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another shedthread! in the process of building a posh shed. (its definitely a shed / not a friggin 'garden room') although fully insulated, powered and running water....
question is regarding installing an outdoor shower. we dont really want a full on full body wash shower, just a warm hose essentially. its must hang on the wall outside and will be used for rinsing muddy dogs and muddy riding legs.
dont really want to install an unsightly standard electric shower on the external wall, although this was the original idea... what other options are there, obviously we need to winterproof what we do, pointless if the pipes are frozen when we mostly need it. perhaps install the electric shower box and plumbing on the side and run the hose outside? or even just an under-sink water heater - but how would you operate from outside...?
anyone done something similar?
when I had an extension built, i got them to plumb a hot and cold water feed outside. isolation valves where they exit the wall. rarely get sustained sub-zero temps here in the SW but I can easily turn it off if need be.
cleaning bikes/kit etc in the middle of winter with hot water is the best thing ever.
Get an instantaneous water heater that works off the flow, switches on when you turn the tap on switches off when you turn it off, pipe it to a bibtap on the outside wall of the shed with a hose attached.
I think an electric shower unit installed inside the shed would be the best solution.
An under sink water heater has a small tank that is kept hot and would be quite wasteful.
Assuming the shed stays above freezing, you could use a Woodford tap and connect your shower to it. The tap is frost proof as the valves are on the inside of the wall (although the handles are on the outside) and water drains from the pipe through the wall.
I've got one for post muddy rides - I can get the worst off me before coming into the house.
Have a look at LPG water heaters on eBay.
Hook them up to BBQ gas and a hose in. They come with a wee shower head on the outside.
Designed to be used outside sheds. Spark and display powered by a pair of D cells
About £80-100
Got one in my campervan for a shower. Pretty decent.
Will your shed wiring be sufficient to hang an electric shower off it?
When my FIL (who is an electrician) was talking about putting an electric shower in for us I'm fairly sure he was proposing to run a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit.
Possibly you already considered/specified this when running the shed wiring, in which case apologies and please ignore me 🙂
How about an old steel drum collecting rainwater from the shed gutters, jack it up on some Breeze blocks to create some space for a heat source (fire/burner/coals/lasers) underneath, light fire, go out for ride/walk come back and see if the fire has heated your water up or burned your shed down, adds a bit of excitement...
Then Just use one of those basic floating pump/ DIY washer kits, you can keep it dry in the shed till you need it then lid off, lob it in and squirt away...
My simpler solution is to just leave a 2L hand primed pressure sprayer either hung up on the boot rack outside the back door, or just inside the Garage door. If I/we're going out on a colder day I fill it from the hot hot tap before we leave.
This sort of thing:
fine for hosing off legs, boots or even bikes...
Bigger ones are available, on a freezing day just fill it with near boiling water, perhaps put an old foam sleeping may round it, pop it in the shed it'd still be warm and ice free several hours later...
thanks for replies; the instantaneous heater sounds just the job!
yeah we have allowed for the heater/shower on the distribution board.