Navy Shower Water Use?

[er9]

Originally Posted by SaltyMetals

I know exactly how much we use for a shower since i have a water counter system as original equipment on my boat.

A reasonable shower (wet, OFF, soap & wash, ON & rinse) will use 12 litres (2 1/2 galls). The record on my boat is 10 litres (2 galls) but that might be bec a record holder gets an extra beer! Visitors who might not be so well practised will use 15-20 ltres (3 - 4 1/2 galls). Ladies will typically use 25 litres (6 galls). Usually the excuse being to have to rinse long hair or conditioner.

The other way to save water is to use Sea Shampoo which will lather in salt water so the only thing afterwards is a quick rinse with the transom shower. (?5 litres? 1 gall?)
Hope that helps
Andrew

Thanks, good info. Thats basically my 'Navy shower routine' when i do shower aboard. I did some calculations and i may be able to squeeze in a 25 gallon poly tank from Ronco. For sure i can easily fit a 20 Gal so it looks like i will be ok.

[er9]

Originally Posted by sailing_gal

During my trans-Atlantic crossing with 3 of us on-board, we found that it took 1 liter of water going through the hoses before the hot water got into the shower from the hot water tank. We took to collecting that and recycling it. Just waiting on the hot water wastes a lot of water. Also, I always use a "soap-up" valve as mentioned above. Wet yourself down, turn switch the valve, soap up, then open the valve and rinse off. Best contraption to have because you don't have to balance the hot and cold again.

I know same on my boat. im contemplating a 12volt DC water heater in the v-berth just for the shower. It will be much closer and with some insulating pipe im hoping to eliminate that problem mostly. Just not sure if a water heater could hold up to the pounding from waves in the v-berth.

[NPCampbell]

If it helps ... US residential showerheads are federally mandated to have a MAXIMUM output of 2.5 gpm. A low flow head is considered 1.8 gpm.

[MrMatt]

The best method I have found for a navy shower is the small USB chargeable camping portable showers found for 40-ish dollars at Amazon or wherever, where you drop the pump into a small black bucket of water that you sat in the sun to warm up or heated from stove.The spray head has a spring loaded on off switch to minimize water usage you can see how much water you have left because it’s visible to you in the bucket and you can use it on deck or below and can be used with salt water wash first and then a fresh water bucket for the Rinse. I find this pump set up works way better than the gravity feed black bags there is plenty of pressure and is turned on and off easily and a single charge does over 30 minutes of showering.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by er9

removing 44gal holding tank from my v-berth and considering replacing it with a fresh water tank. while at a dock i would plumb it directly to the shower and use it just for that, at sea it would be a secondary backup freshwater tank.

im trying to downsize from the giant 44gal tank so i can get some of the space back for sail storage. im trying to determine what size i should make it. it be nice if i could get four or five 'Navy showers' from it before having to re-fill it.

Anyone care to guestimate how much water a single quick shower uses? I'm guessing no more than 5 gallons. If i could get away with a 20gal tank that would probably be ideal size.

We measure our shower use by how many times the fresh water pump cycles on during the shower. Each complete cycle takes 2.5 quarts. Most showers (Navy style) take two to three cycles of the pump, so 5 to7.5 quarts which is 1.25 to 1.875 gallons. People with long hair use more water. I had a crew member who, no matter how many times I mentioned it, consistently used 5 pump cycles (2.6 gallons). I finally told her that I was turning off the fresh water pump after three cycles. She got the message.

While cruising we are able to keep our total water usage to 5 gallons per day, for two people, but that is showering once every three days. If we had a bigger watermaker it would allow daily showers. That would be nice but it would require more electrical power. No free lunch.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by er9

.....



im trying to downsize from the giant 44gal tank so i can get some of the space back for sail storage. im trying to determine what size i should make it. it be nice if i could get four or five 'Navy showers' from it before having to re-fill it.



.....

How many sails are you trying to store?

With your boat I would assume you are trying to store a light wind foresail of some flavor and maybe some heavy weather headsails depending on whether you have roller furling or not.

[er9]

Originally Posted by Adelie

How many sails are you trying to store?

With your boat I would assume you are trying to store a light wind foresail of some flavor and maybe some heavy weather headsails depending on whether you have roller furling or not.

pretty close. plus a backup main. so four bagged sails total. one of the jibs will eventually end up on a second forestay but not for a while. i think i can squeeze it all in but i am starting to question if i can also fit a water heater up there as well...i dont think so.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by er9

pretty close. plus a backup main. so four bagged sails total. one of the jibs will eventually end up on a second forestay but not for a while. i think i can squeeze it all in but i am starting to question if i can also fit a water heater up there as well...i dont think so.

