9/12/2023 0 Comments Nemo helio check valveThe Helio can be used for showers, washing the dog, household cleaning (outside windows, etc), washing the car, cleaning outdoor gear, rinsing a picnic table, or any project that needs water.Nothing is more satisfying at the end of a long, hard day of hiking than a camping shower. You do not need a special place to hang the bag. One of the best features of the Helio is that it is made to sit on the ground. Lastly, flip the case over and finish stuffing the bag inside. Next, I place the case over the bag, hose, and pump. I drained the bag, then coiled the hose on the bottom side of the main bag and then put the pump on top of the hose. It was not overly difficult to return the Helio to the storage case. I had the adjustable nozzle at full stream. The Helio gave me 5 minutes of shower time (!) in 30 to 45 second spurts. I filled the bag and ran it until it emptied. The Helio really has a powerful (for a portable shower) stream. Add a couple more pumps and a strong stream returns. Speaking of pressure, fill the bag with water and pump a few times - 5 to 10, and the Helio produces a constant stream for about 30 seconds. Make sure the valve is sealed before pumping. I am sure the process will be simpler with practice. By lightly holding the handle a funnel forms around the valve and prevents massive spillage. To fill the bag, I sat it on the ground and poured water into the bag valve or opening - underneath the handle. The top side of the pump is the light gray side. The bottom valve is only used to deflate the ppump for packing. Open the top valve to pressurize the bag. I had to experiment to find the purpose of the two valves on the foot pump. The instructions on the Helio are on the product tag. They have grown and now make a full line of tents and other outdoor products. If you haven't heard of Nemo Equipment, they entered the outdoor equipment industry a while back with tents that used inflatable sleeves instead of poles. We just ignored the things we didn't like about the bag. We have used the Pocket Shower more than any of the others, but mainly because it was simple to operate and rig. You filled the small bag with water and let it drip. We returned to using a shower bag, but then saw the small Sea to Summit Pocket Shower. It would take a lot of tinkering to make everything work - especially at higher altitudes. It used a propane burner to heat the water and a battery operated pump for water pressure. This was a rather expensive portable shower. You could get the water temperature just about right, but it still was gravity fed and a pain to set up. We liked the idea that you could just heat water on your stove and pour it in the large bag opening. It was essentially a black, dry bag with a roll down sleeve and a gravity fed hose and nozzle. The next shower was the Cascade Design Shower Bag which we bought in the early 00's. After the novelty of having an outdoor shower wore off, the bag never left the closet. The other problem was that it was hard to rig the large, gravity fed shower. It worked okay but the water didn't really warm from the sun and the flow was terrible. Years ago (90's), a company called Basic Designs made a Solar Shower Bag. A total of $10 a day for showers adds up quickly when your trip lasts 60 days, we needed a better solution. Some of the places where we have found showers are at RV parks, city swimming pools, and laundromats, but these places charge upwards of $5 a piece for the showers. So, if we want to wash the dirt off we have to go to town. Few, if any, of the campgrounds or camping areas where we stay have showers. In general, we travel to the mountains and live. In the summers we spend as much time as possible in the outdoors.
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