Coghlan's Camp Shower - Portable, Solar-Heated, Outdoor Shower Bag 5 Gallons

Let's face it. You're at a campsite with no showers, but if you have this thing, you can get clean!It's not fancy, it's not easy to use, it's not that convenient, 5 gallons of water is heavy and you have to find a place to hang it, gripe gripe gripe, but bottom line is you can get clean!We used this on a weekend camping trip and, after hiking up a mountain, my husband and I were in so desperate need of a shower that this thing was like a hallelujah chorus sung by 10 feet tall angels all serving caviar, LOL! I washed my hair, I smelled like a person again, I put on clean clothes. It was a miracle!! We live in such an age of luxury that we forget what incredible difference something as simple as a bath can make in a day. This will remind you.Our campsite was quite shady and the temperature didn't get much over 75F so my husband had to heat some water on the campstove and add it to the cool water in the bag. Other reviewers have said that if the water gets too hot in the sun, you may have to add some cool. Give or take temperature fluctuations while you're camping, you may have to put in extra work. But, bottom line, you can take a shower, you can get clean. My husband and I both got a shower out of the same bagfull of water, with plenty left over, and I didn't feel like I was sparing with the water at all. Felt like I wasted a lot of it. Careful use and a family of four might all get a shower.Also, if you don't have running water at your campsite, and you have a place to refill this, you essentially have some running water to do things like wash and rinse dishes and wash your hands. Very handy to have around. Even if you never plan to bathe with it.Privacy is another matter completely. We couldn't think of any way to get a privacy curtain around us so we didn't shower in the daytime. There were campsites around us, and even in swimsuits, the act of bathing requires some privacy, reaching inside the suit to scrub. Not something you want an audience with. We waited til night. Then, it took some trick of the light, putting the lantern nearby but on the ground behind something, the built-in stone barbeque fire circle, so that we had just enough light to be able to find the soap, but the light was coming from behind me, so people approaching from either direction (the road in front of us or the path to the porta-johns behind us), at best all they'd see was perhaps a dark silhouette of a person standing under water. It's that kind of ingenuity challenge that makes camping fun. How do we make do???My husband is unhappy with the material the hose is made of. When it bends at all, it kinks the water supply and you sorta have to bend it when you direct it toward your body. He says if it were made of rubber, that wouldn't happen. Also, you want to get the bag hanging high enough so that, with the short hose, it can reach all your major body parts, especially high enough so that you don't have to bend too low to get your hair wet, but the hook at our campsite that you hang your lantern from was just about the right height so that didn't turn out to be too bad a problem. Also takes a bit of getting used to, how to turn the water on and off, and it's not exact, but I was so incredibly happy with this shower bag that I swear the angels sang me to sleep that night.A nice, clean, good-smelling, non-sweaty sleep. In clean clothes. Feeling like a human being.If you require much more than that, why are you camping anyway, LOL? Just go stay in a four star hotel, bask in a jetted tub with egyptian cotton towels and boutique shampoos, and be done with it. Order some room service and a fine bottle of wine. Wanna rough it? Then, this is as good as it gets for a $10-$15 bag.

Used this on a 5 day camping trip, worked great. Not the best water pressure but worked surprisingly well. The water heated up decently quickly.

I can't say the water has gotten very warm but I use it to wash my hands camping so it's warm enough for what I use it for. I can attest to its durability though. I had no place to hang it from so from reading other reviews I put it on the roof of my car. Inside the sidebar of my roof rack. Worked fine. I was happy. Due to a family thing I had to go home mid camping trip so 45 minute drive with speeds up to 60 mph and then I realized as I got out of my car in my garage (I had forgotten about it) It was still there. Returned to camping the next day and kept using it. I brought it into the car for the return trip. Lol

Bought for outdoor showers after gardening. We recently had an extended power outage due to hurricane Helene. This enabled us to shower. Good for your disaster kit

The "squeeze the hose" clamp is the best one can do with these cheaper level bags. Other models have a lever type valve at the bag (extreamly difficult to use as it is far away from the shower head) and the same type of lever valve ON the shower head. These both involve using two hands to control the water flow, which is either on or off, as no one wants to waste water. A third type I haven't seen around for a while is the showerhead being the valve, as you push/pull the showerhead. That one needs two hands also. Another problem with the lever type valves is they can become gummed up and very difficult to twist. Therefore, after using all types for years, I have to say the clamping type, where the hose is compressed, is one handed, and will not fail. Good design on them.However, one should know that ALL of the "black" relatively cheap bags have a major flaw, and that is the handle. There are a few different styles, and the vinyl bag will rip around the handle....it happens a lot. The best way to avoid this is to never fill it completely full. Never more than 4 gallons. To make these bags last a long time, get two and never fill them more than with three gallons. The bag ripping at the handle makes it unrepairable and useless...DON'T fill them completely.Also interesting is that the instructions to place the black side facing the sun is wrong. I have had bags the instructions printed on them to place the clear side to the sun, and that is correct. I've made tests, and the science we learned in 5th grade is correct. Yes, the "black up" will heat the water AT THE TOP, whereas, if the sun has to "go thru" the clear so it can be absorbed by the black, the hot water resulting will RISE, heating water as it rises. The "black up" will leave the cooler water at the "bottom". My measurements showed a 5degree increase for "clear side up."

We had a plumbing catastrophe which left us with hot water in our kitchen, but not our bathroom. As the repair schedule stretched on, I went with "sponge baths" and sink shampoos until I couldn't stand it any longer. I figured that even if this camp shower only worked two or three times, it would be worth the $10.Well, this thing is great. It holds 5 gallons, but I filled it less than half-way using 2, one-gallon plastic tea jugs filled in our kitchen, and it provided a hot shower of at least five minutes. I stopped the water flow to apply soap & shampoo, which extended the shower time, and the little plastic hose clamp worked perfectly. The hose didn't kink, and the fittings were all solid - no leaks. The only "issue" was that I had to fill it while it was hanging up in the shower; as some other reviewers have mentioned, it's hard to fill this shower bag by submerging it, and it does get heavy.This is a keeper. Even with plumbing restored, we're hanging on to it.