How long will 120 litres last for off grid.

Razamataz said:
My wife and 2 Schnauzers and I have just returned home after touring round NW Scotland.
Left home on Tuesday 25th August and Wild Camped for 9 days.
Still got some water left after showering everyday,water for dogs,water for coffee and tea.......only did washing up plates every 2 days............water may have lasted that long COZ I started on the beer. :Grin:
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Doing the 500 end of September 👍 so just take plenty of beer, problem solved 🍺😂
 
DangerMousy said:
We keep cold drinking water separate, but for cooking and hot drinks we take it from the tap and in our previous MH (100L tank, but realistically only about 85L once it had finished siphoning out the overflow) we used to get 2 nights off grid with each having a shower every morning. After that the tank wasn't totally empty but I'm not sure if it would last another day, anyway by that point the toilet cassette needs emptying. On a campsite if we used the site showers but still did the washing up in the MH we could easily get 4 nights. Again, the toilet cassette is the limiting factor - even using the site toilets for 50% of the time it still needed emptying after 3 nights.

This year we're planning on 4 nights on a site but we'll probably be using our own shower and loo more than before....luckily we now have a 130L water tank so I'm not too worried about the water situation. We have a watering can and bucket in case we can't be bothered driving over to the services half way through. But the toilet cassette is still the same size so that'll have to be emptied half way through.

My top tip for washing up: wipe everything with either kitchen roll (for wet residue) or surface wipes (for dry/greasy residue) before washing up - then you can then wash up in very little water.

But as I think a few people have alluded to.....if you're planning to stay off grid water isn't normally the limiting factor, its the toilet cassette you need to think about.
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another top tip for saving water; couple of years ago on a pitch next to us an elderly Dutch couple licked their plates clean after the meal and with some gusto - not sure that we would be doing that anytime soon!
 
Pausim said:
Once upon a time they thought bathing/showering was only needed once or twice a year. They were wrong.:giggler:
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As kid`s, 40`s/50`s. Bathing (as opposed to hand/face washing) was once per week. Pecking order, Sister, Me, Mum and finally Dad!. The water came from a Gas fired Boiler in the washhouse. and filled the bath via buckets. (Cue, "Capstick comes home").
pandas said:
another top tip for saving water; couple of years ago on a pitch next to us an elderly Dutch couple licked their plates clean after the meal and with some gusto - not sure that we would be doing that anytime soon!
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Depending on just how old they where?. It should be remembered that in the final Months of WW2. the Dutch People where actually Starving. So not really that surprising?. The RAF where dropping Bread and other "Staples" from Bombers at one point.
 
We shower daily, sorry, not going back to the 60’s and early 70’s. We have a trigger shower and a drop down basin. I wet hair over drop down basin whilst getting temp right to not waste any, wet the rest of me. Shampoo/soap on, as little as possible. First hair rinse with water in bowl, mustn’t waste it, then rinse off with trigger shower.

We wipe plates and pans of grease with kitchen roll before washing up as well. I use a tiny amount of very hot water. I run the cold into a kettle for boiling as washing up tends to be once a day after a main meal.
 
Back in the 60`s. on Merchant Ships. We only carried a limited fresh water supply. The mere "threat" of being put on the Salt Water washing was enough to make all hands very careful over usage!. I`ve known the officer on bridge watch, alter course for a Squall Cloud and turn all hands out on deck getting a "Nature" shower. (y) :giggle: Not a pretty sight either!:rofl:
 
I’ve just seen this thread and it’s always a talking point when we are away.
Our last trip - we used the onboard water for washing up, washing hands, flushing toilet and drinking (not in that order btw, although the water sometimes taste like it)
I used a builders bucket to empty the waste water when on a site and each day, I filled 3 x 14litre bucket with grey waste.
That said, our pitch was like it was on the side of a mountain, so there was always some waste water in the tank but couldn’t drain it until we were leaving and the Motorhome levelled.

The trouble is, some in my household think that the Motorhome is just like a house.
Water on tap.
Waste just goes down the plug and from there, it just goes away.
Toilet goes into the sewer system when flushed.
Part of my holiday is walking to the tap with my watering can!
 
