Planning to make outdoor shower with 55 gallon barrel

[Brettmm92]

As the title says, I'm very interested in an outdoor shower with water heated by sunlight. I have a nice black plastic 55 gallon barrel with a removable, locking lid and some space to put it. I'm willing to take some time and money to make this more than half assed. Does anyone have any ideas or inspiration? I also have a smaller, 8 gallon bucket but I'm thinking there wouldn't be enough water and a 55 gallon could retain heat better as it gets colder. This project has a blank slate so far but I'm hoping to eventually get it so it has one of those nice big "sunflower" like shower heads. I have never used one but I feel like showers with a pull string (like a ceiling fan) exist and would like to use that. The main question I have is what piece to look for to establish the plumbing on the barrel. Specifically, I'm going to make a hole in the barrel so the piece that connects to the barrel (and ends up becoming a showerhead) has to have two bigger pieces on the outside and inside of the barrel. For example, when you drill a hole for a bolt you sometimes use a washer on each end to compensate that the bolt is smaller than the hole. And a recommendation on materials would be great.

Thanks ahead for your time, all input is appreciated!

[GordonThree]

Brettmm92, no, I'll continue to chlorinate it, since it is drinking water. It's interesting, as I applied the coating quite heavily and in multiple coats, how little light it actually blocks. I stuck a camera into the tank to inspect my paint job from the inside, and it's quite bright in there.

[Brettmm92]

GordonThree, that sounds like a nice setup. Would you ever consider just filling the now black tank with water with no chlorine, or is that just asking for trouble? And about the thermosiphoning, do you mean you actually pump the water enough of a trash barrel that way to spray it on cars?

DrewE, facinating. And I might want to expand it in the future but for right now I'm just wanting to make a black water barrel with a decent connection to a shower head. But the point of the decent connection is so I can expand it to be cabable of "thermosiphoning"

Mobeewan, nice username! And you got a point about 55 gallons being a lot.

Rockhill, Those propane heated showers are cool but I'm kind of interested in trying to get a real basic, low cost system going on. I do have a propane water heater on my camper that is more frustrating than dependable. But I am gonna bookmark your link in case the project doesnt work out.

Mexicowanderer, that's very creative and good to know. Makes me want to eventually make a custom shower head.

BFL, thats interesting. Do ya'll buy milk not by gallon?

valhalla360, that's a shame to hear about your friend. And I'm on private property, and only me for the shower. I'm now seeing how 55 gallons is a lot, maybe I'll test the shower on a smaller barrel first.

Ralph, lol at the Haiti shanty town comment. I'm glad I at least have freedom to make stuff in private.

[valhalla360]

Ralph Cramden wrote:

My experience with that was when my now brother in law had a trailer in a seasonal campground here in PA back in the 1990's, near Youghiogheny Lake actually. In his case it was not the health inspector but the township tax collector. Even though he and all the other seasonals were just renting, they all started getting nice fat property tax bills based on the assumed value of the sheds, decks and porches they had constructed. They should of sent the building inspector as some of that stuff looked like something you would see in a Haiti shanty town.

Given the appearance of most of the seasonal places around here now days I don't see an issue with an outside shower even if you were using it in your birthday suit @ high noon on Memorial day LOL.

Honestly can't say who it was as it was 3rd hand I found out.

The camp we are staying at is a lot nicer than the one in your picture. Nice enough people, basically most use it as a summer cabin.

As I said in a previous post, it's kind of silly to prohibit outdoor showers but per the code...

[Ralph_Cramden]

valhalla360 wrote:


It's a seasonal campground and a lot of people build decks, sheds and other attachments on the lot.

My experience with that was when my now brother in law had a trailer in a seasonal campground here in PA back in the 1990's, near Youghiogheny Lake actually. In his case it was not the health inspector but the township tax collector. Even though he and all the other seasonals were just renting, they all started getting nice fat property tax bills based on the assumed value of the sheds, decks and porches they had constructed. They should of sent the building inspector as some of that stuff looked like something you would see in a Haiti shanty town.

Given the appearance of most of the seasonal places around here now days I don't see an issue with an outside shower even if you were using it in your birthday suit @ high noon on Memorial day LOL.

[valhalla360]

Ralph Cramden wrote:

I've never seen a health inspector stop by the campground, but I guess stranger things have happened. Now the shower police are a different story, they seem to be everywhere.

It's a seasonal campground and a lot of people build decks, sheds and other attachments on the lot.

You probably didn't know the inspector stopped by the campground (I didn't know either till my friend was complaining about being told to remove it). But they do check them out periodically. The reason given was that there was no gray water containment system and that doesn't pass code.

Since the OP said he was installing it semi-permanent, I assume a similar type of park and therefore potentially could have a similar issue.

