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vanagonjr Samba Member
Joined: October 07, 2010 Posts: 3431 Location: Dartmouth, Mass.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:11 am Post subject: Re: Ultimate Westy Shower Setup |
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davevickery wrote: |
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Solenoid valve to shut off the coolant flow and thermostat to keep water from getting too hot. |
Can you give details on the solenoid/thermostat - such as model - sourcing?
Great job!
John |
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vanagonjr Samba Member
Joined: October 07, 2010 Posts: 3431 Location: Dartmouth, Mass.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:35 am Post subject: |
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Domo wrote: |
Why not just a length of black PVC pipe, mounted on the side of the pop-top, water fill at the front end, and shower nozzle and valve on the back end? It's black, so it heats up. You want water pressure? Pop the top. 5 gallons is enough for 3 showers? So then the PVC pipe needs only to be 3-4 inches diameter. Simple, easy, cheap. |
see http://www.roadshower.com/. This is like you describe, but pressurized with a bike pump. If you make one and truly want 5 gallons, go with 4" dia, the 3" pipe would have to be 13'7" (4.15meters) long.
I seem to be in the trees when I camp, so solar showers never get very hot. Great for washing dishes though!
John |
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davevickery Samba Member
Joined: July 16, 2005 Posts: 2887 Location: Fort Collins, CO
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:21 am Post subject: Parts Listing for the Aqua-tainer shower setup |
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So the parts for this setup include: Total about $185 + shipping
1. 4 gallon water tank, “Aqua-tainer” from Sportsman’s warehouse - $10. I used an Atwood “gas scan” boat tank on my first one, 6 gallons with pickup built in.
2. 12V Solenoid Valve, normally closed, ¾” output. P/N 2W200-20-12VDC. Found on Amazon.com for 35.50+ shipping
3. Two brass fittings to fit the solenoid valve. ¾” MPT to 5/8 Barb. From Ace hardware $6.99/ea.
4. 1 Brass 5/8” barb connector or could use a coolant barb connector from autoparts store. $3
5. 120 degree thermostat (limit switch) opens 120, closes 110, cuts off power to the solenoid when it hits 120 - $19.95+ shipping from mwands.com. There are lots of other places to get these but finding this temp was a little harder. I also found a 90-130 adjustable limit switch somewhere. Siloconed it to bottom of tank.
6. 1 GPM Shurflo Nautilus pump - $46.36 Found on Amazon.com
7. 8’ of 5/8” heater hose from any autoparts store - $10
8. Two 5/8” coolant elbows from autoparts store. $3/ea. Don’t use landscaping parts from Home Depot for coolant system parts, they melt eventually.
9. Two PCV grommets to seal the heater hose openings on the tank. Dorman Part # 42344, $3/ea. Found at autoparts store. This was tricky finding the exact size grommet. Holes in the tank drilled to 1 3/8” for this grommet (I had a step drill bit that was that size)
10. Hose clamps, red and black wire, on/off switch for pump from autoparts store. – Total $20
11. 10’ of 3/8” clear plastic hose to connect to pump and shower head, from Home Depot - $4
12. Shower head. Tub showerhead adapter, $8 at Walmart has shower head hose and end that goes over a tub spout that you cut off. It is simple and cheap. Something to hang it off the door.
The solenoid valve supposedly gets hot when energized for long periods (it does). I may add a cover over it. Will have to see how hot it gets (as high as 220-230). If you want to keep your rear heater, you would need 2 tees instead of the one barb connector. Pex ¾” tees are the right size and you can get them at Lowes. If you do that, you need and extra on/off switch for the solenoid since you won’t be able to use the rear heater switch. I used 6’ of hose inside the tank and that loops around the bottom of the tank 1 full wrap then again up and out each hole. That seems to be the right amount of hose. I’ll test the effect on the engine temps (no effect on stock engine) and see how quickly it heats up the water (45 minutes for 4 gallons of cold tap water 55 to get to 110 degrees). In a Subaru-vanagon, I had to add a bypass to keep the flow rate low enough not to cause the engine to get hotter than normal. This Aqua-tainer doesn’ t have built in pickup, so when you feed the 3/8” hose into the tank, you try to lodge it under the coolant hoses so it is on the bottom of the tank.
