Solar shower or a

[vic008]

Gardening pump up pressured type? (Perhaps painted black) Any preference?

[wholybee]

I wasn't happy with a solar shower. It's got to be really high to get good flow, and it never got warm. Maybe in the tropics it would.

I haven't tried a garden sprayer, but with the right nozzle I would expect it to work better. Maybe you can drill the holes larger for more flow.

[Sos]

We have used a garden sprayer and it works well. Never tried painting it black just used kettle water.
Have used a solar shower and found the best way was to hang up above the hatch in our heads and fit a longer pipe.

[kayakerChuck]

I commonly heat water on the stove for the solar shower. It works great.

[Mike OReilly]

The solar bags never really worked that well. We went to a solid garden sprayer. I was able to find a black one. It's worked great for many years now. I just converted the spray trigger to a more useful arrangement using a sink sprayer.

I prop it up under the dodger, so it gets lots of sun and no wind. Heats up very well -- sometimes too hot. On the rare occasion when it's not hot enough, we boil a bit of water and add it.

[Greatest Lakes]

Back in the 90s we tried solar showers. We would lay 3 or so of them out on the deck in as close to direct sunlight as we could muster, and use a shackle and a halyard to pull it a little ways up the backstay. I was a kid, so it was passable, but it never got much above pool water temperature as far as I could tell, and flow was pathetic. A deck wash pump works if you don't mind chilly. An electric water heater for a camper works wonders with a generator or shore power. There are a few small instant hot water heaters if you can manage the power.

[Craig Cape Town]

On a small boat I prefer the solar bag as it packs down and takes up very little space. Hang em high for better flow and place out of the wind to warm.
The bag handle is often too short and will eventually eat into the plastic and tear. Replace with a piece of electrical conduit long enough to span the width of the bag.

[Bellinghamster]

I'm surprised so many commenters didn't like their solar showers. Ours worked great (tho in the tropics). We'd fill in the morning and leave on the deck during the day, then hang from the solar arch for quick rinse on the aft deck after swimming, or hung from the boom gallows and hose lead through the overhead hatch of the aft head shower if we wanted more privacy. Sure, it doesn't get steaming hot, but that wasn't ever needed/wanted. I can't imagine a pressure sprayer working as well (very low flow, fine mist or stream) and they'd take up a lot more precious space.

[thinwater]

If it is hot enough that a solar shower really works well, I prefer an ambient temperature shower (remember, it is not going to be cold water coming out of the ground).


If the sun is up and it is hot enough to warm a solar shower, you are just going to sweat up again. Better to wait until well after dark, just before bed. But by then the solar shower has cooled down. You may want the cool water to help you cool down anyway.



If it is cold/cool, you probably don't want a shower. A boat that would use a solar shower does not have a heated shower compartment, and if they did, they would have hot water. You will be in the cockpit. So a sink sponge bath is going to make more sense.


So it never made sense to me, and I had several. I would take ambient temperature showers when I had a smaller boat. They were good on a hot day.


As for the water supply, the boat probably has a tank and it's easy to rig up low-pressure water with a little pump and switch. Then attach either a kitchen sink pot washer (better) or flex shower head and valve. Easy and low flow at low pressure. I put a long hose on mine and just pulled it out from the galley. Many uses.

[fox9988]

We use a pump up sprayer painted black with Fusion paint. Cut the wand down to 6", heat it and bend it 45 degrees. We take a good showers with a quart of water each.

[Mike OReilly]

I've always sailed in coolish areas, and the water in our black sprayer tucked under the dodger does get hot, even when the ambient temperature is cool. If you can get direct solar heating, and keep the sprayer insulated from wind, it will get quite hot, even in colder climes.

[barnakiel]

I have been using a black plastic solar shower and I am very happy with this. 30 years or so.


They come in various grades and the ones in harder plastic last longer. When the plastic is very thin, they tend to rip open now and then.


barnakiel

[Marathon1150]

We have used solar showers, garden sprayers painted black and a bucket with a scoop for cockpit showers. To conserve water, the garden sprayer is the best - research done a number of years ago in the Sahel region of Africa showed that it was possible to take a cleansing, but not nedessarily satisfying, shower with about one litre of water.

In the tropics, and back here in a temperate climate, we have used solar showers and generally they work well from a temperature perspective if they are in the sun long enough. In the tropics the water can get very hot. The shower is on the deck, black side up and then we hang it from the end of the boom and sit on the cockpit floor. This setup works well enough.

But in the tropics, our preferred cockpit shower solution is a bucket with a scoop. Air temperature is usuallly hot enough that ambient temperature water is refreshing and with care, the total volume of water used is probably about 2 litres. We have a water maker and hence water was not an issue.

[Don C L]

Another vote for the garden sprayer! Black is good, though I too have found that one kettle of hot water along with the gallon and a half or so of cool water gets just the right temperature. The kids, even my daughter washing her long hair, can get by with a little more than a gallon. The solar shower doesn't do anything very well.

[davil]

Originally Posted by vic008

Gardening pump up pressured type? (Perhaps painted black) Any preference?

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this is one of those
whatever works for you
the cost is minimal to try both


I always used sun showers, they fit well in my small boat, lying flat on deck with an extension tube can bring the head shower into the head thru the open port, gravity works fine for a steady flow.
Will stay on deck tied up to the grab rails,even when under way, when time is up on cruising, untie, fold flat and stash it away.

When gets too old,get a new one.