Finally: portable, pressurized hot water!

[MattJ]

I've got several threads and ideas scattered around this forum, and I'm thinking I should consolidate them into a single Jeep thread. But in the meantime I wanted to post about some experimenting I've been doing with pressurized water ideas. First the failures:

1) I tried to pressurize my stainless steel jerry cans. But even with a ratchet strap belt and only 15psi, they started to bulge and creak. Fail.

2) I bought a strong 8-gallon agricultural tank that was specified as safe for potable water. It was certainly strong enough to hold the pressure of 15-20psi . . . except for the fact that the large screw top didn't seal airtight. All of the CO2 I pumped in just leaked right out. Fail.

 

[MattJ]

The money and time I spent on the failures taught me that I needed to be working with a container that is made for pressure. So I bought a RinseKit, and that was the breakthrough I needed. I can set the pressure on my PowerTank to 40psi, which is well below the 70psi the RinseKit is rated for. That allows me to free-flow the air hose with a velcro strap so that I can drain the 3-gallon rinse kit at a constant pressure of 40psi. You can see in one of the photos below that the last bit of water gets blasted out with the CO2 as a misty spray. I also installed a 50psi safety valve.

The RinseKit also comes with a heater rod that can raise the temperature of the water by 12F in 30 minutes with just a 9amp 12v draw. I figure I can also just boil a pint of water in my JetBoil and pour it in to mix with the rest of the ambient-temperature water.

I'm planning to use the pressurized water for showers and washing dishes, along with anything else that needs a good spray down out on the trail . . .

 

[hemifoot]

4/6 inch abs mounted on your roof rack with all the hose and npt air fittings would have worked.depending on the length,you can get close to 8 gallons in it.

 

[J!m]

I have an 11 gallon tank behind the left rear wheel (stainless) that I fill from inside. I have a boat demand water pump that picks up water (passes through a sediment filter first which is also inside) and then it splits via a tee. Cold goes to the blue garden hose/washing machine fitting on the right side of the truck- the other side of the tee goes forward to the plate heat exchanger with coolant on the other side. This “hot” (damn hot) line goes to the red fitting.

Got a home shower controller, added red and blue washing machine hoses that attach to appropriate fitting on truck side- open valve and pump starts pumping. Adjust temp on the fly. The shower head uses a stainless over braid hose with some pvc pipe hangers so I can hang it on the rack or roll cage.

I can get four showers out of it if I turn it on and off in use.

 

[MattJ]

4/6 inch abs mounted on your roof rack with all the hose and npt air fittings would have worked.depending on the length,you can get close to 8 gallons in it.

Thanks - I actually considered making a PVC tank and did a bunch of research. I actually have an 8-inch PVC conduit that I use for fishing rods. But I ultimately decided that I didn't want to carry the water up on the roof rack, since my tent is 200lbs and I also mount lighter cargo in auxiliary bins on the roof.

I have an 11 gallon tank behind the left rear wheel (stainless) that I fill from inside. I have a boat demand water pump that picks up water (passes through a sediment filter first which is also inside) and then it splits via a tee. Cold goes to the blue garden hose/washing machine fitting on the right side of the truck- the other side of the tee goes forward to the plate heat exchanger with coolant on the other side. This “hot” (damn hot) line goes to the red fitting.

Sounds very cool - can you post pictures? I actually started with a 12v marine pump kit that I built for use with a bucket or the jerry cans. It worked, but I decided there had to be a better way to capture the power of my CO2 tank.

 

[J!m]

No pics handy but it was the evolution of what you have in the pelican case.

North Africa was ~110f every day and sunny. I had a British black plastic water can on the back door of the 88 all day. The pump, with pickup and discharge hose (with shower head), got coiled and Velcro strapped to the inside door handle during the day.

Once in camp, open the tank, insert pickup hose and mount the head on the roof rack. The head had a sliding gate valve so once the pump was plugged into the socket back there, you control flow at the head. One of those cheap silver water saver heads.

This does not work when it’s not 110 and sunny...

The heat exchanger is the most expensive bit. I have seen them on eBay for a couple hundred (all brazed stainles). But, you must drain and dry it when it starts to get cool. I wrecked mine because residual water inside froze and broke braze internally. I’d get tiny amounts of coolant in the water, so it’s currently bypassed. All fittings are brass or stainless, tubing is food grade polyethylene. Most of it available at the big box home stores.

Hopefully soon I’ll get time to work on the truck again. When I install the new heat exchanger I’ll get photos.

The plate design is over 90% efficient so the water gets very hot. You can make tea easily with it. Mike had a copper tube heat exchanger in Africa but the thing leaked like crazy- not up to washboard roads. In the heat the black can worked perfectly. But with the 300Tdi, idling never gets hot enough. That engine temp drops as you idle- so the shower needs to happen once you pull into camp, or soon thereafter. That’s the only “downside” if you want to think of it that way.

My rider Wilson and I could both shower and shave with one can in Africa. Fill it in the morning and it’ll be nice and warm for camp that evening. I had two cans laying under a rack in the back of the truck, so they were flat on the floor. Over them was two aluminum angle rails, which held the fuel cans. I think I had six of them but I’m not sure now. And the one water tank on the back door.

That 88 was way too small but I had a very good pack for it.

 

[J!m]

A pic of the 88 when it was for sale...

 

[J!m]

Valentine’s Day, 2001...

I’m second from the right, with the old Canon F-1

 

[karlmagnum]

Looks nice and functional. That's definitely a clever idea.

 

[dreadlocks]

very nice, and hey thats the same plastic case my old vag-com pro kit came in.. its sitting in my garage, hrmm.

 

[MattJ]

Here's a photo of how I used the 12v pump. I attached some rare earth magnets to the pump so I could snap it to the bracket holding my water cans. For showers, I used the pump with a 5-gallon bucket of warm water. These marine pumps have a backflow pressure sensor so the motor cuts off when you aren't spraying from the hose. It's actually a neat little kit.

 

[MattJ]

The Power Shower System is getting a lot of use this summer!