Last edited by davevickery on Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:17 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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vanagonjr Samba Member
Joined: October 07, 2010 Posts: 3431 Location: Dartmouth, Mass.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:31 am Post subject: |
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Great list Thanks Dave!
John |
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86syncrowesty Samba Member
Joined: September 23, 2010 Posts: 115 Location: Colorado Front Range
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:54 pm Post subject: |
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Dave -
What did you use for the shower head? Something like a household unit, garden hose setup, etc? Just wondering what the business end of this looks like. Like the idea, I am looking at pulling the rear heater in place of a Propex this would work out well (as we don't drive ours during the cold months that much and the hot shower would be nice after a long dusty trail). _________________ 1986 Vanagon -- Syncro, Westy
2.5L Subaru |
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davevickery Samba Member
Joined: July 16, 2005 Posts: 2887 Location: Fort Collins, CO
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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86syncrowesty wrote: |
Dave -
What did you use for the shower head? .... |
This was from Walmart or Home Depot, it works good but there are lots of other good choices.
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wolfsburg4x4 Samba Member
Joined: December 20, 2004 Posts: 102
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Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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Here's what I installed in my syncro westy and have had in use for several years
Fisrt thing I did was increase the onboard water holding capacity by adding an aux 45 liter tank from Germany. I fill this tank through a fill port where the 2wd fuel filler is located. A transfer pump then fills the interior stock tank. I have float switches in both tanks to prevent running the pump dry or overfilling the interior tank. From the interior tank I run a 5/8 hose to a variable speed high flow on demand pump located in the battery cavity under the driver seat. The pressurized water is split from there, one going to the sink cabinet for cold water, the other to a dedicated 4 gallon heat exchange tank ( heated by engine coolant ) which is mounted where the spare tire used to be and then is then returned the sink cabinet area. Behind the sink cabinet, I installed a shower mixing valve which has two outlets. One goes to the faucet, the other to a seperate quick connect port to which I can attach a hose.
The water heater can be heated by driving but also has a built in 700 watt 110v heater, and since I also have an onboard coolant heater, I can also run that to heat water, but the tank is well insulated and the water stays pretty warm even overnight.
I mosty shower outside and use a 25ft coil type hose. The high pressure on demand pump is great for all kind of other uses. I have one of those multiple setting garden squeeze trigger sprayers and my favorite setting is "mist"which I use for cleaning dishes, shoes, whatever...uses almost no water
My faucet is a Sureflow unit which lifts up high enough for real world use
Recently I added a recirculating feature, which allows me to heat up the interior water tank as well while driving so it basically it acts like a BTU battery tank. 10 gallons of 150 degree water keeping the interior warm during the night. The recirculation system also makes it to where there is hot water right away so I don't have to waste water waiting for hot water. |
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davevickery Samba Member
Joined: July 16, 2005 Posts: 2887 Location: Fort Collins, CO
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Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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I'd be interested in hearing more details about the 4 gallon hot water tank located in your spare tire area; where you got it, how much it cost, input/output details. |
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wolfsburg4x4 Samba Member
Joined: December 20, 2004 Posts: 102
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Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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davevickery wrote: |
I'd be interested in hearing more details about the 4 gallon hot water tank located in your spare tire area; where you got it, how much it cost, input/output details. |
Its actually a unit designed for sailboats:
http://www.indelmarineusa.com/basicwater.htm
Here is smaller which doesn't have as many features :
http://www.adventuretrailers.com/page/accessories/showers_and_enclosures/
neither are cheap, but this is the ultimate shower thread right ? I would no hesitate to build the exact same water system again, maybe my favorite upgrade on the van
The spare tire location give easy access to the heater core lines which I tapped into. I added a valve so i can control how much flow gets diverted to the tank so I don't lose my front heater
When the water in the tank gets hot it expands and the Indel has a release valve which the smaller one doesn't have. So an inside location would need a way to release pressurized water |
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vanis13 Samba Member
Joined: August 15, 2010 Posts: 3100 Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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that spare tire water tank is a great idea. could easily be made by shortening down a 55 gal drum and some welding (also possible with plastic drum and plastic welding) and some copper tube. Probably easy to suspend a heater core in the drum instead of copper tube.