We needed to store sails in the forepeak also. So we put the water heater on the wall in the head. It is a propane instant water heater and it supplies endless hot water on demand at all times. There is no exhaust needed, (just a hatch in the deck over the head compartment) and we have hot water for dishes and showers just by turning the tap.

We've used this solution for 34 years. No Issues.

By the way, we keep seven or eight sails in our forepeak, 3-5 more in the upper quarter berth. You need sails!

[er9]

Originally Posted by wingssail

We needed to store sails in the forepeak also. So we put the water heater on the wall in the head. It is a propane instant water heater and it supplies endless hot water on demand at all times. There is no exhaust needed, (just a hatch in the deck over the head compartment) and we have hot water for dishes and showers just by turning the tap.

We've used this solution for 34 years. No Issues.

By the way, we keep seven or eight sails in our forepeak, 3-5 more in the upper quarter berth. You need sails!

wow thats a lot of sails. i may need a better job.

out of curiosity, do those heaters have an always on pilot or do you light it when you want to use it?

unfortunately im currently on CNG system for the foreseeable future. i may upgrade to propane in the future before leaving across oceans IF electric cooking hasn't matured enough to replace it, but thats still some years away.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by er9

wow thats a lot of sails. i may need a better job.

out of curiosity, do those heaters have an always on pilot or do you light it when you want to use it?

unfortunately im currently on CNG system for the foreseeable future. i may upgrade to propane in the future before leaving across oceans IF electric cooking hasn't matured enough to replace it, but thats still some years away.

The heaters we've had for several years now have a battery powered ignitor (2 "D" cells). No pilot light is required.

Propane is not as safe as CNG, but it is much more common around the world.

Our boat had CNG when we got it, we re-jetted the stove for Propane.

You don't need a better job to have a good sail inventory. I've accumulated my sails over many years, I buy them used or I buy them from China or other overseas lofts, and I repair them myself and I take great care of my sails.

[jrau18]

Originally Posted by er9

cool sounds like my 5gal guestimate might be ok then.

We were about 1.5 gallons per shower.

[ajchan]

Originally Posted by er9

removing 44gal holding tank from my v-berth and considering replacing it with a fresh water tank. while at a dock i would plumb it directly to the shower and use it just for that, at sea it would be a secondary backup freshwater tank.

im trying to downsize from the giant 44gal tank so i can get some of the space back for sail storage. im trying to determine what size i should make it. it be nice if i could get four or five 'Navy showers' from it before having to re-fill it.

Anyone care to guestimate how much water a single quick shower uses? I'm guessing no more than 5 gallons. If i could get away with a 20gal tank that would probably be ideal size.

We have 100 gal of water but we only draw from a single 25 gal tank for daily use. For two of us onboard we consistently use between 12-15 gals of water with two of us showering and ensuring that dishes don’t pile up.

Our greatest water consumption is for washing dishes. On days when we are not cooking our water consumption will drop to well under 10 gals. I would estimate our showers to be 3-4 gals max. With a water saver shower head and careful use of soaps and shampoos we manage to have decently long showers.

[secrabtree]

Originally Posted by Gary Mc

For us less affluent sailors we some times use the sun shower bag.
They are 3 or 5 gallon,it has been a while, but fairly certain two of us got by with one 5 gal unit but we were very stingy with the water.

On passages to or from Hawaii the practice on my boat was for 2 people to "shower" on the foredeck. One would pour a bucket of salt water over the other (or sometimes they'd go swimming), then they'd soap up, then rinse well with salt water, and finish off with a quick fresh water rinse from a "sun shower". A 2 gallon sun shower was enough fresh water for 2 or 3 showers. This stinginess with fresh water allowed for more frequent showering and did wonders for the aromas in the boat.

[er9]

Originally Posted by wingssail

The heaters we've had for several years now have a battery powered ignitor (2 "D" cells). No pilot light is required.

Propane is not as safe as CNG, but it is much more common around the world.

Our boat had CNG when we got it, we re-jetted the stove for Propane.

You don't need a better job to have a good sail inventory. I've accumulated my sails over many years, I buy them used or I buy them from China or other overseas lofts, and I repair them myself and I take great care of my sails.

much thanks Wingssail...interesting. i looked at them briefly, but not seriously because i though wrongly that they all worked with a constantly on pilot light. maybe i will give them a second look. i'm not against switching to propane earlier than i planned although i was hoping to save that project till much later. lots on my plate right now.

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Entirely dependent on your plumbing and shower head. Best bet is take a container of known size, say a 1-gal paint can and time how long it takes to fill it from your showerhead, to get your usage rate. Time a quick shower, and you have your factors for determining your tankage requirements.

Or you can get one of those water flow meters from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Save-a-Drop-P...-garden&sr=1-2