When heading to the beach on our last van adventure, we wanted to have a solution that kept us from standing in beach shower lines. So looking around there were plenty of options from DIY to expensive roof mounted shower systems. Stopping by TruPrep, our local go to for camping gear, we grabbed the Flow Pro Portable Shower by Reliance Outdoors.
We had been looking at this shower for a while because it had a lot of the features we were looking for: portability, ease of use, compact size, good price, and quality water pressure. We were not disappointed, at first. On day one of using this shower it worked flawlessly. Not only did it check all of our boxes, but also the neoprene sleeve heated up the water just right even inside the van, and dried quickly. Holding 2 gallons of water was plenty for 2 showers and only 20 pumps resulted in 2 mins of shower time. Day 2 was a different story. After using the shower, we unscrewed the fill cap before releasing the pressure on the release valve and that send said valve flying. Fortunately, we found most of the pieces including: an O-ring, gasket, and spring.
Once we returned home we set out to not only repair the shower but improve the design. Originally the Flow Pro was comprised of mostly plastic parts which ended up being the weak link. So after a trip to the local Ace Hardware, we found a small cotter pin and washer to retain the spring on the release valve. With this metal pin in place, we recreated the conditions where we broke the valve and it held strong with no issues. Not only is this fix strong, its repeatable. Any local hardware store will have to the parts for a repair, and they’re small enough you can carry extras.
After a thorough test the fix, we once again love this new and improved version of the Reliance Flow Pro shower system. If you do plan on picking on of these up, we recommend going to the local hardware store and finding a small cotter pin and washer in case you need to do an emergency repair. Next up for our shower system will be a shower head mount on the roof rack for a hands shower
