Anyone have one of these water heaters? Was thinking of installing one on my molle panel by the window, which is conveniently above my water jug, propane tank and goal zero. I would just pop the right side panel and boom, hot shower.
Looking to hear from those that have or have had one of these and the pros and cons you’ve found.
Thanks in advance
I don’t personally own one, but my adventure buddy does and we’ve done a few trips with it. We try and not carry unnecessary duplicates of items, but I’ll probably order one for myself before my next solo trip.
That being said, there have been some interesting situations:
first time we set it up, we ran drop line into a running creek and used the 12v pump to feed the joolca.
flawless. amazing. surreal.
taking a hot shower in the woods with basically endless hot water was a game changer.
the whole setup isn’t small. The joolca owner has a long bed Tacoma and I have a short bed. He keeps it all in a bin with all the hoses and the pump. That bin is probably a total of ~3 cf.
the most recent time we set it up, we were river side, but water was low and it was too far down too much elevation to pump to the joolca. No worries, we’ll just pump into a 5 gallon jerry and take it back up to our spot. Not quite unlimited, but close enough. Well, we couldn’t get the pump to prime. We tried filling the hoses, all sorts of acrobatics, shouting at it, etc but no dice. Ended up just dipping the jerry can into the river and filling it.
I don’t know why it didn’t want to cooperate that time, but it’s still a great product. I’m ditching my waterport weekender for one and wouldn’t consider the camplux as an alternative.
For the hassle and cost, I’d probably just do a Geyser shower. Much more water efficient and super compact. Chances are you’d already have your cook setup out, so boiling water is no biggie.
I’m just impressed you all are showering…
Baby wipes, river, hot springs, etc!
I was pretty set on ditching the waterport for the geyser before using the joolca, and I really appreciate it from a water conservation aspect. There’s something about the sponge though gets me…
I have the Joolca single shower tent, but went with the Geyser sponge shower system because it needs less water. When it’s chilly, I use my portable diesel heater to warm the shower tent if I have the heater with me. To me that’s probably the biggest con of the Geyser system, the Joolca hot water shower system probably feels much warmer. If it’s mid 60’s or colder outside, a sponge shower can feel a bit chilly, even in the shower tent. A pro of the Geyser system is that it’s more portable. I can walk off into the woods after heating the water up, get out of people’s sight, and I can use this small car jumper gadget to run the Geyser’s pump.
I have a joolca at my off grid property so I can take hot showers and it works well (as long as you remember to drain it if it even thinks of freezing they will die), wouldn’t want to deal with it in the truck though… I wash my hands and occasionally my face 
… if I get real bad there is always a river to jump into or do a snow bath.
Thank you! Love this review, pretty much sold me with it!
How does the Geyser work for washing your hair with the sponge thing? I like the idea of the Geyser (compact/self contained). I have long hair (for a guy) and just not sure how it would work. They are a bit spendy to take a gamble on.
You might end up a little short on water for a full shampoo rinse out and a 2nd conditioner rinse out. But I recommend having a gatorade bottle filled with water for the eyes anyway (in case you get soap in them accidentally). If my hair was long, I might use a water bottle for the hair rinsing steps.
Easily one of the best pieces of gear I’ve bought for camping. Used it during a 2 week trip from California to Utah.
This is what i like to hear! Thank you! Do you think you could elaborate more on why you like it or how you store it/ mount it?
This was from when I had a CVT tent and used my old water port mount to hang it while in use. Any hook style mount onto the camper will do the job with the built in hanging handle on the unit. When I’m out camping it’s stored in the bag it comes in so it’s super easy to keep clean. As far as function goes it’s pretty much plug and play with your propane tank and operation of the unit is super easy. I had 5 people using it pretty much every night for 2 weeks and it never gave us an big issue. Only negative is sometimes if you’re switching the water on and off super quick the igniter will fail to ignite so you get some cold water. If it happens all you have to do is turn the water off on the handle and turn it back on again and give it a chance to light up. Overall it can get the water hotter than you’d ever want it for a shower
Amazing! Thank you, now to get my order in lol
I have the Joolca and find it to be more hassle than it’s worth. Went back to my tried-and-true 3 gallon collapsable bucket with a 12v USB showerhead. When it’s cold, I boil a gallon or two of water to mix in with cold water. If it’s real cold, I heat up the bathroom tent with a Buddy heater.
Yeah I like my collapsible Nemo shower. heat up some water on the stove, dump it into other less hot water and take 2 min shower with spray head. small light weight. I used in in my regular shower when we were without power a few years back.
That looks cool never seen it. Do you really get 5-7 minutes with only occasional foot pumping?
it depends on how much water you put into the system. I have the bigger unit but do not remember how much water goes into it. the foot pump is effective and I use it to add pressure as needed.
I absolutely love my Joolca. My bride and I spend our time mountain biking and fly fishing. Nothing better than gettin’ lucky at night because we have a hot shower. We use it in jerry cans mostly. Tip of the day is to start the system and recycle the water into the can until it is hot. I wouldn’t leave home without this setup. As someone else mentioned, it is not super small, so just know that. We use it on 10+ day camping and love it. Great for washing dishes too.
Sweet! Exactly what I’d be using it for too, post ride shower sounds so epic. Thank you for your review!
