There is an art to showering when you’re out in nature that many companies have sought to support. You’ll find plenty of clever products to help you rinse off after a hot day of hiking, camping, or even surfing: Gravity-fed solar showers you hang from a branch, pump showers that look like small vacuum cleaners, and even a few that require no pump or gravity at all. These will all get the job done, if you only goal is to get wet.
But there are times when you want to cover up while you rinse down. Maybe you’re in a spot that’s not fully private, and modesty gets the better of you. Maybe the temperature outside makes the idea of taking your clothes off entirely unappealing. Or maybe you’d simply like to keep the surrounding area from getting soaked, too — especially if that area is the inside of your vehicle.
So now you’ve got to rig up an enclosure, even if it’s simply hanging a few towels on ropes — not ideal. Even less desirable is the idea of buying a separate, bulky shower enclosure, thereby adding yet another piece of gear to your trip burden.
Larry Tofler, an Australian inventor, thinks he can improve your options considerably with his Evershower, now available on Kickstarter for 299 Australian dollars (about $230). The Evershower is a truly all-in-one portable shower: It’s a 10-kilogram suitcase that measures 50 x 50 x 15cm, which opens up to reveal a shower base, extendable poles that support a fully water-tight enclosure, and a submersible electric pump attached to a hand shower. “The Evershower was born of my desire to still enjoy a nice, long shower, in private, sheltered from wind, protected from bugs, even in the middle of the desert where water is not so easy to come by,” Tofler told Digital Trends via email.
The Evershower is remarkably flexible, with options that include the ability to use it with or without the enclosure, and with or without the support poles (permitting use inside a vehicle). There’s also a way to connect the base to a portable water heater like the Coleman Hot Water On Demand.
But perhaps the Evershower’s most impressive feature is its ability to recycle water through a built-in, washable filtration system. Tofler claims that just three liters of water is enough for someone to enjoy a hot shower for an almost indefinite period of time, provided you start with hot water.
“Believe it or not,” says the project’s campaign page, “when our water supply has been really low, we’ve actually showered satisfactorily each on just one liter of water.” Of course, if you have access to a water source, like a lake or stream, you can simply immerse the Evershower’s supply hose in it and use that instead.
Tofler’s Kickstarter page offers many suggestions on ways you can use the Evershower both on the road and at home, and we can think of a few more too (finally a way to keep dog washing from becoming a room-soaking experience), but potential backers should keep in mind the product’s biggest limitation: It requires a power source for the water pump — no power, no shower. Tofler acknowledges that a manual model is something the market would like, but is waiting to see how the powered model performs before he proceeds with its development.
If it’s successfully funded, the Evershower will ship to backers in May, but we’re a little concerned Tofler might not get there — he’s less than ten percent of the way to his 100,000 Australian dollar goal and there are only 25 days left on the campaign. Still, it’s possible the Evershower might make it to retail without a campaign — Tofler says he “launched the product on KickStarter to try to gauge exactly how others feel about it. Already the response has been quite overwhelming.”
