Neat little fresh water in an ABS pipe idea

[wopachop]

Saw this down in sunny San Diego. There is a hose bib on the right side. My buddy said its common for the surfer guys to do this. Water gets warmed a bit in the black pipe.

If its 4", and roughly 60" long, it holds around 3.25 gallons.

[richardcoxid]

A gallon of water at standard temp and pressure is 231 cubic inches. Just figure the diameter in square inches and multiply by the length in inches and divide by 231 will give the volume in gallons

[pnichols]

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[pnichols]

wopachop wrote:
Saw this down in sunny San Diego. There is a hose bib on the right side. My buddy said its common for the surfer guys to do this. Water gets warmed a bit in the black pipe.

If its 4", and roughly 60" long, it holds around 3.25 gallons.

If the steering wheel and coach door were on the other side (and the engine was supercharged), I'd rather have this VW instead ... it probably comes with a built-in water tank and water heater 😉 :

[landyacht318]

I use the 4 to 5 gallon showerbag modified with a ~3/4 inch diameter wood dowell across the top, as the plastic tube provided will bend and promote ripping of the bag edges when hanging it. It is also modified with a much longer hose which is pretty much mandatory after using one with, and then without.

When parked facing some degree of south, I can put it on my black dashboard and this will keep other surfers from using it when I am still in the ocean, and it warms quicker than on my white roof.

When there is little chance of sunlight heating the water, I use a 12v heating pad on top of several layers of reflectix and the bag under many layers of towels or jackets, whatever is insulative and handy. One 12v heating pad is a seat heater using a carbon grid and about 30 watts, the other uses regular heating wires and is about 45 watts. Actual wattage consumed depends on the voltage they receive.

Both use about 32 AH to heat 65f water to 101.5f, and take 12+ hours to climb that much. Obviously, but perhaps not to some, the amount of electricity consumed depends on the insulation and ambient temperature.
114.5f is ideal for me as a Steamy hot rinse off after a surf. Any hotter is too hot. The bimetal switches inside the 45 watt pad keep that one from going over 101.5f and it cycles on and off the whole climb upto 101.5f, but this is still refreshing after a cold surf. The smaller 30 watt pad would go upto 140+ if left on long enough and does not cycle on and off.
Even if I forget to preheat the bag pre surf, the pads can add enough heat over ambient, so exiting 59f water for a 68f rinse is a heck of a lot better than a 60f rinse.

One of my cheapo carbon grid heating pads is now drawing less than the 30 watts it drew when new. They come in a pair and if I really need hot water faster I can put one below and one atop, and if that is still too slow, I can use the stove and a funnel.

I've spoken with other surfers who use the ABS pipe thing and they often complain that it does not get warm at all and is only useful in warm sunny climates when the vehicle is not moving, and the parking lot orientation its location can become useless. The wind over the unit at highway speeds keeps the water from getting much hotter than ambient.
I don't think the added weight of a filled ABS pipe up that high is a good thing and it seems too limited in heating function.

I have run my 45 watt heating pad directly off of a 100 watt solar panel, no battery in between. Voltage goes to about 17 and it consumes about 72 watts. The heating wires not in direct contact with the bag fried. I removed the burnt portions and then it consumed 63 watts at 12.8v. It did not seem to heat the bag any faster afterwards but did consume more amp hours to do so. Then the bimetal switch fried and the bag got upto 175f+ and actually stretched out from 4 to 5 gallons capacity.

These bags can tear up near the handle. Thin/ light weight fiberglass cloth saturated with amazing goop can stop the tearing, and amazing goop should also be used to hold the hose to the outlet on the bag and add some stress relief. The Summer shower, and Stearns brands, with the screw on caps are the best available, in my opinion. Bags without screw on caps are a waste of time money plastic and landfill space. I had one with teh screw on cap, a semi clone of the summershower, also be a miserable POS as the threaded plastic cap receptacle would deform if slightly overtightened.

