Bubble shower saves water

Read article : Bubble shower saves water

CSIRO announced they had developed a device for saving water by introducing bubbles into shower heads. But the technology is not new as claimed; such products have been available for years and even the wording of the media release appears to not be original.

The CSIRO described their work in a media release:

While the general concept of using an aerated showerhead to save water is not new, the technology behind the CSIRO's device is novel.

Developed by a team led by Dr Jie Wu, the aeration device is a small nozzle that fits inside a standard showerhead. The nozzle uses a small Venturi tube - a tube for which the diameter varies, creating a difference in pressure and fluid speed. Air is sucked into the Venturi tube as a result of the partial vacuum created, causing air and water to mix, forming tiny bubbles within the water stream.

From: 'Air shower' set to cut water use by 30 per cent, Media Release 06/223, CSIRO, 9 November 2006

In 2005 I bought an aerating shower head from the Australian business E-Co Shower. As CSIRO describes, the unit sucks in air, and mixes it with the water to give you a shower of bubbles.

As pointed out on PhysOrgForum, what CSIRO announced appears to be very similar to the existing E-Co shower. Even some of the wording of the the CSIRO media release appears similar to the wording of the E-Co web site from 2003:

1. E-CO : "air and water mixing together causes bubbles"
2. CSIRO: "air and water to mix, forming tiny bubbles"
   

Leaving aside the question of who invented what (and who wrote what), such devices work very well. It is difficult to tell the E-Co shower in my bathroom from a normal one. There is a slight tingling sensation, which is pleasant. As well as saving water I suspect the system uses less hot water and keeps the bathroom dryer. This is because there is not the very fine mist you get from many low flow shower heads.

Previously I tried a water saving shower head. When on the high setting this produced a narrow jet of water. I had to move around it the shower to get my whole body wet and the force of the water was almost painful. On low setting it produced a fine mist which did not seem to wet the body. Either way it was not a pleasant result.

The E-Co units seem to be particularly popular with institutions. There is a vandal resistant model which just has a small hole for the water to come out of, instead of the usual rose pattern. The unit is only about 20mm wide and 40mm long and can be securely connected to the pipe coming from the wall. As a result there is little for anyone to vandalize.

Also there is the Oxygenics shower head. I am not sure I believe the health claims for the "oxygenated" spray, but it seems to operate on the same principle as the E-Co and CSIRO units and they have a clever animation showing how it works.

The innovative technology behind Oxygenics® is based on the Venturi Principle. As water enters the base of the showerhead, it is propelled through an accelerator fin to increase the velocity of the water flow. It is then directed through a channel where oxygen is injected into water. The result? Phenomenal coverage and a continuous range of sensations - from a soft relaxing spray to a deep, therapeutic massage to everything in between. Are you ready to be wowed? Get ready for a healthy, powerful, oxygenated spray!

From: Oxygenics, 2007

The only innovation in the CSIRO approach seems to be that it is an adapter designed to be added to a normal shower head whereas E-Co make a complete shower head. E-Co make an adapter for hand-held showers and basins. E-Co include testimonials from Canberra residents and from the Department of Defence, so it it difficult to believe that CSIRO didn't know of it.

There is also a US Patent for such a device from 1978, complete with diagram:

The passage of water from conduit 17 and through the chamber within the shower head establishes, in accordance with the Bernoulli, or venturi principle, a low pressure environment within the shower head. The low pressure environment tends to draw ambient air through outlets 20 and 21. The drawn air mixes with the water within the shower head due to the turbulent nature of the flow therein and is ultimately ejected through nozzles 31.

Because the ejected jets of water are mixture of air and water, the spray striking a bather will not have the conventional sting of sharply defined jets of water. Instead, the spray will tend to be "softer" and produce a physiological massaging effect which is very pleasant. Aside from the physiological benefits, the amount of water seemingly necessary to provide the bather with a shower to which he has become accustomed to, consumes approximately one-half of the normal water useage. Thereby, aerator 15 can effect a water savings of approximately 50 percent and yet require no change in habits by the bather nor in any manner curtail or restrict the habits developed from a lifetime of showers."

From: Shower head aerator, Richard Harmony, United States Patent 4072270, February 7, 1978

There are only two things I have found wrong with the E-Co shower: is the price and the web site used to sell it. The price is very high compared to a cheap plastic water saving shower head. But the device is very well made, from solid metal and comparable in price to fashion shower heads. E-Co let the quality of the product down with a poor web site, which makes it hard to buy.

