Pumping water from a stream for showers
- Thread starter hikinboot
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oldsarge
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How far is the stream from the showers? How many showers will be serviced by the pump at one time? Is it being pumped into a holding tank and then heated? Is the shower facility up hill and how high? Will this be a permanent set up or temporary?
JollyRogers
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Easiest/cheapest way would be to rig up a sump pump to an overhead water storage container. Put a float switch in the storage container that triggers power on the sump pump and fills your storage container whenever it starts to get low.
From there just use gravity for all of your showers.
A decent 1/2hp sump pump can pump 3500+gallons/hour and are within the $100-$200 range and could easily keep up with 10 showers. Most shower heads now have a flow rate of 2.2 gallons/minute. 10 showers would be about 3000 gallons/hour.
A 1/2 horse pump can pump 3000 gallons/hour to a height of 15 feet.
For less showers and less pressure, get a really small sump pump, (1/6hp only pumps 1,000gph), like you would use for draining a hot tub. Then just run a hose to the shower. Wire a switch into the power for the pump and turn it on before you get into the shower. (A timer switch would work well to keep people from forgetting to turn it off).
For less than $100 you could rig up a single fully functional pressurized shower.
From there just use gravity for all of your showers.
A decent 1/2hp sump pump can pump 3500+gallons/hour and are within the $100-$200 range and could easily keep up with 10 showers. Most shower heads now have a flow rate of 2.2 gallons/minute. 10 showers would be about 3000 gallons/hour.
A 1/2 horse pump can pump 3000 gallons/hour to a height of 15 feet.
For less showers and less pressure, get a really small sump pump, (1/6hp only pumps 1,000gph), like you would use for draining a hot tub. Then just run a hose to the shower. Wire a switch into the power for the pump and turn it on before you get into the shower. (A timer switch would work well to keep people from forgetting to turn it off).
For less than $100 you could rig up a single fully functional pressurized shower.
GROUNDpounder
Rubbing stix together
Its actually very simple and can be done with a rod, hinge, momentary switch and a piece of foam + the container for the water.
In any case, just jumping in the river with soap is often the quickest way to do it, but if you are staying there for more than a week and have electricity I would personally rig that up as it would be VERY convenient.
The place we camp used to be someone else's, they used to have working showers, but they had some personality conflicts and it caused them to be shut down. Now they are just shells with hooks for a shower head and corner soap holders. There is a small stream behind it. There is only 2 showers.
GROUNDpounder
Rubbing stix together
Any electricity?
ChadTower
Active Member
Why is jumping in the stream not an option?
They tend to frown upon it because there is quite a current and it feeds into the ocean and there is no regular life guard.
GROUNDpounder
Rubbing stix together
Safety rope, tie yourself off
.Oh me bad, all these years swimming in remote alpine lakes and rivers with no life guard.
Judy Ann
Active Member
YouTube - How To Hang A Solar Shower Bag
I don't think that I would want to camp by water that I couldn't get into. Summers are just too hot around here!
I don't think that I would want to camp by water that I couldn't get into. Summers are just too hot around here!
ChadTower
Active Member
I could see not wanting to make everybody jump into a creek with a strong current. There are way easier solutions than the suggestions here but washing the kids isn't really worth risking their lives.