water expansion could be handled by a pressure relief valve (you might have a little loss of hot water) or an expansion tank could also add to capacity http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=expansion...D8Q8gIwAg#
next step would be to "solar" it with a roof mounted heat collector and convective circulation. _________________ 83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
www.SuperVanagon.com - some stuff I make |
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danfromsyr Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2004 Posts: 15144 Location: Syracuse, NY
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:37 am Post subject: |
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www.frybrid.com makes/sells round spare tire aluminum tanks with a coolant heater in them for WVO systems.
something along/modified from those ideas would be decent.. but certainly not cheap.
_________________
Abscate wrote: |
These are the reasons we have words like “wanker” |
Last edited by danfromsyr on Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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2doorsdown Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2010 Posts: 120
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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Frybrid.com
The other is cool though |
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danfromsyr Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2004 Posts: 15144 Location: Syracuse, NY
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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Ohh.. wow.. who'da thunk the intentional misprunciation.
fix'd it so'as not to mislead.
2doorsdown wrote: |
Frybrid.com
The other is cool though |
_________________
Abscate wrote: |
These are the reasons we have words like “wanker” |
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Jon_slider Samba Member
Joined: April 11, 2007 Posts: 5091 Location: Santa Cruz, Crowdifornia
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Blueconundrum Samba Member
Joined: September 07, 2010 Posts: 148 Location: Bozeman, MT
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Jon_slider Samba Member
Joined: April 11, 2007 Posts: 5091 Location: Santa Cruz, Crowdifornia
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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> Is there something I'm missing here?
youre missing the 20lb propane tank, which should only be attached to the outside of the vehicle
"Includes hose and regulator for attaching to standard LP tank"
see the black hose in this picture:
plus it needs a water supply
here is a version that uses the small propane bottles
and has its own 5 gallon water tank.. superseded by the zodi extreme
and here is Bills version, incorporating one of the propane units hardwired to his westy propane and water
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3695975#3695975
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SteelB12 Samba Member
Joined: December 21, 2010 Posts: 591 Location: Central Virginia
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:01 am Post subject: |
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Just pick up a big pack of baby wipes. Under $2, problem solved. |
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Energy Concepts Samba Member
Joined: March 12, 2007 Posts: 352 Location: Yacolt, WA
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Hey now,,,
I can squeak out a shower
using a I gallon milk jug!
soak up
lather up
& rinse...
Warm water?
Why???
I just chant:
Damn that's hot !!!
Damn that's hot !!!
Damn that's hot !!!
JC...
Simplify Man, Simplify
--
Yeah,,, He looked me in the eye by the interstate sign
and said;
"May hope lead you to peace."
"Keep it low and slow,,, don't forget to reap what you sow."
"And keep your machine well greased!" |
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climberjohn Samba Member
Joined: January 11, 2005 Posts: 1840 Location: Portland Orygun
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:38 am Post subject: |
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My solution, an old backpacker's trick:
Procure empty 2 liter pop bottle.
Drill 3-4 small holes in the lid.
Heat water on stove.
Pour into pop bottle, a funnel helps.
Invert bottle and squirt over your smelly self, or have an attractive friend do it for you.
It's hardly "the ultimate", but it is fast, easy, and free.
I admire the craftiness of these other ideas, but wanted to toss this out there as an option for those us us who prefer simplicity.
-CJ _________________ '86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often. |
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oc2bc Samba Member
Joined: August 24, 2010 Posts: 88
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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How about replacing the standard faucet with something like this:
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/sh...Mixer+Unit
And hanging the faucet out the side window. I'm planning on putting 160W solar on the Westy, which should have ample power for the 12V fridge and an onboard water heater.
Thoughts? |
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