Customer Reviews

Coleman 5-Gallon Solar Shower

Because of reviews complaining of splitting and leaking, I bought two of these. I figured each one would work for a week and then be "retired". To my surprise I'm stilling using my first bag after well over 30 days of use. I generally don't fill it with more then 3-4 gallons of water at a time which may be helping its longevity.

We use this as a kitchen faucet while out in the woods and it works great. For people expecting piping hot showers from this - it takes several hours of DIRECT sunlight with the bag perpendicular to the solar rays to truly get HOT. That means at noon the bag should be laying on the ground with a towel under it to help insulate it. In the morning and evenings it should be hung vertical, and the rest of the day it should be propped up at a 45 degree angle. Also don't expect it to be any warmer then the outside temperature on cloudy or overcast days. I think some of the reviews regarding how poorly it heats the water are due to overly high expectations.

Took it camping (Bonnaroo!). Filled it from the runoff from the coolers as the ice melted each day. Never needed more than 1/2 to 1 gallon to take as long a shower as I wanted. Even just suspended it from the side of my truck, when push came to shove, and knelt beneath it. A great product, at a good price!

This shower heats up 5 gallons of water in no time, the problem for me was finding a place high enough and strong enough to hang the 40lbs. The water pressure is slow, but it does the job.

Most of these bags seem to be about the same except for the control valve. Some have valves up at the point where the hose leaves the bag; that's not nearly as convenient as having the valve at the end of the nozzle, where you just pull/push to turn it on/off. This bag has that better type of valve.

I only bought one, but it split open at a seam after a couple of uses. I tried to glue and tape it back together, which held for a while but even so, the flow was pretty flimsy.

Best to go with another brand.

I hung the camp shower up and within two days it came apart near the top. I have an older shower that has lasted for 3 years. I am not very impressed with the quality of the workmanship of this item.

I bought this Coleman Camp Shower for my camping trips. Got this for a very low price. Before the 3rd bags of water, it worked ok until the third bag of water..... the welded seam on the bottom fell apart while hanging it on a tree. I know about welding plastics(vinyl). Plastic welding requires a very clean surface and proper temperature or frequency (depending on the type of welding technology was used). I guess I'm the unlucky one to have this happened to me.

PRO's:
- Cheap (low priced), cost me less than $9, free shipping from Amazon with over $25 of qualifying Amazon purchase.
- Heats water as advertised
- Give you warm water in cold weather.

CON's:
- Bag material is a bit thin. When I tried to pick it up after filled it with water and heated it under ther sun, the bag felt like want to stretch like rubber band. Could have used a 5mil thicker material would probably make it feel stronger.
- Cheap water filler plug(not a cap) leaks for a little while. If you put the bag filled with water on a flat surface according to the instruction, water will leak from the plug and may stop leaking after a little while. My friend have the Advanced Elements 5 Gallon Camp Shower with screwed on cap that doesn't have the problem at all.
- Dispensing Hose Wall is too thin. The hose is thin and was bent when came out of the box. It restricks/reduces water flow. It did become a little better after hang it on the tree and being exposed/cooked under the sun for a little bit but mine's seam broke before it had a chance to "Get back in shape".
- Water Spigot is a bit too tight. I almost have to use two hands to turn on/off the water.
- Poor Workmanship/Quality Control. Seam on the bottom fell apart and the water started to pour out from the seam while its been hung from a tree. (I was embrassed by that becase it was next to my friend's Advanced Elements Camp Shower which doesn't have any of the problem mentioned in this review.)

I had to return this item due to the broken seam. Although with Coleman's defective product, Amazon's return policy was great. Easy return procedure and guess what? I don't even have to send the defective product back to get the refund. I guess it's so cheap that it may cost more on the return shipping than the product itself.

I only bought this once so I can't say that you will have the same problem with the broken seam. I could be just unlucky to receive a defective product. It did serve it's purpose before the seam fell apart.

This is the cheapest, most effective accessory we've ever purchased for scuba diving. Here in New England, the wet suit season starts with the ocean colder than 50 degrees. We tried the shower out last Sunday. Although our first dive was short (not giving the shower much time to warm up) the difference it made in our comfort between dives was amazing!

The tank is simple to fill and transport, and the pull on/push off shower head is easy to manipulate. While the shower can be hung by its handle, we just rested it on the roof of the truck for both heating and using (with a towel underneath as a precaution, in case the roof got hot enough to soften the plastic). Note: Make sure the vehicle windows are closed BEFORE opening the shower head! :-)

While the concept of a nice warm shower while camping sounds great, Coleman fell way short of the mark with this product, much to my dismay. I ordered two of these solar showers for use on a three-month cross country roadtrip and have only attempted to use them once. The main design flaw with this solar shower lies in the upper reinforcement bar that is supposed to act as a handle to tie the bag up. While a full length handle would have provided ample support and added only an ounce or two to the weight, Coleman decided to install a hollow plastic rod that is slightly wider than the opening you can see in the product picture. This means that all the weight of the water (approximately 40lbs when full) is now pulling at the edges of the pvc pipe handle and will surely rip the vinyl material of the bag after one or two uses. Since this is supposed to be used in hot weather (to heat up the water), the material tends to become very stretchy and malleable to the point where even just lifting the bags (nevermind suspending them) by the handle makes a rip or tear eminent.

Furthermore, the filler cap will not hold water if the bag is laid on a table to heat up. Unless propped up so the cap is on top, the bag will slowly leak through the ill designed cap (it's soft rubber rather than hard plastic). As mentioned before I was afraid to hang the bag to let it heat up and had to make a bullwork of camping gear to prop it up on a picnic table.

Finally the shower tube is far too long to be practical. I remember using one of these about 20 years ago while on my grandparents boat, and we would hoist it up the mast on our flag halyard to allow enough room underneath to shower. For camping, however, unless you have a pulley set up for a bear bag, the long hose is fairly impractical as it obviously wont work unless you're under the bulk of the water supply. I suppose that cutting the hose and reattaching the shower head would have been an easy solution but after the first two drawbacks I was so upset with this product that I packed it up and am actually sending it home to save some room in my travel gear.

I'm very disappointed with Coleman over this product. I have used many Coleman camping products over the years and even currently on this trip and have had good results. For anyone looking for a good solar shower I can only suggest that you try elsewhere as this product is pretty much a waste of time and money. Luckily, Amazon offers it for about half the cost of the identical item in the big name stores, so I didnt lose out on too much money.

This did NOT work. We bought two - the first one split at at a seam the first time we tried to use it - and they never got very hot even sitting in the direct sun. Not worth the money - don't know how to return them. Out the money