One downside of overland vehicle camping vs. towing a travel trailer is having a nice hot shower after a day of exploring. While traveling out west this past summer, we carried a couple of solar shower bags, which during that time of year were able to provide us with a very brief warm shower at the end of the day. Unfortunately, shower bags can be awkward to hang, provide limited water, and don’t provide an even flow. Solar shower bags also perform poorly in cooler months, which is when we like to do much of our camping (when more people stay home and the places we love are less crowded).
After a few days of dry camping, having a hot shower can definitely be helpful to any relationship, as well as making an extended stay in the great outdoors much more pleasurable. Until now, this usually meant finding a coin-operated shower at some state park, which isn’t always easy.
So, I was very excited to get an early Christmas present from my sweet wife this year – a Joolca HOTTAP Nomad shower system – which we were able to try out this past weekend. Here’s a preliminary review of the Joolca HOTTAP shower system – which will be updated later, after a few more uses.
How Does The Joolca HOTTAP Shower Work?
The Joolca HOTTAP shower works like a mini tankless hot water heater, using propane to heat water that’s supplied from a tap or pumped up from a stream or container using a small 12 volt pump. When used with a small 12 volt power pack, you can set up the Joolca HOTTAP next to any clean water source and have a long hot shower, miles away from civilization.
Unboxing and Setting Up The Joolca HOTTAP Camping Shower
When unboxing our new tankless camping shower system (which arrived within a few days of ordering via UPS), we found that a corner of the plastic tank stand had been broken off. There was a large dent on the outside of the packaging, but only the tank stand seemed to have been affected. We emailed Joolca’s customer service and received a reply within a few hours, along with an apology for the inconvenience and reassurances that a replacement stand was being shipped.
So far Joolca’s customer service is living up to the reputation they’ve earned, with other customers reporting in their reviews that they were happy with quick response time and problem resolution.
After reading the setup instructions and installing two D cell batteries in the heater, we packed everything back into the sink/storage container and headed off on a weekend camping trip near home, at Turkey Bend Recreation Area on Lake Travis.
Setting Up the Joolca HOTTAP Shower System at our Campsite
After getting the rest of our camping gear set up (along with a small pop-up privacy shelter), we began assembling the HOTTAP shower system. We attached the propane hose and regulator to the heater and to a 20 lb propane tank, then hooked up the longest red hose to the shower head. Using the Y adapters,we ran another red hose to the sink.
Next, we connected the 12 volt pump to our vehicle’s cigarette lighter outlet and using two of the blue hoses, connected one to the base of the heater, and the other with the strainer to a five-gallon water container.
Setup Tips
- Initial Setup Time – 10 Minutes (Should be about 2 minutes next time.)
- Be sure to remove all red protective caps on pump, shower head & faucet.
- Install two D batteries in heater.
- Set temperature on the lowest setting to begin with.
- Tighten any loose water hose connections on the tank by hand. Use a wrench for the propane connection, if not already tight.
After the hoses were connected using the quick connect couplings, we set the blue flow control about a quarter of the way open, and the red heat control lever about 3/4 of the way on. We then flipped on the pump’s switch, turned on the shower head and waited for water to come out, but nothing happened.
We got out the Joolca HOTTAP instruction manual and quickly learned what the problem was. Thinking they were part of the connection, we missed taking off the small red caps that were on the pump outlet and inlet, which prevented water from flowing. After hooking the blue water hoses back up to the pump and turning it on, hot water was soon flowing from the shower head. There were lots of “oohs and ahhs” as the first shower tester tried out the Joolca HOTTAP in the great outdoors for the very first time.
It was about 50 degrees outside, but having a hot shower at our campsite felt amazing!
Getting Used to Regulating the Temperature of the Joolca HOTTAP Shower
One thing that will probably take some time getting used to, is regulating the temperature of the Joolca camping shower. Water temperature is relative to the amount of flow (blue lever) and temperature (red lever). With too little flow, even the cooler setting was too hot. We finally found a balance in the setting of the two controls, (which may change depending on the temperature of our water source), and made a small mark on the side of the tank using a Sharpie.
Considerations For Traveling With The Joolca HOTTAP Shower System
In all honesty, the sink system would be great to have, but we don’t have the extra room to spare for the tub, extra hoses and faucet. Most likely these parts will stay behind, except for when we plan on camping at one location for a several days. The entire system – minus the sink – fits neatly inside one of our existing storage boxes alongside other gear and only takes up about as much room as three loaves of bread.
The 20 lb propane tank will also probably at stay home, replaced by 1 lb canisters instead. Joolca makes a padded carrying case for the heater, which is next on our list to get. They also make a nice shower enclosure; however, our $30 pop up shower stall we got on Amazon, along with flip flops or an outdoor shower mat, will work just fine for now.
Propane Tank Sizing For the Joolca HOTTAP Shower
One reason we switched from overlanding in our Jeep to a full-sized truck (aside from being able to bring along all the dogs) was to have more room for carrying things like this tankless camping shower. But, even now, we still struggle to avoid over-packing our vehicle.
Using a Smaller Propane Tank For The Joolca
According to Joolca’s website, a 20 lb propane tank should provide about 15 hours of shower time. We don’t really want to lug around a 20 lb propane tank all the time, so we plan on using our refillable 1 lb Flame King canisters and an adapter that lets us use it with the regulator as if it were a full-sized tank.
See our article Why We No Longer Refill Our Disposable 1 lb Propane Canisters
With water for the shower mostly coming from 5 gallon jugs we bring along, we don’t plan on having showers lasting for more than a couple minutes, so the 1 lb canisters should give us almost an hour’s worth of use.
So Far…So Good!
We’re excited to try the Joolca HOTTAP camping shower system on our next long overlanding trip, which should be this summer, when we take as many unpaved roads as possible and travel from Boca Chica at the southern tip of Texas, to Tuktoyaktuk, a village on the Arctic ocean in Canada’s Northwest Territories – where a hot shower will probably be very welcome. We’ll update this review of the Joolca HOTTAP shower system after using it on our upcoming camping trips.
Alternatives to the Joolca HOTTAP
The Joolca HOTTAP camping shower system is well made and supported by a very responsive service department; however, there are cheaper alternatives which also have good reviews. One of them, the Camplux 1.32 GPM camping hot water heater is a bit more reasonably priced, at just over $200, including a 12 volt pump.
The Joolca HOTTAP does have a higher flow rating, at 1.6 GPM, and much better accessories, including a silt strainer for the pump and quick connects at all points on the shower system. The Joolca system also has a temperature display, magnetic shower head holder and a few other choice accessories that the Camplux system lacks.
So far, we’re very happy with this well-thought-out camping shower system.
Update: Since we posted this we’ve had a chance to use the Joolca HOTTAP system about 50 times now. So far so good! We’ve switched to powering the pump with a little lithium booster pack. See our post Avapow Power Pack Review for how that’s working out. We’ve had to replace the two D cells once now, so not too bad on battery draw from the heater itself. We will say that water temperature regulation can be tricky, especially when trying to conserve water. If you have an “unlimited” source, it’s much easier to regulate the temp.
We really like this little heated shower system and will post another update in a couple months!
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