[Ralph_Cramden]

valhalla360 wrote:


Also, is this at a campground or other place where the health inspector may stop by? A friend just had to remove the outdoor shower he built because the inspector came by and said it didn't meet code (silly but the campground still had to tell him to remove it)

I've never seen a health inspector stop by the campground, but I guess stranger things have happened. Now the shower police are a different story, they seem to be everywhere.

[valhalla360]

How many people will be taking a shower? 55gal is a lot of water.

If you are going to fill it daily, you probably need some supplemental heating, particularly outside of the heat of summer. A small pump running it thru a black hose would do the trick.

Also, is this at a campground or other place where the health inspector may stop by? A friend just had to remove the outdoor shower he built because the inspector came by and said it didn't meet code (silly but the campground still had to tell him to remove it)

[BFL13]

Off topic trivia---- we always called those "45 gallon drums", Same drum as the Americans called "55 gallon drums". That was back when we had proper gallons, not those tiny US little things. Now since 1975, it is all in litres or kilopascals or something or other.

I'm with the poor confused hardware store owner who in 1975 advertised a special deal on "Metric Yardsticks"! 🙂

OK, return to regular programming----

[MEXICOWANDERER]

For long term camping I used 25' of 6" PVC pipe in a coil. Wanting it to heat faster I used Reynold's extra heavy aluminum foil beneath it. Have to be very careful about too high of heat. Used a standard 3.2 gal/min to push water in the far end. Rather than a flooder I used a pair of water saver nozzles angled 45 against each other and a spring loaded ball lever bronze valve and a chain for release. If the coil gets too hot throw a tarp over it.
All the gear was a PITA to manage so only the piping was loaded up after use. But I stayed in one spot for many months.

For the heavy sunshine shower bag use a DEER DRESSING rope and pulley set that fits in your pocket. Had four of them horse packing

[rockhillmanor]

Propane tankless hot water heaters IMHO the way to go. We used them all the time for washing the horses at horse shows. And then took it with me when I went full time. Numerous brands to choose from and different sizes of propane tanks needed.
(If you decide to buy one go to the horse websites the same unit sells for WAAY less than if you buy the same thing off an RV site.:W)

Here's just one. Its' the one I used for years.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ECCOTEMP-5-Liter-Gas-Portable-Camp-Water-Heater-with-Shower-Head-L5-1-5-GPM...


Girl not included! :B

[rockhillmanor]

I bought one of those black bag CG showers I think it was only around 6 gal. Do you know how heavy that was trying to hang it high enough in a tree with one hand?! 50 lbs! Ended up never using it.

There is 8.34 lbs per gallon of water.
Your 55 gallon barrel would weigh 458 lbs filled with water!

I sure hope you are planning on bolting that thing down real securely to something 'real' substantial!

Since it 'will' be hanging over your head! :W

They sell little portable propane heated showers. They work great.

[GordonThree]

If faster heating is needed, the thermosiphon mentioned by DrewE is a nice "free" method, since convection pumps the water.

For the impatient a small bilge pump or aquarium power head can be used, along with 50+ ft of garden hose. Lay the hose in the Sun in a snake pattern, such that both ends can reach the holding tank. Attach one end to the discharge of a submersible pump, and the other end to the edge of the barrel for the water to return.

I use this method with a 32 gallon trash barrel for washing cars, the water is uncomfortably warm within an hour or less.

[mobeewan]

When I was younger I tried using a 55 gallon Blue Barrel and left it sitting in the sun. I already had the barrel. The water only heated up a slight amount. I thought about painting the barrel black, but gave up on the idea since I was tent camping and didn't really feel like hauling the barrel around and it was a lot of water to heat at one time in such a large container. There were also other things available like Zodi Hot Man portable burner units.

55 gallons is a lot of water to heat at one time in a large barrel while camping. You might be better off using 6 inch black ABS pipe cut into 6 foot lengths and using elbows to connect them. You could hauling them on top of your vehicle roof rack. I've seen YouTube videos where this looks like a pretty effective way of heating water in the Sun. Especially since you're dealing with 6-inch diameter spread out over a longer area of pipe being more efficient to heat.

[DrewE]

I lived for a year in a house (in the tropics, in Indonesia) that had a solar water heater setup. I never saw the entire guts of it, but I think the basics consisted of a barrel and a very simple solar collector of pipe in something like a cold frame. It supplied more than enough very hot shower water for us on all but the few completely rainy days...which, rather unfortunately, were exactly the days when a hot shower would be the most welcome.

A little googling should show a variety of contraptions along these lines. If you get the positioning and plumbing right, you can have the water circulate from the collector to the tank via convection, which makes it about as simple and maintenance-free as is possible. Something like a toilet float valve to fill the tank automatically would not be a bad idea.

If you use a metal tank and other appropriate materials, you can perhaps rig up a grate underneath it and build a wood or charcoal fire to heat water at times when solar energy fails you.