truck rack I've decided to go with a an 8 foot piece of 4" PVC to build my pressurized water system. It will hold 5.2 gallons of water with a working pressure of 220 PSI. Based on what I've seen online in YouTube videos it only takes 15 PSI to get decent water flow and 30 PSI seems to be the sweet spot for what people are using. I've priced out the parts and my build should cost $60 - $70.

 

[DividedSky]

Surprised that no one mentioned WaterPort...

 

[Reaper_st84]

Surprised that no one mentioned WaterPort...

I got this one and the older model(grey color)Super cool and easy to use.

 

[Tupenny]

After some online research and measurements of my truck rack I've decided to go with a an 8 foot piece of 4" PVC to build my pressurized water system. It will hold 5.2 gallons of water with a working pressure of 220 PSI. Based on what I've seen online in YouTube videos it only takes 15 PSI to get decent water flow and 30 PSI seems to be the sweet spot for what people are using. I've priced out the parts and my build should cost $60 - $70.

This would be a good build to document and post. I'm interested to see how you put this together

 

[Viking1204]

This would be a good build to document and post. I'm interested to see how you put this together

I'll definitely add it to my Vehicle build thread I started with the build of my RTT rack.

 

[Ob1]

I've already responded to this on another thread, but I'll just cut and paste... The build blog of the vehicle is in the rig builds threads.

We have solved the shower issue in a relative inexpensive way. It is an outdoor shower and has 2 tanks of 9 gallons each in the location of the spare of the 80 series Land Cruiser. The tanks are made of 8" schedule 40 PVC pipes with caps. There is a pressure reducer from the air tank with a one way valve that pressurizes the tanks. The rear heater was removed from under the passenger seat and the plumbing was used to heat a heat exchanger. It heats up 9 gallons to 125F in 20 minutes when the engine is warm.

The water system looks like this...

The fittings are standard. The exception is the fitting on the bottom right of the pic. It is drilled and tapped so the pipe that goes up feeds the hot water from the pump and the outlet that goes to the left comes from the bottom of the tank to the pump and the shower. I was trying to drill as little number of holes as possible on the PVC.

They tanks support up to 140F. The frame for the tanks was welded from $15 worth of steel.

The circulating pump is a 12VDC, but the key is self priming and sustain 140F. The pump was inserted into a 4” PVC for protection, and mounted inside the rear bumper. It is controlled by a thermostat that costs $5 which is mounted middle right of the panel.

The Shower Head is available on Amazon, but requires fittings from West Marin. We mounted the shower head inside the rig by the rear right sliding window. Some cut the fender and mount it outside.

The Pressure Reducer is also available on Amazon.

The rear heater that resides under the passenger seat was removed, and the two pipes that connect to it were used to connect to the heat exchange unit. If I had to do it again, I would have used this unit which is more compact and will take 40 minutes to heat the water instead of 20 min, but we always have time. :)

View attachment IMG_9442.mov