All You Need to Know About Hot Water

All You Need to Know About Hot Water

Heat Exchanger Coil

To find out how many methods there are for heating hot water in the bush all you need to do is visit Gordon Country just west of Brisbane. The method shown below is absolutely brilliant as it fits in with the space limitations in the A'van or Chalet as it comes completely to bits. It works on similar principles to your Electrolux fridge - uses convection to move the liquid. All you do is stick the coiled end in the fire, hook one pipe to the bottom of your container (plastic is OK) and the other pipe to the top. Fill with water and wait 20 minutes. The inlet and outlet MUST be as far apart as practical - right at the top, and right at the bottom. Water starts to flow almost immediately - fascinating stuff! It is wonderful to have hot water available at all times for simple things like washing up and hand washing etc. This is where the boiling methods really come into their own PROVIDED you have a free ready supply of wood. The solar showers are OK, but you will always have trouble getting the temperature just right and quantity is limited to around 16 litres. They just don't work in winter no matter how sunny the day is! Lots of ideas to try here and please send in your pet methods and we will include them. The best heater we have ever seen was a stainless steel mini chip heater made by a retired marine engineer. This kept our entire camp in hot water - about 30 people! Sadly we can't find the photo! The copper pipe heater shown below is over 16 years old! The 20 litre bucket has been replaced many times though! This chap uses old paint pails!

Pipes are connected to the plastic pail using worm drive clips and ordinary 1/2" garden hose. On the coil end two 1/2" unions are used so that the unit packs down into a small size. You could make this in one piece and store it under the van with special brackets.

Boiling Water
The most common way of making hot water is of course boiling. The big disadvantage is the container used is mostly large and therefore hard to transport and it is also usually very dirty! The one on the fire belongs to Siggy and Heather Nowak and is an old stainless steel dairy pail "modified" for camping by Heather's late father. It works a treat and all you do is rest it on the edge of your fire. They leave it there day and night. A simple pail made out of a used 2 litre milk bottle is used to decant it. This set up makes enough for two nice long hot showers using a 12 volt pump immersed in a baby bath - a good trick!.

Easy Low Cost Hot Water
This is a very simple low cost solution to providing the little lady all the comforts of home when totally roughing it, in primitive camp grounds. All you do is somehow get hold of a preferably stainless steel discarded beer drum. Next cut a 6 inch square hole in the top. This is where the water goes in! Next scrounge any old tap that still works. You also need a 12 inch piece of 1 inch gal water pipe. Put a bit of Teflon tap on both ends, and it's ready to go. The stand completely folds down and is made from light angle iron. The legs are 3/4 inch gal pipe. These just drop into the top on a spigot welded onto each corner. You can also adapt this same idea for a BBQ. Mick leaves his on all day and night and it works fantastically well. The only drawback is having to spend the entire weekend chopping wood to keep the entire camp in hot water!
Julie & Mick Bannister

The photo on the left is the oldest type of canvas bush shower made and still popular today! The Li Lo (right) is a solar shower. Fill with water and leave in the sun. Works great in summer but forget it in winter even on bright sunny days. This one is about the best on the market and costs under $20.00 from all large camping stores and Big W.

A big mystery! There is no one at all in this toilet/shower tent, so what is all this steam coming out of the top?