We use one of the shower heads with a trigger on it. We started using one of those when we had a boat and it's amazing how much water you can save using one of those. Standard fit too so no mods needed to the shower.
We use bottled water for drinking and a small kettle full for washing up if we are off grid, to save on having the hot water on just for pots.
During the colder spells, if we have the heating on it tends to heat the water too without having to actually select hot water on the control power. That may be a Truma thing though cause it did that on our last van.
Key though as others have said is dont waste it and dont leave it running. Oh, we use the spray bottle in the loo too, mixed with some zoflora.
Good idea about recycling the clean cold water that had run through the pipes though. Thanks for that.

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Our shower tap is a single lever one. Side to side controls how hot the water is and up and down controls flow. Get one of those and you will not need a trigger head, When you want to stop the flow push down. To start it again at the same temperature just lift up. We use an Ecocamel E shower head and would recommend that.
 
PeteH said:
According to what is shown on the Makers site the control is on the mixer not on the head?.
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It is a short metal tube that fits between the hose and the shower head. It has a hole either side through which goes a bolt that you push in or out to stop/start the flow. We bought one to use in our over bath shower in the house but found the bolt very stuff plus, being fairly short, I found it difficult to reach. The mixer tap lever in the van shower is handily placed to use to turn flow on and of.
 
When we were in France we found a great selection of little bowls for the sink. Small bowl = small use of water. My 32 year old Burstner has a very large sink!
 
If you want your tank water to last longer then I would suggest using buckets placed under the drip points of your van to collect rain water whenever possible for washing up and anything else you need it for. At a push, you can poor rainwater into your tank if it's clean enough.
We do this often to supplement our 160ltr tank supply and it can more than double the time off grid if you can deal with the black waste by having spare cassettes or carry a spade to bury it deep. 😁
 
Best thing to do is fit a thermostatic shower head. Saves alot of water trying to get the temperature right. Also the man can use a wee pot . To save filling the toilet cassette with liquid. But he must sanitize hands after each visit to his portaloo.also we use bottle water for drinking and cooking. Eco showerhead reduces water consumption buy about half.as we have one at home so may put one in motorhome to.

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So glad my skin specialist said not to shower every day, water does last longer, have a daily wash though.
 
When we were on one of our hired narrow boat trips management asked an older boater lady were the next water point was. She said go to the local supermarket and stock up on baby wipes your water will last longer.
Not being disrespectful she did look like lady in a van with a boat to that looked the same.
 
DangerMousy said:
My top tip for washing up: wipe everything with either kitchen roll (for wet residue) or surface wipes (for dry/greasy residue) before washing up
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bigwood said:
She said go to the local supermarket and stock up on baby wipes your water will last longer.
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Not very environmentally friendly :unsure:
pandas said:
another top tip for saving water; couple of years ago on a pitch next to us an elderly Dutch couple licked their plates clean after the meal and with some gusto - not sure that we would be doing that anytime soon!
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That's Kerry's 'perk' :LOL:
carolyn said:
We shower daily, sorry, not going back to the 60’s and early 70’s.
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The idea of 'Daily Showering' being a good thing was actually dreamt up by a Lifebuoy Ad man :sneaky:.

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Andacami said:
I guess the cold water could go in the kettle too?
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Thats what we do. Surprising when you measure it hot tank on end shower the other = 1.5 litres cold water wasted to get hot water through
 
We use about 100L in two days but never off grid so haven’t had to be economical with it yet.

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With our 120 litre tank we get three days before having to fill up. We both shower onboard each morning and wash up twice per day. We have separate containers for drinking water though which we keep in the fridge. When showering we don't leave the shower running throughout. To save water we get wet, turn off the shower, lather up, then rinse off.
 
peterc10 said:
Our shower tap is a single lever one. Side to side controls how hot the water is and up and down controls flow. Get one of those and you will not need a trigger head, When you want to stop the flow push down. To start it again at the same temperature just lift up. We use an Ecocamel E shower head and would recommend that.
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We have one of those showers but still find it easier to use the trigger head cause you have fingertip control of the flow, thus saving even more water.
 
Chilloutsolutions said:
We have one of those showers but still find it easier to use the trigger head cause you have fingertip control of the flow, thus saving even more water.
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You can do the same with the tap, up and down controls amount from nothing to full. Mind you we always have it on full!

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