How much water does a portable shower use?
A camp, festival or remote site adds up fast. Work out the water, tanks and gas you need.
38 to 75 Lfor a five-minute shower, depending on the showerhead
Shower water calculator
No email address, no phone number. It works as you type.
You get total litres, the number of 1,000-litre tanks and the 9kg gas bottles for the whole hire, from how many people shower and for how long.
How much water a shower uses
| Showerhead | Per minute | 5-minute shower |
|---|---|---|
| Water-saving (4 stars) | 7.5 L | 38 L |
| Standard (3 stars) | 9 L | 45 L |
| Older, unrated | 15 L | 75 L |
Star bands are the maximums under the Australian Government's WELS water rating scheme. Ask the hire company what head their unit has.
Tanks, gas and waste
Where there's a tap, most portable showers connect to it with a garden hose and you never think about water. On a remote site, at a camp or in a festival paddock, the water has to be trucked in, and every litre that goes in comes out as waste water that has to go somewhere. Hot water usually comes from a gas bottle; one hire company quotes about 35 showers from a 9kg bottle.