A couple of weeks ago, on an ordinary Sunday evening after
dinner, I turned on the hot water tap in order to fill the kitchen sink with water of
the right temperature to do dishes. But hot water didn’t flow out of the tap
after the usual short delay. Instead the water remained about the same
temperature as the cool water coming out of the cold water tap. I told Mike
this and he found that the natural gas water heater’s burner wasn’t lit. He
tried lighting the pilot light, which lit the burner momentarily, but it went
out almost instantaneously. After he said he’d try lighting it again the next
day, I shrugged and did the dishes in cool water.
The next morning Mike attempted the same fix, obtaining the
same non-result. I called our plumber’s office, only to learn they were out of
the office for a week. So I left a message that we needed their services once
they returned and found other means to heat water for various uses
until we again had central hot water services. I thought this might be useful
information to share with you my readers, hence this post.
Background
This disruption in routine happened at the best time of year for us. Our hottest and
sunniest weather is in July and August. St. Louis County’s municipal water
supply is drawn from the Missouri and Meramec Rivers. While the Meramec River
water is cold all year, the Missouri River water is rather warm during the
summer. That meant we could tolerate washing our hands in the cool tap water,
unlike in winter when incoming water is quite cold. I’d done laundry just
before the water heater stopped working and two older adults don’t generate
enough laundry that it needs to be done every week. Thus we needed only to find
ways to heat enough water to do dishes by hand and to bathe. Furthermore, with
the electricity working I could heat up water on the electric stove, and with
abundant sunshine and seasonably warm temperatures I had the means to heat
water by the sun. Here’s what we did that made it possible to spend a week and
a half without central hot water with minimal disruption to routine.
Washing dishes
With the incoming water cool rather than cold, I found that
heating water in our teakettle, which holds a little over 2 quarts / 2
liters of water, to near boiling provided enough hot water, when mixed with
the cool tap water, to half fill one side of our stainless steel double-bowl
sink with the right temperature of water for dish-washing. I rinsed the dishes
with cool tap water, then put them in the dish drainer as usual to dry.
How much cool tap water did I use? I didn’t measure it, but I added somewhat more tap water than near boiling water. I used
the thermometer next to the teakettle in the photo above to tell me when to stop
adding tap water to the hot water. Using my hand to tell me wouldn’t have been
a good idea: until the water was at the right temperature I risked mild to
serious burns, and if I added too much tap water I would have had to heat more
water. Instead, I started by adding enough tap water to cover the bottom of the
sink, to minimize thermal shock when I poured in the hot water. Then I turned
on the tap and started adding tap water, while holding the thermometer’s
sensitive end in the water with one hand and stirring the water with a
long-handled plastic or wooden spoon with the other. I added cold water until
the thermometer dropped below 120F / 49C. Then I washed the dishes. Other than
waiting for the teakettle of water to heat up and rinsing with cooler water
than usual, I experienced no disruption to the dish-washing routine.
Showering/bathing
As I mentioned, washing my hands or face with cool water
wasn’t too unpleasant. But showering or bathing in it would have been. I am not
a fan of cold/cool showers. Since it was sunny and seasonably hot, however, we
could use a simple alternative technology: the camp shower. You’ll see one of
ours (we have two) in the photo below.
Heating the water is simple – if you have a flat spot in a yard
that will stay sunny for a few hours. You’ll notice a red circle just below the handle of the camp shower. This is the same type of opening that an air mattress has to admit air.
Open the flap and add tap water through the hole till the shower is as full as
you think is necessary. It can hold up to 5 gallons / 20 liters of water, which
I found to be more than enough water. Then take the camp shower to the
aforementioned sunny area and lay it flat on its back (the black side) so the
clear side is up, facing the sun. Wait a few hours on a sunny summer day and you’ll have 120F / 49C
water. The wording on the camp shower claims it’ll get the water in the bag this
hot even if the air temperature is 60F / 15.6C. I don’t how low the air
temperature can get and the water inside still heat up to a comfortable
temperature. When it gets colder than 60F again, I’ll try it and report back.
In a camping situation, you would have a sturdy rope with
you and a sound and sturdy tree branch above you so that you can tie one end
of the rope to the handle at the top of the camp shower and pull on the other
end of the rope to suspend the camp shower high enough to provide the showering
experience. That’s what the plastic tube coming out of the bottom is for. You
pull out on the red end, which is a valve that allows water to flow through small holes punched in a disk. Then you take your shower in the flow of water.
That had better be one very sturdy tree limb that you hang the camp shower from,
because 5 gallons of water weighs about 40 pounds / 18 kg. Do not hang
the camp shower from a towel rack, a shower curtain rod, or a picture hook! None
of these are strong enough to hold it up and you’ll have an expensive mess to
fix.
So if you can’t hang the shower up, what good is all that
heated water? That’s what your 10 gallon / 40 liter blue plastic tub is for, as
seen in the photo above. Set the plastic tub on the floor of your tub or shower
and empty the now-heated water into the plastic tub through the same opening
that you filled the camp shower with. I found the water was hot enough from the
camp shower that I had to add some tap water to it to cool it to the right
showering temperature. Now grab a plastic or metal cup (I used a 1 quart / 1
liter plastic container) to fill with water from the plastic tub and pour the
water over yourself. I had more than enough water to get just as clean as I
would have using a regular shower. You can use any leftover water to wash
clothes and, as long as you still have electricity, you can then spin them dry
in your washer and dry them in the usual way. If I’d needed to wash clothes, I
would have done so by this method. You can use a metal washtub instead of a
plastic tub, but it might leave rust stains on the porcelain. A plastic tub won’t
leave stains.
Why not use the same method to make hot water for washing
dishes? Because the water will no longer be potable once it contacts the inside
of the camp shower. The shower water is clean enough to wash clothes or to wash
you as long as you don’t get it in your mouth, but don’t use it to wash
anything that holds food you’ll put in your mouth. You don’t know what’s
growing in that shower, and it doesn’t get hot enough to kill whatever it is.
What if … ?
I know some of you are grumbling under your breath, “But what
if it’s not sunny for that many hours before I need the water? What if it’s too
cold to use the camp shower? What if I don’t have a camp shower or a sunny
place to put it if I did have one? What if I can’t heat water on my electric or gas stove because I lost that utility service?” Here are some suggestions.
If you don’t have a camp shower, your favorite
bricks-and-mortar or online camping supplier will be happy to sell you one. The
Coleman shower I used can be purchased from Coleman’s website.
If you don’t have a thermometer, get one! You can use a meat
thermometer from the grocery store.
If you can’t use a camp shower (no sun, not enough time to let
the sun heat water before you need it, it’s too cold outside for the water to
heat up), then you’ll have to heat water for washing yourself or clothes some other
way. As long as your gas or electric stove works, you can heat the water on it.
In this case I suggest heating the water in larger pots such as stock pots and
only to 120F / 49C, because you’ll need to carry the pots to the plastic tub,
and you don’t want to risk the burns you’ll get if you splash hotter water on
you. I suspect you’ll quickly figure out how little water you really
need to get yourself or your clothes clean. If you don’t have electricity or
natural gas, heat the water on a grill (it’ll heat water as well as it grills
burgers) or a wood stove.
