ePlaya

by **Remark** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 9:38 am

How much and what did you use water for this year?

This was my third year, and like the years past, I used about half the water the survival guide says I'll need.

8 days there and I drank 6 gallons of water. I used 2 gallons for feet and hair washing. I felt great all week.

I donated 6 gallons over the week and 4 gallons rode home with me.

I'm interested in know what others use.

by **diggum** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 10:32 am

There were 5 of us in our camp. Pure water-wise, we tended to go through around a gallon and a half / day sharing jugs. We would use other water for washing dishes, filled up the solar showers on the way down, used cooler water for the mister. We used the main water for making OJ (for screwdrivers) and gatorade. Drank a lot of lite beer and capri suns.

Basically, the 1.5 gallons/day per person suggestion holds well if all you're drinking is water. you can get your liquid needs met through other means, though. But 1 to 1.5 is a nice average, ensures you'll have enough if you're unfamiliar with the event and environment, and usually leaves enough left over to help out the DPW at the end of the event. It takes up space, but it's generally worth it.

by **chloe_dancer** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:42 pm

we were there from thursday morning til sunday afternoon, and used about 10 gallons between the 2 of us......just for drinking, and teeth brushing no showers....we like to be dirty

by **III** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 1:16 pm

the "official" heading for this group mentions two gallons a day, as well. it seems that's a generous estimate for people who have no experience, but in reality quite a bit less than that gets used. but god forbid the survival guide, or anything else, encouraged you to actually determine your needs for yourself.

I find that even at a gallon a day, without vigerous exercise, i end up with leftover. better too much than too little, though.

by **RebA!** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 5:48 pm

Brought a bit less than 25 gallons of drinking(cooking)water (2 persons)

and 28 gallons of wash water.

We were in hushville and we would of normally set up our kiddie pool to shower but it got so packed we had no where to set it up next to our truck. OUr neighbor did lend us his shower to use. As nice as it was we both only used it once. So we had lots of extra wash water left.

Drinking water had about 10 gallons extra, but I know there were some days I didnt drink enough water. Still i am glad we brought to much.

by **naga brain** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 2:17 pm

I guess that we could have had a nice kiddie pool with the 50 gallons the four of us brought. But hey, better to have too much than not enough I think. Next year it is going to have to go to the Low Earth Orbit Coffee shop from Highlab. So hey, what do ya want?

by **The Key Man** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 7:54 pm

My wife and I concluded:

1 gallon of drinking water per person per day.

2 gallons of washing water per person per day.

Note: we like to keep fairly clean - we thoroughly washed twice dailly - and she has long hair which requires a bit more H2O to keep clean.

Hope that helps.

by **The Key Man** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 8:07 pm

BTW, I might mention that the washing water was not just for cleaning our bodies but for cleaning cooking/eating utensils, ice chests, shoes (yes shoes) and other artifacts of desert camping that got plastered with dust and/or mud.

by **precipitate** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 8:17 pm

Brought 20 gallons for just me for nine days. Took home four. Didn't shower at all (dumped a gallon of water over my head on Wednesday). Gave away maybe three gallons to thirsty friends who were passing through.

by **diane o'thirst** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 5:20 pm

Plenty, plenty, plenty. Brought thirty gallons to last nine days and had one full, untapped carboy at the end of the run. This with fairly assiduous handwashing, bidet use (doesn't clog up the turd burglars!

), shower, bread water, milk water and staying personally hydrated.
I brought along a handcrank washing machine but didn't get a chance to use it. It doesn't use all that much, in truth, maybe 1/3 cup per wash, so I'm pretty sure three gallons a day is a very generous margin, barring catastrophes.
A plug and an aviso — I got my water from Mackenzie Mist, they cut me a $9 per filled bottle deal and I'm keeping the bottles, so next year it'll only be $4 a bottle. Also, I am NEVER hauling my water in my roofrack again — overloaded it and made it slide off the bars, couldn't get it back on and almost lost my topload. Next year, the water bottles are riding in the car with me!

by **Tiara** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 3:47 pm

This year I organized a camp of 14. For drinking water, we brought 1.25 gallons per person per day, in addition to a variety of canned soda and juice. At the end of the week, we had 8 gallons left. That's less of a margin of error than I'm comfortable with, but it showed that it was a pretty darn accurate assumption.

