Off Grid Cabin: Our Shower Setup - How it works! 

living Off Grid McGarvey style Thanks friend for stopping by. Been watching your grow your home and land for a long time now. Watching your "Off Grid Knowledge" video right now. So much agreement. Common sense, goes a long long way - especially when you have to think outside the box.

Welcome Bear paw!

Oh of course. 4-5 gallons at a time, really forces you to be efficient while getting clean. That first shower you take when you get home from the cabin, is usually a long one :)

Thank you very much!

I was so impressed with your video that I used your links and bought 2 pumps and 2 shower heads. I also just bought a 2 pack of automotive type on-off rocker switches. After I received the pumps and shower heads, I was able to go get the fittings to connect the 3/8 tubing to the shower head. Now I’m trying to come up with an idea to weight the end of the plastic tubing so it doesn’t float. I don’t like the cup idea. I’m considering adding a very short piece of copper tube at the end as a weight. I need to test the buoyancy. Otherwise, you really impressed me. I never considered a pump so small at only about 1 gpm. I knew most shower heads require 2 gpm, therefore you see my dilemma. You opened my eyes

Thanks! Working great so far. Rainwater collection will be the bees knees.

@@1870s that would be extremely helpful for you guys up there! So nice you guys have a little getaway, you seem to enjoy it a lot!

That's the beauty, you can can be as simple or complex as you deem necessary 😃

You're welcome! Hope you gained some good "nuggets" to apply to your own system.

One trick we use, is two buckets each half full. Seems much easier than one full bucket alone - as it balances the weight a little better.

That’s a great idea too! It’s important to have equal weight on each side for balance.......at least for me. When someone offers to carry something I often decline only because it’s harder for me to carry one at a time. Unless of course they take both! LOL

It's cedar. We don't do much to it. But maybe a coating of linseed oil every couple of years, may be a good thing.

We've thought about so many options. Rain water is definitely on the list for this upcoming year. But we need to overhaul the gutters first. We already have a lot of the supplies we'll need - 55 gallon plastic barrel, etc. Doing something more like a ram pump, isn't something we'll probably look at doing until we retire - and we can spend more time there. Right now, with weekends only once or twice a month isn't worth it at this point. How well do RAM pumps deal with vertical lift? We have about 150 of elevation from the river to deal with 😃

I'm not an expert but I am told they can get the job done. If worst comes to worst you can have a secondary pump to push it the rest of the way up the hill. I suggest that you get it into place(after the winter) just so you will have it working. Water barrels is great, except during the winter. That is when you have to rough it with the buckets up the hill. New meaning to slip and slide. LOL :-)

That 1870's Homestead ł

I was just going to recommend same thing, few hundred bucks at most you can ram pump water right into cabin.

you actually need water which is higher than the ram pump for head pressure in order for it to work. that stream looks too flat and level for a ram

If we lived there full time, or at least part of the year, I'd make a change. But for our weekend visits 1-2 times per month simple does just fine for us.

I just bought a small off grid cabin 14x18 on five acres. my plan is sell my house and move into the cabin and continue to work 5 more years while living full time in the cabin. So I need to come up with water fridge/ freezer and solar to make it happen.oh and an indoor shower.

@@woodspirit98 an indoor propane heater, is really no different than a propane stove as far as the offgas,...if concerned, vent through roof using same methods as a shower or stove ,or use a roof box vent ,...mount a carbon monoxide detector ,and put propane tank outside (if concerned, run hose through wall with extended hose)....problem solved ,enjoy your shower

Definitely. The gutters are trash, and I have to redo them first. With guards. I already have a 55 gallon tank ready fir storage 😀

@@1870s I have a second 500 gallon tank at our garden that I need to hook up a rainwater catchment system too while its the rainy season.

I've done nothing with garden watering at home at this point. We have a 25+ deep hand dug brick line well near the garden, but I have not taken advantage of it yet. Maybe next year.

We must be close. Town closest to us is Hesperia. You near there?

+That 1870's Homestead We are about 40 miles north of there. Just south of M - 55. We have a mobile home in a 40 acre woods.

We plan to. Hopefully this coming season. We have to install some gutters first.

