BougeRV water heater assessment: scorching showers to go

Scorching water is like web connectivity for many Verge readers: you simply anticipate it to be there. However that’s unlikely to be the case this summer time when tent tenting at a music competition or road-tripping into the nice unknown. That’s the place BougeRV’s battery-powered bathe is available in.

The $310 “Transportable Propane Outside Tenting Water Heater” from BougeRV isn’t solely optimized for search engine discovery, it additionally delivers an expensive spray of scorching steaming water to the unwashed, be they human, canine, or cussed pots and pans. Cost up the battery, connect a propane canister, drop the pump right into a jug of water, and also you’re able to get sudsing.

It’s so helpful and versatile that I’ve ditched my plans to put in a everlasting bathe cabin and costly scorching water system inside my journey van, even when I don’t fully belief it.

My present transportable bathe consists of an 11-liter water bag, a handbook foot pump, and a twig nozzle. To make it scorching, I’ve to warmth water on the range or hold the bag within the solar for a number of hours, but it nonetheless prices over $150. For $310, the BougeRV heated bathe looks like a discount.

The BougeRV system can produce a most warmth output of 20,500 BTUs — about half of a typical residential gasoline water heater. It measures 15.75 x 6.7 x 14.57 inches (40 x 17 x 31cm) and weighs 13.2 kilos (6.21kg), making it compact and pretty light-weight with two huge handles for straightforward carry. The hoses and cabling make it slightly unwieldy — able to chaos inside a small house except dealt with with care.

Meeting begins with screwing in a straightforward to search out one pound (454g) propane canister that attaches on the rear of the unit. That’s the scale BougeRV recommends, however you wouldn’t be the primary to as an alternative run a hose out of your RV’s present propane tank to the stress regulator on the water heater. Two quick-connect water hoses — labeled blue and pink for idiot-proof attachment — route the water out of your chosen receptacle, by means of that gasoline furnace, and out by means of the showerhead. The lengthy 2.5m (8.2 ft) bathe hose permits for versatile placement of the heater.

The small water pump measures simply 2.24 inches (5.7cm) throughout, so it simply suits by means of the opening of ordinary jerry cans. The pump is electrically powered by the BougeRV unit, which is powered by its rechargeable battery, an AC wall jack, or 12V adapter that plugs into the cigarette jack of your car or photo voltaic generator.

The 2500mAh / 12V (30Wh) built-in Lithium-ion battery takes about three hours to cost from the included charger. A full battery and one-pound (454g) canister of liquid propane gasoline can pump out about an hour’s value of scorching water earlier than each run dry. The bathe’s gasoline consumption price is 20MJ/h.

Alternatively, it can save you gasoline with a protracted press on the pump button to place the bathe into chilly water mode — perfect for rinsing off your mountain bike, mountain climbing footwear, or moist swimsuit, for instance.

The dial on the entrance of the heater controls the scale of the flame. I did a handful of exams, beginning with water measuring between 13 and 16 levels Celsius (55–61 levels Fahrenheit) in accordance with the show on the BougeRV water heater. With the dial turned all the best way to the left, the water pouring from the bathe head rose to 23–25C (73–77F) after just some seconds. Turned all the best way to the fitting, the temperature maxed out at a steamy 34–41C (93–105F) in about 30 seconds.

Recycling the water could make it even hotter, if you happen to dare. After two or three cycles on max, the heater boosted the temperature above 51C (124F) earlier than the unit shut down with an error, by design. It’s not meant to exceed a median water temperature above 50C (122F). A easy on/off reset the E6 error.

Water circulation is between 2.2 and three liters per minute — nicely under what you may anticipate from a 9 to 12 L/min circulation of a contemporary dwelling bathe. That’s nonetheless acceptable, in my view, and much superior to nothing, which is the standard various when tenting away from dwelling. The bathe head has a rocker change to toggle between hardish, blended, and delicate water circulation charges in addition to an on/off limiter button to assist preserve water between lathers.

It’s surprisingly quiet even with the pump turned on. There’s some speedy clicking to ignite the gasoline (adopted by a whoosh of flame) each time the circulation of water returns, and the pump produces a low-level hum that’s shortly drowned out by the sound of spraying water.

The water heater can also be protected against tilts, bumps, and an empty water supply. Once I leaned my assessment unit over about 30 levels, the unit shut off. It additionally shut off routinely after two minutes of attempting to pump from an empty bucket. A grasp override on/off change on the button prevents the unit from turning on by chance if the on/off button on the entrance is bumped throughout transport or storage.

I’m impressed by BougeRV’s water heater, however I’m slightly involved about its sturdiness over time. After utilizing it on the seaside on a windy day, I bumped into bother as soon as I returned inside: the heater didn’t warmth and the water was diminished to a trickle out of the showerhead. It’s potential that some sediment trapped within the traces diminished the circulation price under the 1.2L/min required for ignition. Nonetheless, the difficulty was resolved after a couple of minutes of fidgeting with the hoses and filters, and turning the unit on and off once more.

BougeRV affords a two-year guarantee and says the water heater is rated at IPX4. So whereas it’s immune to splashing water, there’s no assurance provided towards mud and blowing sand.

I do have a number of different gripes. These hoses generally is a tripping and snagging hazard, and the plastic clip meant to carry the showerhead to one of many lifting handles is just too weak to maintain it from rotating and spraying your environment. I additionally want BougeRV bundled the heater with an adjunct bag to hold all the facility adapters and hoses. And when placing the system away, you need to tip it ahead to empty all of the collected water from the inlet and outlet — there’s no automated expulsion mechanism.

However actually, these are trivial points for what the unit does at this value.

Previous to this assessment, I had been within the late planning phases of getting a bathe cabin, water pump, gasoline heater, extra-large water tank, and all needed plumbing put in in my Sprinter van. Whole price: about $4,000. I’m now satisfied {that a} transportable system like what BougeRV affords is a greater choice. Why pay a lot for one thing so everlasting that’s solely used a couple of minutes every week, for perhaps half the yr?

As an alternative, BougeRV’s $310 transportable water heater can operate as an outside bathe through the summer time months or be moved inside (with air flow) when coupled with a conveyable bathe curtain and basin, all for lower than $600. That feels like a greater use of my cash, and doubtless yours if you happen to’re an aspiring vanlifer.

And when the van is parked, I can deliver these scorching (or chilly) jets of water wherever my adventures would possibly take me: to scrub up after mountain biking within the muddy forest or kitesurfing within the salty sea, to scrub the canine outdoors after rolling in shit once more, or to take a refreshing bathe throughout a sweaty four-day music competition.

A near-identical water heater is bought below the Ranien and Camplux manufacturers, however these have bigger 4000mAh (48Wh) batteries and record for between $349 and $399. So it’d pay to buy round.

Photographs by Thomas Ricker / The Verge