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A summer shower in the country is already a necessity. It’s so nice to freshen up after a “rest”. Well, in order for the water to be warm and in sufficient quantity, a shower tank is needed.
Selection options
To take a shower in a summer cottage or garden plot was comfortable, you need to choose the right shower tank. It should not give enough water at the same time, but at the same time, it should not be too heavy – the design of the country shower should easily withstand it. Therefore, pay attention to several characteristics at once:
- volume;
- size and shape;
- material.
Choice is never easy
Volume selection
The minimum size of the shower tank is 50 liters. This amount of water is enough to quickly rinse one person. You should not count on long-term water procedures with such an amount of water. The maximum volume is 300 liters. But such a container can be installed on a solid foundation, so you must also choose the volume with an eye to the reliability of the design.
How to determine the volume of the shower tank? When calculating, it is worth taking a supply of water of about 50 liters per person. This is enough to “wash” without frills. It is clear that you want to have more water supply, but you need to remember that this supply will have to be heated. If the sun in the region is active in summer, problems can only arise in spring and autumn. You can also build a heating element into the tank, but we’ll talk about heated tanks below.
Size and shape
In shape, there are rectangular shower tanks – in the form of parallelepipeds, there are ordinary barrels, there are with a flat bottom and a rounded top. The worst choice is barrels. Due to their design, the water in them warms up weakly, in any case, worse than in flat containers or with a convex top.
Flat square tanks are also good because they can also serve as a roof for a summer shower. Then the dimensions of the frame should be slightly smaller than the dimensions of the container – so that it fits snugly on the support. This is how you can choose the size of the shower tank – first build a frame, and look for a container under it. But you can do the opposite – purchase a container and build the structure itself according to its dimensions. Although no one interferes, make a roof and put a container on it the way you want.
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The shower tank is made of metal and plastic. The metal can be structural, galvanized or stainless steel. The best one is stainless steel. They are durable, despite the fact that they are made of thin sheets – the wall thickness is usually 1-2 mm. It’s all about the qualities of this material – it does not rust, which means it does not collapse. An exception can only be seams if they are welded by conventional welding (not in an inert gas environment). In these places, alloying materials burn out, the steel acquires its usual properties. The disadvantage of stainless steel shower tanks is their high price.
Inferior to stainless steel containers, galvanized products. A layer of zinc protects the metal from destruction for some time, but, sooner or later, it rusts. To make the protection more durable, the galvanized steel tank can be painted. And this must be done from the inside and outside. Not the best solution, but slightly extends the life of the tank.
Structural steel tanks are the worst – they rust quickly. Here they are painted necessarily, annually updating the coating. These are the most inexpensive water containers, but they do not last long, and the presence of a large amount of iron oxides in water does not affect the skin in the best way.
Plastic
Better in terms of operation plastic shower tanks. They are chemically neutral, do not react with water, do not rust. The only thing that can destroy them is a strong blow and frost. And then, there are polymers that can withstand temperatures down to -30 ° C. And if not, then the container must be removed for storage for the winter, because in winter you still won’t use the shower on the street.
Another plus of plastic water tanks is that they are black, which is why the sun heats up more intensively. A metal tank can also be painted black, but the paint cracks and flies quite quickly, and plastics are tinted in bulk – the coloring pigment is added to the mass and the entire thickness of the material has the same color.
The next advantage is light weight. Despite the fact that the walls of the container are not thin, they weigh quite a bit. However, they also have a drawback – if we talk about flat square tanks, then the minimum volume is from 100 liters. You won’t find less. There are miniature shower barrels – here they are from 50 liters.
Another operational point: when installing a large flat water tank on a roof without overlap, it is better to have several intersecting strips that will support the bottom. At the bottom, of course, there are stiffening ribs – thickenings of the same material, but it is better to have additional support.
Heated tanks – pros and cons
Far from always solar heat is enough to heat water to an acceptable temperature for us, and you can get hot water only in the south, with its hot sun. In order to ensure comfortable conditions in the summer shower in any weather, a heating element is built into the container – a heating element. There are such models among metal containers, and among plastic ones.
In a heated tank, the heating temperature is set on the thermostat, the degree of heating is controlled by a sensor located in the water. There is also a thermostat that turns off the heating if necessary (when the water is heated to the desired degree). That is, it turns out a kind of country water heater for the shower (water, if desired, can be used for other household purposes).
In general, the advantages of heated shower tanks are obvious – you can get water heated by about 50-70 ° C. The degree of heating depends on the material from which the tank is made.
But it was not without drawbacks:
- It is necessary to bring electricity to the country summer shower.
- Requires a shower connection to the water supply or water supply with a pump.
- We need an automatic level control system and filling the tank with water.
That is, installing a shower tank with a heater is not an easy undertaking, it requires communications – at least electricity and water supply.