There have been quite a few posts lately regarding Zodi's camp-shower products. I bought one of their portable hot-shower units last summer and thought I'd post my experience. The type I bought was a stainless-steel, jazzed-up version of a garden sprayer. The top is removed, the tank placed on the stove, and the water heated to the desired temperature (a crude thermostat is on the side of the tank). Problem #1 for Westy campers is that the tank doesn't fit well on the Westy stove-it is too tall and must be placed in such a way that the tank only overlaps about half the burner.
When the water is heated to the desired temperature, the top is attached and the tank pumped a few times with a hand pump (just like a garden sprayer) in the top. This allows hot water to be delivered through a hose and sprayer. This part works fine outside, hard to do inside the camper on a chilly day without soaking a goodly part of the interior.
All in all, we found it didn't work well for use in the Westy because of the poor fit on the stove and its overall bulk. Space is always at a premium when camping in the Westy. It was also very expensive-around $100 if my memory is correct. Zodi has other products which use a coil on top of the stove which could be connected to the faucet-this may work better. I suspect a hand-built arrangement (some clever ones have been described on the list) will work better than anything that can be bought off the shelf. Bill |
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