Old skewl Southpark devotees should remember that line- Hot shower! Hot Shower! Hot Shower!
Tying on to what I did at "Kategat"
I started a project on having a wood fired hot water option for the shower there at that building.
So I began with a used 55 gallon metal syrup drum. Rinsed it a couple times, attached a 2" stub and a reducer to 3/4 for a hose bib.

I thought about just setting the drum on a couple of concrete blocks. Then I looked at the three wheelbarrows from Lowes we have that have cracked buckets. It pisses me off that all three of them were total POS. But not wanting to toss them I kept them mainly for firewood hauling. I removed the bucket from the worst one and mounted the syrup drum on it. I kinda figured the plastic handles would not survive the first firing. We will see how long the wheel lasts ;)
So what to do from there?
Still needed pressure for the shower-
But I also needed something portable that I could haul around to all the different rain catchment tanks around the house. The idea of a little cart sounded a bit silly to me, but I went with it anyways.
Mounted a 20W panel to the upright handle of the cart, the controller, battery and a 12volt pressure pump on the cart also. On the pump I just used hose bibs on each side, as none of this will be completely static.
Utilizing a broken section of garden hose, I added another female fitting to the cut end. That goes from the hose bib on the syrup drum to the inflow of the pressure pump. I did the same on the other side for the intake to the hot water shower at Kategat. When I use it for normal irrigation from the rain catchment tanks, I can use a standard hose on the outflow side.

So the goofy little "cart" can be used to supply pressurized water from any of the storage tanks.
As far as temperature of the water, the shower itself has hot and cold so you can regulate to an extent. The drum is very thin so it did not seem to hold heat for a long period of time. I tested the water after about 20 minutes and then kicked some more wood on there right before I used it. It was hotter than one of the showers in the house and very agreeable.

It's always good to have multiple options. At the house or water heater runs off of LP and we can usually go about 2 years on a fill up for the LP tank. This and the solar shower on the roof of Kategat just gives us more options for hot water.
Tying on to what I did at "Kategat"
I started a project on having a wood fired hot water option for the shower there at that building.
So I began with a used 55 gallon metal syrup drum. Rinsed it a couple times, attached a 2" stub and a reducer to 3/4 for a hose bib.
I thought about just setting the drum on a couple of concrete blocks. Then I looked at the three wheelbarrows from Lowes we have that have cracked buckets. It pisses me off that all three of them were total POS. But not wanting to toss them I kept them mainly for firewood hauling. I removed the bucket from the worst one and mounted the syrup drum on it. I kinda figured the plastic handles would not survive the first firing. We will see how long the wheel lasts ;)
So what to do from there?
Still needed pressure for the shower-
But I also needed something portable that I could haul around to all the different rain catchment tanks around the house. The idea of a little cart sounded a bit silly to me, but I went with it anyways.
Mounted a 20W panel to the upright handle of the cart, the controller, battery and a 12volt pressure pump on the cart also. On the pump I just used hose bibs on each side, as none of this will be completely static.
Utilizing a broken section of garden hose, I added another female fitting to the cut end. That goes from the hose bib on the syrup drum to the inflow of the pressure pump. I did the same on the other side for the intake to the hot water shower at Kategat. When I use it for normal irrigation from the rain catchment tanks, I can use a standard hose on the outflow side.
So the goofy little "cart" can be used to supply pressurized water from any of the storage tanks.
As far as temperature of the water, the shower itself has hot and cold so you can regulate to an extent. The drum is very thin so it did not seem to hold heat for a long period of time. I tested the water after about 20 minutes and then kicked some more wood on there right before I used it. It was hotter than one of the showers in the house and very agreeable.
It's always good to have multiple options. At the house or water heater runs off of LP and we can usually go about 2 years on a fill up for the LP tank. This and the solar shower on the roof of Kategat just gives us more options for hot water.
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