Field hot shower setup

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Dzlegacy

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Tempe, AZ, USA
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Davin
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Zitterkopf
Hello! What a cool Forum. I’m in the process of installing a hot Shower set up for camping utilizing a plate heat exchanger, 12 V pump,mixer valve and all the necessary hoses and fittings. I just installed a new four core all aluminum radiator and realized that I had to unused ports on the passenger side used for trans cooling lineswhich I don’t need. Is it possible to use that as my heat exchanger for my freshwater or should I just stick with my plate heat exchanger that I was originally going to use?
 

theoriginalgiga

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Advocate I

981
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Travis
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Chaney
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Hey I'm really interested in this build and have been toying around with similar ideas. So for running your water through the lines on the radiator, I'm pretty sure you could do this as the intent on a radiator with multiple circuits, such as using as an oil or trans intercooler. As I'm not sure what rig you're running you may want to consider instead of running that for your water exchange, maybe add in either oil or trans lines to it, assuming you don't already have that setup, keeping the rig cool IMO is always more important than a hot shower. Now with ALL that being said you could put a heat exchanger in line to your heater core, same principle as what you're talking about for your radiator.

My reservations doing it off of the radiator or coolant lines is I'm a morning shower person, usually camp next to my rig and I don't want to burn gas for a shower as I'm paranoid and never know if i'll have to push my tank to the limit. I've been toying with the idea of either building a copper coil to put on my propane burner to heat up the water or breaking down and buying one of those camping instant water heaters. I normally travel with propane to cook with, it wouldn't be that far fetched. since I don't really have all the parts already laying around the cost is about equal for me.

I'm really curious what you come up with!
 

El-Dracho

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Lampertheim, Germany
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Bjoern
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More and more overlanders want to have a hot water supply on board. I don't need it, but I understand if someone wants it. There are many solutions. What I would never do, however, is to change anything in the vehicle's cooling circuit for hot water production. This is where something that absolutely must work without any failure meets an equipment item of comfort or convenience. Namely, the cooling of the engine to the hot water supply for the shower or whatever. And if something goes wrong with the engine cooling, you have real problems on the road under certain conditions. So I try to stick to the rule: keep it simple and and little error-prone.

If anything, I would solve this with a separate heat exchanger that can be easily disconnected somehow. Much better I find - if it is to be at all a "complicated" technical solution - an electric hot water boiler or one that is coupled with a warm air parking heater. By the way, I keep it very simple, I take a black water bag (I had already mentioned elsewhere here). In it, the water in the sun becomes warm (or attention: even very hot!!!). That bag lies at my rig well fastened on the hood. At that place warms even the engine waste heat a little. Alternatively, I simply heat water with the kettle on the stove or fire and mix it with cold water from the water canister, so I can have pleasantly warm shower water.

This is just some food for thought. Everyone has a different comfort level and sometimes we overlanders like to try around with DIY solutions because it's fun. I understand that!

I'm curious to see how you implement it in the end. Please show us your solution here if you like!
 
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theoriginalgiga

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Advocate I

981
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Travis
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Chaney
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KM6WFI
More and more overlanders want to have a hot water supply on board. I don't need it, but I understand if someone wants it. There are many solutions. What I would never do, however, is to change anything in the vehicle's cooling circuit for hot water production. This is where something that absolutely must work without any failure meets an equipment item of comfort or convenience. Namely, the cooling of the engine to the hot water supply for the shower or whatever. And if something goes wrong with the engine cooling, you have real problems on the road under certain conditions. So I try to stick to the rule: keep it simple and and little error-prone.

If anything, I would solve this with a separate heat exchanger that can be easily disconnected somehow. Much better I find - if it is to be at all a "complicated" technical solution - an electric hot water boiler or one that is coupled with a warm air parking heater. By the way, I keep it very simple, I take a black water bag (I had already mentioned elsewhere here). In it, the water in the sun becomes warm (or attention: even very hot!!!). That bag lies at my rig well fastened on the hood. At that place warms even the engine waste heat a little. Alternatively, I simply heat water with the kettle on the stove or fire and mix it with cold water from the water canister, so I can have pleasantly warm shower water.

This is just some food for thought. Everyone has a different comfort level and sometimes we overlanders like to try around with DIY solutions because it's fun. I understand that!

I'm curious to see how you implement it in the end. Please show us your solution here if you like!
I never considered coupling a a hot water solution to one of those parked heater. Those heat up quite considerably, that would be an awesome addition to one
 

El-Dracho

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Lampertheim, Germany
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I never considered coupling a a hot water solution to one of those parked heater. Those heat up quite considerably, that would be an awesome addition to one
I don't know if i've made myself clearly. I do not mean a heater, especially popular in cold regions, that runs on the electricity network and heats the coolant (like DEFA, hotfrog, OWL and what they're all called). I also have one of these on board for winter travel. I mean an auxiliary air heater to heat the interior. For these, at least here in Europe, there are upgrade solutions for hot water production available. An additional water boiler is installed and when the auxiliary heater is running to warm the interior, hot water is also produced as a "waste product". Like this for example:

 
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theoriginalgiga

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Sacramento, CA, USA
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Travis
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Chaney
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KM6WFI
I never considered coupling a a hot water solution to one of those parked heater. Those heat up quite considerably, that would be an awesome addition to one
I don't know if i've made myself clearly. I do not mean a heater, especially popular in cold regions, that runs on the electricity network and heats the coolant (like DEFA, hotfrog, OWL and what they're all called). I also have one of these on board for winter travel. I mean an auxiliary air heater to heat the interior. For these, at least here in Europe, there are upgrade solutions for hot water production available. An additional water boiler is installed and when the auxiliary heater is running to warm the interior, hot water is also produced as a "waste product". Like this for example:

That's kind of what I had imagined. Those sorts of heaters are only now starting to get popular for some setups. I am jealous that there's a physical part you can order to adapt to it to heat your water. I did some searching for here in the states, I couldn't find anything
 
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B-R

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That's kind of what I had imagined. Those sorts of heaters are only now starting to get popular for some setups. I am jealous that there's a physical part you can order to adapt to it to heat your water. I did some searching for here in the states, I couldn't find anything
It’s all about helping each other ... B56B9DD8-1E79-4412-966A-3B538395CE0C.jpeg
 

Boostpowered

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There are a few ways to warm water:
The boil and put in camp shower bag method.
The solar bag shower.
The fish tank heater or livestock heater+ 12v inverter.
Piezoelectric 12v hot or cold semiconductor heater/coolers.
The wrap copper tubing around exhaust headers or a copper coil in campfire using thermosiphoning to pump hot water method(playing with steam can get dangerous may want to do small scale experiments first).
The Water bag wrapped in a 12v heated blanket method probably not the safest but works in a pinch.
And finally the best method.
The propane camping water heater.