Solar Shower Bags; Do They Actually Work?

Moreover, Having a shower when you are camping takes comfort to a totally new level. I’ll never forget the first time we boiled a big pot of water over the fire and used a cheap 12V shower pump to have a shower after a days motorbike riding in the freezing evening at Broome Hill.

Nothing beats a shower in the bush, even if its only 1/10th as good as one you’d have at home!

Since then, I’ve tried a number of shower arrangements. Every style has their own pro’s and con’s, but one day when walking through a camping store I spotted a couple of the black shower bags for about $10 each. Given the price I thought lets give these a crack, so two were purchased to trial.

Having a shower when camping is amazing!

How do they work?

Firstly, Solar shower bags are effectively heavy duty plastic bags that can carry water. They have a black surface, which you leave upwards. The black surface absorbs maximum heat from the sun, and over the course of the day the water warms up. The bags have a tap outlet, and usually come with a shower outlet too.

How much water can they carry?

Secondly, Most shower bags take about 20L The ones I got take 19L. Interestingly, I didn’t feel the bags would hold 19 litres of water without breaking. It appears they do, but they still don’t seem so sturdy!

What can you mount them on?

In conclusion, The biggest problem I found with the solar shower bags was that in order to have the shower rose anywhere near ones head, the bags would have to be mounted over 2.3 metres in the air. This poses quite the challenge, as finding something that tall isn’t easy in the bush, and being able to mount it there is even harder! We overcome the problem by hanging it off the roof of the 4WD. The only problem then, was operating the on/off valve – someone had to sit on the roof racks to do it. You have to be careful with how you hang them too; the handles are often not very strong!

At last, There is no way you can hang these from the shower/toilet tents on the market; they are far too heavy to do so.