Date:         Sun, 05 May 1996 22:47:08 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jwakefield@4dmg.net (john wakefield)
Subject:      LHS Shower in Westie?

Responding to my interest in finding a replacement for a sink's 12V 
water pump, Mike Benthin mentioned something I've been working on for 
some time.  About a spare pump he carries, he said "I hoped one day to 
use (it) for running a longer hose to an outside the van shower...but 
that's another dream...."
  My potential as a candidate to join any "Polar Bear Club" which 
requires annual immersion into icy waters is nil.  As a matter of fact, 
"room temperature" water showers leave me cold.  Yet a quick daily shower 
can make a tremendous positive difference to the way I feel.
  Let's examine some Westie options and contsraints for carrying an LHS 
(that's Long Hot Shower) unit.  (I know, you're thinking, this guy is 
really nuts, but stay a while.)  With the top up and curtains drawn, 
neither height nor privacy is an issue.  The Stock Westie water tank 
carries 13 gallons of water, but I don't propose to run it dry with just 
two or three showers.  The two burner LP stove can warm a fully adequate 
shower water heater.  An inexpensive 12 volt water pump will serve my 
design well.  We need a shower stall with curtains and plumbing.
A one or two circuit aluminun "cold plate" pretty nearly completes my 
non-obvious required materials list.  Some of you already know from this 
list what I'm about to propose.  
   My LHS has a rigid plastic shower base approximately 28" by 28" or 28" 
by 30" and approximately 3 inches thick.  An object this size may be 
stored on edge behind the Westie rear seat opposite the closet while 
touring.  It's configured to accept four corner upright curtain supports, 
each consisting of two connector interlocking sections of standard PVC 
pipe.  These in turn support the top curtain support ring, made of 4 
3-way 90 degree PVC pipe tees and four more single sections of pipe.  The 
base has a raised confinment lip, to which velcro many be attached on 
three sides to secure the curtain's bottom.  The base collects the water 
into a fine screen filtered sump from which the 12 volt pump draws water 
and sends it to the "cold plate" which is secured above one of the two 
burner stove's lighted burners which is within user reach for adjustment. 
  After passing through the heated cold plate, the water is routed to the 
shower head's flow control and onto you.  You like quarter hour long 
showers?  Enjoy yourself.  That same three or four quarts will last 
longer than you.
  Now, I've mentioned using a "cold plate," a device with which most 
people are unfamiliar.  But believe me, they've been around longer than 
the average American citizan, and used ones can be found for $20 or so.  
A single circuit cold plate is made of a coil of metal tubing cast into a 
rectangular aluminum block, with a screw-on tubing connection for each 
end.  Each circuit has two ends.  A seven circuit cold plate has fourteen 
tubing connectons, and weighs more than you want or need to tote along.  
>From memory, a single circuit cold plate might typically be something 
like 8.5" by 11" by about an inch thick except at the back where the two 
connectors protrude.  About like a ream of paper.  They were designed to 
sit under an ice pile in an ice bin of businesses which sell cold drinks. 
 You run filtered room temperature carbonated water through that baby, 
and it comes out cold right now, and the ice gets melted as fast.  It 
won't care that we're heating water rather than cooling it.  It transfers 
heat very well.
  The filter screen is important to avoid pluging the shower head.  The 
micro mesh computer CRT screen filters that were so popular a few years 
back have plenty of transfer area and would stop anything that wouldn't 
pass through the shower head.
  Warm water alone does not make a shower.  Here I'm soliciting some 
help.  I used to know a chemist with P&G who liked to talk about 
cleansers.  Surfactants, emulsifiers, phosphate content (oops, I'm 
showing my age), and lots of detail information I haven't retained.  But 
one thing I do remember was the statement that most foaming introduced 
into detergents was there for marketing reasons, because Americans 
thought it had to be there.  Ignor that low sudsing detergent in your 
dishwasher.  Pay attention to the Westie occupant behind that shower 
curtain.  Does anybody know of a good non-sudsing cleaner for this 
recycling water shower.  The typical stuff would probably foam lock the 
pump in short order.
  Then there's the final rinse.  I've got several scheems, but it would 
be fun to hear other's input to fine tune this baby.  I'm thinking about 
building a prototype, and I'd be interested to hear what people think 
they'd be willing to pay for such a device.  The 12 PVC pipe lengths 
could be bundled and stored vertically in the Westie closet and the cold 
plate with line leading to quick connects could be stored on the closet 
floor.  The view out the passenger side rear window would be obstucted by 
the stored base, but seating would be unimpaired.
  Ok, just in case you think the base with pump has to weigh a lot, get 
hold of an old plastic skate board and unscrew the hardware.  They're 
very rigid and very light, a feat accomplised by interlocking top and 
bottom sections designed with thin waffle shaped supports and made by 
standard injection molding techniques.  My prototype would be a humble 
standard plastic shower base that I'd modified.
  Give me some input.  
  
  John Wakefield