DIY PVC Water Tank

Have been doing some digging around and although there is some good information on DIY PVC solar showers, I decided to share my experience, so here it is.

I was looking into a water supply when camping or whatever for washing dishes, cleaning off the kids feet and legs when hitting the beach, or any other need for pressurized water. Was pretty attracted to Waterport and some other online vendors, however I'm more of a do it yourself type guy. Plus it was way cheaper.

I watched a few youtube videos. I really liked this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvITGsKqyxE&t=300s

Now I understand that pvc is stamped not to be pressurized but I did some research and found that it can be. I felt for my needs, I could easily pressurize it to 30 psi which would give me a good amount amount of water pressure.



At work, I came across some 4" sch 40 pipe. Decided lets go ahead and give this a try. Using the video above, I basically built the same style tank. Purchased everything I needed for about $100.
A couple of days ago, I finished building it and had a test run. It failed. The wing nut clean out plug that you see in the photo below, had water pouring from it once I added a small about of pressure. Plan B is to change this out with a screw cap. Last night I finished this up. One small issue I had was the stack up of this new design interfered with the RTT. I will have slide the tent back a couple inches for clearance.

Tonight I plan to test this new screw cap design, with some hope, it will be successful. If it is, next step will be mounting it to the Prinsu and painting it black. Thanks for following along.

 

So test number two looks like this. Seems like a have a very small leak in the wye connection. Some putty should take care of that very easy. It doesn’t hold pressure for very long, maybe 30 seconds so I might have to run the compressor while using the shower? I don’t know yet as I don’t yet have a hose. This is a work in progress still. I must say though, I got water to shoot a good 20 ft or so.


https://youtu.be/pRYxD7SvbMU

 

I built a pressurized solar shower for my truck. You had to run the compressor the whole time to maintain water pressure.

 

Very nice. I am just sort of testing this, still in the early stages. Once pressurized, it worked very well, but only for a few seconds and I lost all pressure. I found that if I kept the hose open with the compressor on, I had continued pressure flow. I will experiment some more this weekend.

 

Run the compressor the whole time or the water pressure will drop.

I found 30psi is almost perfect.

Add a pressure regulator or a pop off valve to the set up and you can run your compressor the whole time and not worry about over pressurizing anything.

 

Ahh yes, I have been think this same thought. I need a pressure relief valve.

I am thinking of changing it to 4 way where the shrader valve currently is. Off the screw cap I will have a pressure relief valve, pressure gauge, and schrader valve. Is this a bit much ?

 

I just did a simple pop off at the highest point.

 

Interesting. I see where you have your shrader valve positioned, I assume its okay to have this in the water level ?

 

Both versions of solar shower I built were like this with no issue.

 

I love this design I run two tubes on my roof around 8 gallons of water, I have made some changes over the past year or so do to Alaska being cold in the fall and spring still.

I use two low watt fish tank heaters in each tube keeps water fairly warm on cloudy days or when the sun just isnt doing it.
I had it hooked to my arb compressor but didnt like having to run that all the time. So got a small Amazon special air compressor specifically for the water, its quiet mounted it in the back and made its own switch for it in my half shell. I added a clear tube on the outside for a water guage so I know how much I have. My tubes run constant at 36 psi, never had an issue with the system and it is over a year old now. I do have a 4 inch screwd cap on one end for cleaning and easy maintenance. I dont have any close up pictures I will have to get some, I do have a video on using it. Did a test before last weekends trip low flow shower head ran fir 6 minutes 37 seconds constant not bad.

 

Little update.
I have mounted the tank to the Prinsu and have been driving for a couple of weeks, highway included. Tank does well on the rack. I order a pressure relief valve. I plan to add this to the tube. I will be able to set this to the desired psi (thinking 30) without worrying about the tank loosing pressure. I can then run my compressor 100% while using without fear of adding too much pressure to the tank. I want to get a small battery operated compressor to attach to the Schrader valve while in use so I don't have to use my big compressor.

Once the valve is mounted, I can do another test run. If all goes well, last is paint. Then were going camping.

 

As noted above, I am looking to add a pressure relief valve. Where would be a good place for this? I am thinking at the cap where I have my Tee at the from of the tube. I am thinking of doing a compression fitting tee that has the pressure relief valve on one side and the shrader valve on the other. This would tap into the top of the cap. See sketch.



Or is there another place I can locate either of the two valves? Can the shrader valve be in the water column (ie, adding it the end of the tube)?

 

I how I mounted the 30psi pop off and shrader on mine on both versions.

 

Ahh I see we discussed this a bit early in this thread. So if I install the schrader valve at one end (it’s okay to be in the water column?) and replace the current schrader valve location with the above pressure relief valve, I should be good with this setup?

 

If the valve is below the water line, just disconnect the hose before turning off the compressor or some water will Beck feed into the hose because of the tank pressure.

Make sure the pressure valve is above the water line, or it’ll blow water out when it opens.

 

Thank you sir.

 

Water tank was sanded and wiped down with acetone. The pressure relief valve and pressure gauge installed and primer is done.

 

My solar shower, posted above, is currently for sale if anyone is looking for a prefabricated one.

100$ OBO picked up right out side of Pittsburgh.

 

Did you paint it? What paint did you go with?

 

I used black ABS pipe. It’s lighter and doesn’t need painted