The Dirtbag Shower - Nalgene Cap

This adapter takes your 32 or 48oz Widemouth Nalgene and turns it into the perfect hand-washing tool or vagabond/van-life shower!

My friend and I are avid rock climbers and always take a spare Nalgene and hand towel with us to wash up because our hands get filthy from handling the rope all day.  It has always been a bit of a mess; You glug out a quarter of the bottle at a time and most of the water ends up on the ground and just barely get a good wash with a full 1L bottle.  The Dirtbag Shower takes that litre of water and turns it into a steady stream of water that lasts well over 20 seconds and has good coverage meaning you can get a proper wash-up.  With a 48oz bottle you could get a full shower provided you have a creek or lake nearby.

The Dirtbag Shower comes in two versions:

• Wide-Spray Pattern:  This version closely resembles a shower head spray pattern and gives a wider coverage.
• Narrow-Spray Pattern:  This version creates a 6cm diameter spray pattern that is great for washing hands or single body parts.

The shower also has multiple use-modes:

• Steady Flow (Printed Straw)
  • Using the included straw you can get a steady flow that lasts longer than 20 seconds.  Occasionally you'll need to give the bottle a shake to get the flow started.
• Steady Flow (Drinking Straw):
  • The internal "nub" is designed to fit regular disposable plastic drinking straws (you should be able to use the same one forever) and the flow rate will vary depending on how long the straw is!  The longer the straw - the faster the flow of water.  I find that a 1.5" section of straw is the shortest you can go before the flow tends to ‘hang-up’ and require a shake.
• Shake/Tip to Flow:
  • Use the lid without a straw attached and the water tends to flow only when the bottle is shaken or tipped to the side.  This allows you to keep the bottle suspended upside down and just tip or shake the bottle to get some water when needed.

Troubleshooting:

Occasionally I'll get a great spray the first time around but them once the cap gets wet things don't work so great.  The steps I take to remedy this are:

• Clean out the centre vent-hole:  Either by blowing or using a thin pipe-cleaner, clean out the centre hole.
• Increase the length of the straw:  A longer straw gives a faster but more reliable flow.  Shortening the straw may lengthen the useful time of the shower but can be less reliable.
• Make sure the straw isn't too long:  Be sure to trim your straw so that it isn't contacting the bottom of the bottle as if it seals against the bottle there will be restricted flow.

I have some other Nalgene models you can check out below!