There is also another use for a Venturi in a shower: This is the "Venturi shower", where cold mains pressure water is used to draw hot water from a low pressure tank:

"High pressure mains cold water is used to "suck" tank pressure hot water through the special venturi valve inside the unit, so that the resulting mixed water comes out at a much greater rate than could be achieved using an electric shower or ordinary shower mixer valve. The venturi shower uses no electrical connections, it simply plumbs straight into the heating system."

From: Venturi Shower, tubz.co.uk, 2007 http://www.tubz.co.uk/venturi_shower.php

RV Plumbing Tips – Cleaning RV Faucets, Sink Drains & Shower Wands

Read article : RV Plumbing Tips – Cleaning RV Faucets, Sink Drains & Shower Wands

The effects of hard water on RV sinks, faucets and drains can be an ongoing problem for RVers. This page describes a few tips for how we remove these pesky mineral deposit buildups from our bathroom and kitchen sinks in our fifth wheel trailer and keep the water flowing smoothly in our shower wand and RV toilet rinse sprayer.

RV plumbing tips for cleaning RV faucets and drains and removing mineral deposits" width="731" height="384" class="size-full wp-image-50990" />

RV plumbing tips for removing mineral deposits and cleaning RV faucets and drains.

We like the water to flow freely in our RV vanity sink faucet, kitchen sink faucet and in the shower and RV toilet sprayer wands, however, periodically these faucets begin to spray water in weird directions because their inner workings have gotten clogged up by mineral deposits from the hard water.

In our bathroom vanity, our first step is to remove and clean the screen filter in the faucet. Sometimes the faucet tip can be unscrewed by hand, but if we’ve let it go too long, we have to use a pair of pliers to break the faucet tip free due to corrosion that makes it impossible to unscrew.

RV faucet screen with pliers" width="701" height="515" class="size-full wp-image-50993" />

Remove the RV faucet screen (with pliers if it’s stuck!)

Then we unscrew the entire screen assembly from the faucet.

The faucet tip unscrews from the faucet.

RV faucet screen" width="681" height="518" class="size-full wp-image-50995" />

Ugh… the screen is pretty dirty. No wonder the water comes out funny!

This time the screen was very corroded. We remove the corrosion and mineral buildup by putting all the pieces in a bath of white vinegar for 20-30 minutes or so.

Prior to putting the pieces in the white vinegar bath, it is a good idea to make note of the order that these parts go into the faucet assembly!

After noting how the pieces go together, soak them in white vinegar.

After the bath, the bits of corrosion can be seen in the white vinegar!

Here are all the pieces. You can see the dirt that came off in the vinegar bath!

Using an old toothbrush, we scrub each piece until it is clean.

RV faucet screen" width="681" height="534" class="size-full wp-image-50997" />

Use a toothbrush to get the screen totally clean.

Scrub all the parts with the toothbrush.

Then we reassemble the pieces in the correct order and orientation.

.

Reassemble the pieces.

.

.

To make it easier to remove the faucet tip the next time we do this job, it helps to grease the threads with a marine PTEF lubricant prior to screwing the assembly back onto the faucet.

Lubricating the threads makes it easier to unscrew next time!

.

Screw it back into the faucet.

Ta da! Now the flow will be smooth and full.

Our trailer has white plastic sinks in the bathroom and kitchen, and these sinks often develop a skanky brown ring around the sink drain. For years, we relied on Comet to clean these sinks. We sprinkled it on the entire sink, let it sit for a bit, and then scrubbed.

We recently discovered that Baking Soda is just as effective!! The fantastic thing about Baking Soda is that it is non-toxic. This is wonderful not only for our gray water holding tanks but also for the RV dump stations as well as the septic fields and municipal waste water treatment systems that are downstream from them.

It’s also really cheap!

RV sink drain" width="751" height="394" class="size-full wp-image-51008" />

White plastic RV sinks are prone to getting ugly stains.

RV sink drain" width="701" height="511" class="size-full wp-image-51009" />

Yuck!

We simply sprinkle it on the sink and then scrub the sink with a damp Scotch-Brite scrubbing pad.

RV sink drain cleaning with baking soda" width="721" height="495" class="size-full wp-image-51010" />

Sprinkle the baking soda in the sink and scrub the stains with a damp scrubby pad.

What a great result — a wonderfully squeaky clean sink!

RV sink drain is sparkling clean" width="701" height="483" class="size-full wp-image-51011" />

Sparkling!

The drain plug also gets gummy, and we use an old toothbrush to scrub it clean with either baking soda and/or Murphy’s Oil Soap (a handy all around biodegradable cleanser).

In an RV that is used for dry camping a lot, like ours, the bathroom vanity sink drain can get really gross really quickly because in an effort to conserve fresh water not much clean water gets flushed down the drain.