We use only natural organic soaps and do not drain back into the river

you need to dig a septic tank or the ghetto way would be just install leeching lines.(which might back up depending on your water table and the amount of water drained) Even if you do that its still good to do what he said and dont pour anything harmful down the drain. If that is impossible due to the ground conditions (i.e. rock or something) then I am not sure, maybe use a wastewater tank and drain it elsewhere.

This is a dry cabin

No set temp, just feel it

That pump will only run about 1 gallon per minute. So with 5 gallons of water per shower, it doesn't use much juice. In the fall when we close up for the winter, we bring the battery home and put it on charger in the garage over the winter. In the spring, when we open it back up we bring the battery back with us. It normally lasts all season on this single charge. But, if it does end up getting low, we'll bring it back home with and charge it where we have grid power. I also have a this charging cable for our generator ( amzn.to/2E4iyM4 ) which would allow us to charge at the cabin as well, but we haven't had the need to use it yet.

I'd think alot, we only charge it once a year. But then again we only go up once a month, so not sure we've put it to a proper test.

That 1870's Homestead good to know. Thanks!

Good idea

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nfAHASx50B8.html you can move this inside during the winter and outside during the summer.

Also your idea is brilliant. I'm working something up based on it.

@@1870s It's me again. Been thinkin' bout your situation a little more. I don't know what your situation is financially, but, I had written this to a friend of mine based loosely on your set-up. You might think about a Black 55 gal. drum for a rainwater catchment barrel to save some walkin' to the river for starters. I believe this sure would make your life easier. "Well, I don't know if I told you or not, but where those bottom level bunks were I would add A Wardrobe / Closet and A Shower ( with the shower toward the back corner). I think I personally would run the "Flue") through the roof above where that Black Chair is (Will explain in short). Where that dining room window is, I'd have me one half that wide and have a 35 gal. blue plastic water tank on a pedestal in a closet with towel & linen storage on a shelves above it. Now, I'd set this model ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nfAHASx50B8.html ) stove under that flue with the wood feed aimed toward where the kitchen is (That would place the heater in the center of the house). Now, whenever I wanted hot water for a shower or dishes etc. I would place a huge stockpot filled with water, with a brass spigot welded to it toward the bottom, on top of the heater. I'd have me a rubber hose band clamping the hose on the spigot and running over to the water barrel (lower than the stock-pot) in the closet. Now when that water on the heater commenced ta boilin' I'd open the spigot and drain that scaldin' water into the cool water in the barrel in the closet and flip on an aquarium pump in the tank that could maybe re-circulate or "mix" the water. From there I'd use this method, which I thought was really ingenious ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G2xokE_n94M.html ). Now, in the summer, I'd cap that flue and wheel that heater out onto the porch by the kitchen window you saw to the left so I could 1. pass the hot water hose through the window ooorrrr, have a hose or line run on the outside of the house that comes through the wall into the barrel."

@@1870s Last time I swear, I want to apologize, because I just saw your video on how the shower worked and drew a WRONG conclusion. I thought your situation was a permanent one, I did not realize that was your weekend hideaway of awesomeness LOL..., that being said, this might work well for you in principle now that I have seen you have a woodstove in the house but on the deck, a hot tub in the woods would be nice LOL... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HMjpWlgcK-M.html

It sure is a word 😁. Our daughter said it to us many years ago, and it stuck.

We generally do not drink the river water. Doubt it would harm you in a SHTF situation - we haul in potable water in 5 gallon jugs for consumption.

@@1870s So it is not fit for bathing .

@@user-yy7oj8np8h it's totally fine for bathing, I don't drink my bath water, lol

@@1870s Run that turkey fryer another 10 minutes and it would be safe to drink

First reply! 🔔

How so?

@@1870s All those gizmos when you could have utilized gravity to make the shower work. Sorry to troll you there but that system could be so simple.

Perhaps you didn't catch the part where we are carrying our buckets of river water UP 160ft from the river. And considering my wife and others use the system I don't think the average person could lift 5-10 gallons over their head to set on a shelving system. But that's for the view and comments they all matter

@@1870s Yeah I saw it doesn't seem ideal. Appears that you need rainwater collection desperately.

@@parallelburrito I'm a framer and what most people dont think about is how much water weighs ,...have you ever thought about how much your rainwater bucket weighs (above you)?....dangerous...you dont know how many times I see unsafe inadequate framed structures or brick from unmaintaned chimneys above people and they dont even know....what's waiting to hurt them ...I think hes doing just fine with his set up