Recirculating shower warm up time

[jojobafanzi]

Originally Posted by Dave01a

1. Water capacity USED, not the system capacity of you are only partially filling it.
2. GPM of your pump.
3. Wattage / Voltage of your heating element.
4. The all important question, rough heat up time. From fairly quickly, to go out and pick up a sandwich while it's pumping and heating up.


Thanks in advance for the info!

I have been where you are. 3 gallons is enough to lather up your hair and body and rinse several times.

1. Water capacity USED, not the system capacity of you are only partially filling it.
Ans: 3 to 6 gallons.
2. GPM of your pump.
Ans: 3 to 4 gallons per minute for a small RV water pump like a Shurflo.
3. Wattage / Voltage of your heating element.
Ans: I don't think you really understand how much energy it takes to heat water. The largest heating circuit in vehicles today are rear defrosters and heated seats. They consume lots of energy from your alternator and could never really heat water effectively. If you were ok with a 2200 watt suitcase generator in your van and could set it outside for a while and run it, you could have a feasible system. Purchase a pump, shower head, generator, 2.5 gallon or 3 gallon or 6 gallon water heater. heating elements in those are about 1400 watts to 1600 watts. A larger tank can be used and if the heating element is too large, it can be swapped out for a smaller element but would take a bit longer to heat the water. Heat the water, use the water and throw water away. Another option would be to use Ten 12 volt AGM batteries and bank them in series to get your 120 volts. Sounds dangerous to me and I would not recommend that.
4. The all important question, rough heat up time. From fairly quickly, to go out and pick up a sandwich while it's pumping and heating up.
Ans: 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on size of the tank you choose. a single tank of fuel in a Honda EU 2200i generator (Which I own and absolutely love) could run 3.2 hours at full load, long enough to heat a small water tank for 6 showers. You can also run a generator in the bed of a truck while in motion but I don't recommend that due to station wagon effect.

[booster]

I did find a Vanlife video that explains the problems they had with their system and why they decided to remove it. The link to older videos about the build itself.


As I suspected, soap removal, clean rinsing to get the soap off of you, and maintenance costs were deciding factors for them.


I didn't look at the older videos of the build, but I think they would be pretty complete.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJwBhGYEv0

[GeorgeRa]

Recirculating shower is certainly possible if designed by chemical engineer or chemist. Just filtering is not enough to remove chemicals, it will only remove particles. Activated carbon could help but is expensive and short-lived. UV light (it is not a filter) just kills bacteria. Reverse osmosis would work but cost would be ridiculous.

There is a lot of u-tubers advertising a free energy devices, simple to do: just connect a generator with a motor and it will run for free, simple, no batteries needed ever. It is called by some a perpetual motion machine. Recirculating shower would fit into the same, rather naïve category

[booster]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

Recirculating shower is certainly possible if designed by chemical engineer or chemist. Just filtering is not enough to remove chemicals, it will only remove particles. Activated carbon could help but is expensive and short-lived. UV light (it is not a filter) just kills bacteria. Reverse osmosis would work but cost would be ridiculous.

There is a lot of u-tubers advertising a free energy devices, simple to do: just connect a generator with a motor and it will run for free, simple, no batteries needed ever. It is called by some a perpetual motion machine. Recirculating shower would fit into the same, rather naïve category

As is mentioned in the video, the soap is the killer as it plugs filters very quickly and if not backflushed right away to remove it, you will have solid filter in a short time, especially if you try to go fine filtering or R/O.


One place I worked built high pressure pumps for pressure washer, car washes, etc and the soaps or other additives like rinse agents were added by a venturi soap injector on the high pressure side of the pump. I am not sure what the carwashes are doing now days to reuse the wash water, as I have been out of that business for over 20 years but they were struggling with it back then, often wrecking very expensive pumps in the process.


Of course it doesn't address the issue of rinsing yourself off to get rid of the soap residue. Soap film makes me itch like poison ivy would, so a non starter for me and DW would be even more against it.

[Bud]

Advanced RV created a recirculating shower, but I don't recall any long term update or any update. Did I miss it?

[booster]

Originally Posted by Bud

Advanced RV created a recirculating shower, but I don't recall any long term update or any update. Did I miss it?

I looked at the video today but didn't note the date on it. It was a B Box class C.



It appears it was the variety that bled off some of the used water and added some fresh water to replace it.