We brought 3 x 55 gallon barrels of wash water. We used "wash" water for showers, dish washing, tooth brushing, etc. We had a little over 60 gallons surplus because people didn't take as many showers as they thought they would when we calculated how much we wanted to bring.

by **Remark** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:26 am

Yeah, it looks like most people (according to the small non-random sample of responses) use just less than a gallon a day for drinking. But like Tiara said, I didn't include juice in my estimates.

I know of a person who brought 2 gallons of water for the week (first year, duh, "I didn't wanna read too much and ruin it, he he.")

I know of a couple who got there water taken from outside there tent (early in the week even).

I'll just keep bring "around" 2 gallons a day, cause sharing is good.

PS. WATER IS HEAVY (actually weight? anybody, anybody) Pack it low in the vehicle and spread it around.

by **Piper** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 1:34 pm

Hmmm, 1 ten gallon water cooler packed with ice and filled with water , 1-6 gallon container for bulk usage, 6-1 gallon containers for daily use. I packed up Tuesday night and went out wednesday. About 3 gallons of ice water left(yes on Monday there was still ice in the 10 gallon cooler. donated the big contained to an RV, used 3 of the 1 galon jugs in 6 days. So almost 2 gallons a day...but I was supplied with water on shift and drank about a gallon every 8 hours there, and that would have killed the rest of my water, total 16 gallons for 6 days

peace
PIper

by **diane o'thirst** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 2:07 pm

Remark wrote:PS. WATER IS HEAVY (actual weight? anybody, anybody)

8.3 pounds per gallon. So six carboys (5-gallon bottles) equals ~250 pounds — in a 180# capacity roofrack!

Yes, definitely lugging the water supply in the car with me next year...

by **tbone** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 3:02 pm

I brought a 5 gallon container, and 3 2.5 gallon "suitcases" for drinking, and 50 gallons for showers and a misting system.

I used 7.5 gallons for the 9 days, but I drank a lot of gatorade made from powder and cubes of ice, as well as canned drinks. I don't drink much plain water.

It wasn't hot this year, so I never bothered to set up the misters, so I dumped the 50 gallons.

I have a pretty stout truck, and carried pretty much all the water for 6 people. We filled up barrels at a friend's place in Fernley and bought water at the store there as well - no point in bringing all that weight from LA.

by **antron** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:12 pm

i brought 16 gallons
i used 8 from monday to sunday, including sharing with campmates.
didn't bathe, except behind the water truck, and one of those times barefoot. (i'll never make that mistake again!)

but there was plenty of water...

by **The Bass** » Mon Sep 15, 2003 6:16 pm

FWIW -

i find that the smaller the bottles i get, the more water i drink, and the more water i give away to happy recipients.

thus i have migrated slowly from big huge 2.5 gallon jerrycans to a combination of 1 liter and smaller bottles.

yeah, it's a little more plastic. but it gets EMPTIED. and i definitely subscribe to more water = better.

this is for drinking, not washing, etc, in case it's not clear.

by **unjonharley** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 11:41 am

I have a 5 gal. tank on my pottie. Peed it full plus useing the port-a-pots some. I carry two 7gal. water cans plus a fifty gal. cooler The cooler is scrubed out then washed with hydrogen peroxide. Let dry. Wash 4, 2.5 gal. suitcase water bottles. Freeze them, they will last all week. then cover them with party ice. Gallons of good cold drinking water. Food go's in the food tray. The seven gal. cans are for bath. Next year I will filter the bathwater and reuse it in a swamp cooler.

by **dust devil** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 9:49 pm

This year we took 2 gal/person/day and used about 1.5 gal/person/day. This does not include a case of bottled water (and two cases of Kern's juices).

It got used for drinking and cooking, quickie solar showers, and washing dishes.

At departure we drained one water can and kept another in case something happened on the way home.

We are thinking about building a mister for our dome next year.