[BFL13]

Some slide-in camper guys use that way to carry more water. The long pipes go under the camper outside the truck rails.

[Gjac]

Another variation on that theme that I use is a 3.5 gal black plastic lawn or weed killer spray bottle that you pump up with air pressure. I camp once a year at a beach for a week where there is no FW, so swimming, snorkeling, clamming and and rinsing sand off your feet before entering the MH several times a day can use a lot of FW just to rinse off. The pressurized spray uses very little water, I just leave it in the sun and it keeps it warm all day.

[profdant139]

So here is a variation on that theme -- I used to bring a solar shower (just a big black plastic bag) and stick it on the roof of the car while we were surfing. Except on cloudy days, the bag would be nice and warm when we got out.

"Used to bring:" one day, I forgot about it and left it on the roof as we drove away from the beach. It flew off on Pacific Coast Highway and splat! Nobody was hurt except my self-image.

Now we have a six gallon jerry can that I fill with hot water in our laundry sink, just before we leave for the beach. The can sits in the back of my truck till we get out. The water stays hot for about three hours, and these days I am lucky if I can surf for two hours. (I'm in my late 60s, so I use that as an excuse for a lot of shortcomings.)

The hardest part is lifting the full jerry can (almost 50 pounds!) high enough so that DW can crouch under the nozzle and wash off the sand and the salt water. Fortunately, she is both small and agile!

By the time it is half empty, I can then lift it above my own head. Especially in the winter, that warm water sure feels good.

[discovery4us]

This was common on a number of our jeeps with roof racks. On a hot summer day in the desert you had to be cautious with the water temperature. We would take a 20' stick of 6 inch pipe and cut it into 5 four foot sections giving us about 20 Gallons of water at about 160 lbs.

That is a gorgeous camper van. Wouldn't take long to find a buyer for that if he was crazy enough to sell it.

[mobeewan]

bgum wrote:
That system is sold commercially or it used to be.

They still are, but they are based on the original do it yourself ideas. One is commercially known as the Road Shower and as made of aluminum and sells for around $400. Yakima owns the brand name now. 4 inch ABS and DIY is a lot cheaper.

[All_I_could_aff]

Reminds me of the outdoor shower I built as a kid at the beach house. I wanted an outdoor shower like a few of the neighbors had, but Grandpa didn’t want any water lines run back there. I rigged up an elevated platform about 8 feet above the ground, painted an old beer keg black, and mounted it up top gravity feeding an old shower head. Every time we went down, I’d run the garden hose out there the first day, and there would be enough warm water for like 5 quick showers after a beach day. Inspired by the showers in TV show M*A*S*H

[Lwiddis]

Inventive. Good idea.

[bgum]

That system is sold commercially or it used to be.

[GKAbbott]

I've seen that system mounted to numerous van campers. Saw one with black pipe on one side and white on the other. I suppose in the right environment, the black could be scalding hot.

[MDKMDK]

Alan_Hepburn wrote:
By my calculations a 4" X 60" pipe will hold about 750 cubic inches; converting that to liters results in about 12.3 liters. So, you could, indeed, pour 24 500ml bottles of water into the pipe...

Thanks professor. But not still in the bottles?
It just looks smaller in the pic. :S

EDIT: You too, Chum lee.:W
Agreed about the van. Rare and cool. Someone must still be making them, as I've recently seen a few that looked showroom fresh. Like new builds.

[Chum_lee]

A good idea. That said, THAT is a really cool older VW synchro camper van in what appears to be great condition. Last time I priced a good used one in San Diego, if I remember correctly, it was in the $30,000 range and it sold . . . . immediately. That's a very desirable and rare VW with a cult like following.

"if its 4", and roughly 60" long, it holds around 3.25 gallons."

By my calculations, that is roughly correct.

"I don't think there's any way you'd get a case of 24 X 500ml water bottles into that pipe, if the 4" by 60" dimensions are accurate."

Check your numbers. You should be able to do the above with a little room to spare.

Chum lee