This can result in foul odors in the sink drain, and it’s pretty unsightly too.

So, we do two things.

First, we scrub the inside of the bathroom sink drain with an old toothbrush. To get a longer reach down the drain, we taped our toothbrush to an old tent stake we had lying around. Anything long and narrow will work.

RV sink drain" width="800" height="256" class="size-full wp-image-51013" />

Tape an old toothbrush to a long stick to reach deep down the RV sink drain.

RV sink drain" width="721" height="481" class="size-full wp-image-51014" />

Scrub inside the sink drain.

We also scrub the sink drain plug.

Second, to keep the RV bathroom sink drain fresh smelling, we use Happy Camper Holding Tank Treatment which we’ve found is a particularly good deodorizer. We put scoop of powder in an old water bottle, fill it up with water and shake it well (the bottle gets warm as the enzymes get activated!), and then pour it down the drain.

Most of it goes into the gray water tank, but a small amount stays in the bathroom sink drain p-trap and does its magic there, killing off the offensive odors.

RV sink drain plut" width="721" height="481" class="size-full wp-image-51012" />

Scrub the sink drain plug with a toothbrush.

To keep our RV shower in tip-top shape, we clean the drain there as well. The biggest problem in our RV shower drain isn’t foul odors, because the shower drain gets flushed with lots of water everyday. Instead, the challenge with the RV shower drain is accumulated hair.

In a house, it’s easy enough to use a powerful cleanser like Drano to clean out any clogs caused by hair, but we don’t want strong chemicals like that sitting in our gray wastewater holding tank. Afterall, we want the enzymes and bacteria in the Happy Camper and Unique RV Digest-It holding tank treatment products we use to thrive and go to work breaking things down!

So, we use a long spring hook (and flashlight) to pull the hair out. It just takes a few minutes and then the drain is clear.

Some RV shower stalls may have drain components that can be removed for cleaning. Ours doesn’t.

RV shower drain" width="631" height="539" class="size-full wp-image-51015" />

Use a spring hook to pull hair out of the RV shower drain.

Periodically, the RV shower wand gets crudded up with mineral deposits just like our RV sink faucets do. Again, we rely on white vinegar to clean up the deposits clogging the spray holes in the shower nozzle.

First, we pour the white vinegar through the shower wand to let it soak from the inside.

RV shower wand" width="681" height="712" class="size-full wp-image-51016" />

The RV shower wand can be cleaned with white vinegar.

Then we soak the shower wand’s face in a bath of white vinegar.

RV shower wand" width="751" height="421" class="size-full wp-image-51017" />

Put the RV shower wand face down in a white vinegar bath to clean all the little holes.

If we’ve let a little too much time pass, we’ll also use a toothpick to clean out each hole in the shower head. We use bamboo toothpicks because they hold up well in water. Ordinary wooden toothpicks tend to disintegrate when they get wet. A scribe also works well.

The before-and-after difference in the flow of water through the shower wand is startling. When half of the little holes are blocked from mineral deposits and the other half have an impeded flow, the water can feel like needles on your skin. After cleaning the wand, it is more like a waterfall.

RV shower wand with a toothpick or scribe" width="681" height="516" class="size-full wp-image-51040" />

Use a toothpick or scribe to clean each hole in the shower wand.

Lots of RVers love the Oxygenics RV shower head. We don’t use it because it doesn’t work well with the low water pressure we use to conserve water since we dry camp every night, but for RVers who get water hookups a lot, these shower heads are extremely popular. Of course, in hard water areas, these shower heads will need periodic cleaning as well.

The RV toilet bowl rinsing wand is also subject to corrosion from mineral deposits, and after a while when we go to rinse the toilet bowl we find the water flow from the sprayer is restricted and funky.

RV toilet sprayer wand cleaning" width="721" height="481" class="size-full wp-image-51018" />

The RV toilet sprayer wand gets clogged with minerals too.

Again, it’s easy to unscrew the end of the toilet spay wand, put it in a white vinegar for 20-30 minutes, scrub it a bit with a toothbrush, and then put it back on the wand.

Unscrew the tip of the toilet rinsing wand and soak it in white vinegar to clean the holes.

As an aside, if you have energy leftover after cleaning all your RV sinks, faucets, drains and spray nozzles, a spray bottle filled with a water and white vinegar mixture is super for washing the windows. As I wrote this, some flies got in our trailer and Mark started spraying them when they landed on the window next to him using a spray bottle filled with water and white vinegar. Besides slowing them down and killing them, he was really impressed with how clean the window was when he finished!

So, these are a few of the things we do to keep our sinks and drains flowing smoothly in our life on the road in our RV.

We hope they help you too!

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