Don't forget packets of emergen-C or some other electrolyte replacement stuff.

by **jennnk** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:07 pm

solar showers have been mentioned in this thread a few times, but i'm baffled...how, exactly, does one shower on the playa? what does a solar shower look like? how does it work? what do you do with the grey water (i've seen a set-up for a water-evaporation system, but it looked quite complicated & not as though one could stand in it)?

by **precipitate** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:18 pm

A solar shower looks like this:

It's basically a bag with one black side, one clear side, and a nozzle. You
leave it in the sun clear side up, the sun heats the water, you hang it up
and shower.

Me, I prefer my propane shower (if I shower at all) because
I can shower after dinner. The solar shower has cooled down too much
by then to be comfortable.

The simplest shower platform/graywater evap system might be four 2x4s
arranged in a square with some sort of black plastic draped over them to
form a catch basin. A wooden pallet (the kind you see in Costco under
the loads of toilet paper) sits in the middle and you stand on top of that
to shower. Water runs through the slats into the evap pond.

But there are tons of other ways to do it. If it's just me, I stand in a
cement mixing tub that doubles as a catch basin/evap pond. If it's not
dry by the next time I shower, oh well.

by **jennnk** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:22 pm

you hang it up and shower.

what does it hang from?

by **Hana Hou** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:25 pm

If you gift someone really well, they might hold it for you... I guess hanging it in a tree is out of the question.. <grin>...

by **jennnk** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:29 pm

Hana Hou wrote:If you gift someone really well, they might hold it for you... I guess hanging it in a tree is out of the question.. <grin>...

well, maybe if someone constructed a "waiting for godot"-style tree...

by **precipitate** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:36 pm

> what does it hang from?

For me? Off the roof rack on my car. Some people just lay it on their
roof. Some build full-on showers with a hook at just the right height for
their friends.

Another reason I like the propane shower. It's got a pump so it doesn't
have to be higher than your head to work.

by **PetsUntilEaten** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:09 pm

i use a coleman battery operated pump shower with a bucket - small, simple cheap.

for hot showers we boil water and add it to cold water to taste.

i've killed the same model shower pump before after using it for a camp of 30 - bucket left outside in dust storms - muddy water & two years of use like this - then it died.

this new one should last longer.

by **Remark** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 6:38 pm

but i'm baffled...how, exactly, does one shower on the playa?

Take it you haven't been there yet? (you'll like it, so go.)

Don't get stuck on a solar shower, there are other ways to stay clean.

I like the sponge bath (with sponge, a pan of warm water and spray bottle) option. Fast, easy, no extra gear to buy, uses little water, very little grey water, can still be done with a partner, can be as private or public as you want to be and does get you clean.

Hair washing I do seperate. My plastic dish pan spray-painted black makes all the shampoo-y water go away with one day in the sun. Find someone to wash your hair, man that feels good. I'm a married guy whos wife doesn't go, so hair washing is my "playing around" on the playa. I'm such a tramp, last year I had three different hairwashing partners.

by **Kinetic** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 6:56 pm

The Kidsville Yahoo group recommended using of all things a bug sprayer. An RL Flowmaster type like Wallyworld sells for $20. Reasonable spray and if you heat your water or don't mind it being cold, it is a solution for some people. I made a shower stall out of PVC pipe and had a large wash tub underneath to hold the water which got poured into a container and hauled home. You had to pump it of course but it did work once you use the right nozzle tip.

Next year I'll be getting one of the heated ones like Precip mentioned but that's a cool $180 for the dual burner one I want. It also doubles as a tent heater for those cold nights when I go mtn biking and camp to get more riding time and can't take the "Magic Box" trailer back to the campsite.

by **PetsUntilEaten** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:30 pm

OH YEAH!

don't forget

UNSCENTED BABY WIPES

for inbetween showers

as a shower

to clean your feet before you get in bed

to remove make-up

before sex

after sex

after a dust storm

just to freshen up

(and people love to put some in a cooler to have fresh, cool ones)

by **Kinetic** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:33 pm

Chilled baby wipes are the most wonderful things!

ePlaya

How much water, really?

How much water, really?

water everywhere

2 Gallons

1 and 2

P.S.

Three gallons a day

water

how does the solar shower thing work?

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