Simple Shower Review – a low price portable shower

Sanitation and hygiene is an often overlooked aspect of preparedness. Today in our Simple Shower review we’ll take a look at a simple product that aims to help in this regard.

Having a fully functioning home is something most take for granted. In the case of a disaster, you need to prepare for a sanitary living condition to give yourself the best chance. Sickness and poor health conditions make up a significant foe in the battle for survival so keeping clean is an important part of the complete preparedness plan.

PORTABILITY

The Simple Shower bills itself as a specially designed portable shower that attaches to most one or two liter bottles, converting them into a shower. We’d tend to agree. This small egg sized plastic shower head and accompanying straw is very lightweight. Tipping the food scale at a few ounces you are not going to be annoyed packing this with you on your next trip outdoors or for that rainy day in your bug out bag.

QUALITY

Made of hard plastic we felt that the Simple Shower would hold up well. We purposely dropped it 10 or so times on the concrete with it attached to a 2 liter bottle and by itself and each time it continued to perform its function well. No cracking or inconsistencies that we could see. As its namesake implies it is pretty straightforward and simple so you should be able to expect a reliable shower when you want it most.

EASE OF USE

Compared to propane powered or solar showers the Simple Shower is much easier to use. Simply put the straw into the shower head and twist onto most 1 and 2 liter bottles. Fill the bottle with water and if needed leave the bottle in the sun to warm. When ready simply turn over the bottle to start pouring water a nice slow rate. If you can put a cap back on a bottle of 7 Up then you can install the Simple Shower.

PERFORMANCE

Compared to propane powered or solar showers, the Simple Shower is much easier to use. Its main drawbacks though are that when you are ready for a shower you better not need to take a long one. We found the 2 liter bottle to empty in about 35-40 seconds. You better be ready to rinse off what you need!  Most people are going to want to use 4 liters to shower themselves so there are no doubt some things we were left wishing for.

Because it is easy to handle and move around, unlike some solar showers that can weigh up towards 50 lbs when full, you can pinpoint the stream to hit where you need to most. This allows for you to rinse particular spots really easily. We found that the shower would make a great option for camping when you are really roughing it.

PRICE


At $11 from Amazon.com the Simple Shower is a pretty affordable option for keeping clean. Many solar showers that use a large black bladder to be filled then hoisted above ones head run from $20 to 60 and don’t do a whole lot more than the Simple Shower.

They do however carry more water in their bladders which means fewer fill ups. Some of these solar showers do actually heat up the water to a warm level while others do very little to the temperature of the water.

To put the Simple Shower and solar showers on a level playing field you need to do a cost per liter analysis. The Solar Shower will run about $5.50 per liter to use ONCE. Obviously the more you use it that number can turn into pennies but if you bought this today and used it one time you would spend $5.50 per liter. If you take the average solar shower you are going to spend around $1.85 per liter.

SUMMARY

Clearly the Simple Shower is expensive on a cost per liter to use 1 time but yet it is still just over $10 which isn’t much. It offers  several things that the larger solar showers do not like pack weight. 2 ounces vs 2 lbs that a solar shower will likely weight. The size of an egg versus something that is almost the size of a backpack.

In the end, the choice is between the variety of solar showers on the market and the Simple Shower. Do you want to carry a larger/heavier item? Or do you prefer something smaller and lighter and are ok with shorter showers? If you can definitely say yes to one of those questions you have your answer regarding if the Simple Shower is right for you. We plan to use it as an emergency shower option and anytime we are not car camping. It works and it’s the cost of a good lunch. Not a bad combination.

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