*Update we have been using this shower for a while now and made a few minor tweaks and it is working so well! We have updated the Recirculating shower build guide to show what changes we have made to make it run perfectly. You can find it here 👉🏼kelsandjay.com/products/recirculating-shower-guide/

As with so many other systems of similar build, you will have at least 2 Problems with this system on the filtration side: 1. When not in use, that sif-water stands inside the filters and will become smelly quickly (living bacteria) - you dont ever wana shower in that again. 2. When opening those filters, there is huge spillage. Even if you put a pan under, you´ll still spill "stuff" allover. Most important, or should I rather say "most disgusting": DO NOT RUN RECYCLED WATER THROUGH THE SAME HEATER as the hot water you use in the kitchen. YOU WILL GET SICK - GUARANTEED. Solve all these problems - with a home-build vertical filter, with a drain pipe downwards - back-rinse that filter with fresh water after the shower. - air-vent that filter when not in use - use completely isolated water system for shower-recycling (seperate pipes & heater) - get rid of expensive water-heater and use 12V induction. (ZVS-Heater, build your own spiral)

I’ve been researching the heck out of this and it’s so nice/so much easier to have y’all guys explain it and show it with the water heater. Thank you for all your hard work and sharing the information to make it easier.

A common question we are getting about this system is the fact that there is some recirculating water that is left over in the water heater. I am trying to find a work around for this, maybe a way to flush out the water heater at the end of each use. For our situation though, we only ever use the kitchen faucet for cold water really, we just plumbed it for hot and cold so we have the option for hot at the sink too. Will update when i have a solution for this.

Gosh Jay you are so clever, what a great team you make. Each week I'm blown away with how you manage to work things out and the amazing professional finish of everything. X

I just want to say thanks for the explanation, it makes a lot of sense now and Im glad Jay went through in closer detail.

Jay can make anything work

This is absolutely fantastic. Excellent work and thank you for sharing!

Have fun and take care and take it easy and enjoy it

This is so sick you guys!! So smart of you to figure out, and of course making us rethink everything about our plumbing now... keep it up!!

I marvel at the things you come up with. Nice going, Jay! (Waving at you, Kels

Nice clean build 👍

Excellent ! thank s for this video !!

Great video! Currently building my camper out of a shuttle bus. The idea is having a recirculating shower but I don't need hot water on my sink so I'll have 2 completely separated systems. Already have all the tanks, the on demand propane water heater and just one 12V water pump. But with so many areas of the building going on at the same time...

Genus ..love your videos an watching your progress always a pleasure thanku so much till next time much love and God bless x

I love you guys!! You 2 are by far my favorites!!

I’m so PUMPED for this video. ✌️

Love this!! Definitely doing this on a future build

We would love an update once you start actually using it. We did a recirculating shower in our rig and ended up bailing on it, just connected it to the fresh water tanks because we couldn't keep the soap out even through multiple filters. Hope yours works better!

Interesting Keep it up guys. 👍👍👍

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the vid! :D

That's a lot of plumbing but ingenious. Very well explained.

Seems very complex but also super well done. Would love a test run and your thoughts after it’s up and running. Also just a thought. But what about a rollable door for the access to plumbing. This way you don’t have to have the back doors open when you want to change filters or do maintenance. Sort of like the rolling doors to storage units or shops at the mall. Great progress. You guys are killing it.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to watch this about 25 more times before I'm able to do this myself on my bus. 🤣

Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant Wow👏👏👏👏 that just blew my mind .🌻✌💖💪👨‍🍳🎅🚌👍

First time I've seen you. Amazing. I don't think I could ever figure out how to do that. So I guess you'll have to come and do it for me. Ha Thanks Subscribed & Liked I'll be watching :)

From my experience with my recirc shower, I think you should find a way to not have soapy water entering your heater heater. I have my heater on a different water loop with a heat exchanger. I would highly not recommend not contaminating your fresh water supply. Also the soapy water will kill the heating element in the heater. I need to make a new video about my shower soon, Mind if i mention you? haha

Cool!

love it! I only wish the videos were longer

Yo been looking into this. Thanks for the video.

Now we are about 85-90% done....i want a recirculating shower!!! LOL

Pretty clever setup. However, and I could be wrong, it seems that there's one place where the kitchen water and shower water might be mixing a tiny bit. And that wood be in the water heater. I've seen some other people avoiding that by adding a simple heat exchanger for one of the two loops. I.e. The shower water picks up heat from the heat exchanger, rather than from the water heater directly. If im mistaken, ignore this.

I am interested in such a recirculation system. I suspect doubling the number of filters will be needed. It maybe wise to setup two independent systems, guarantees no cross contamination.

You guys are doing an awesome job! Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge! I'm just confused about something... If the shower only draws water from the gray water tank, what happens if someone takes a shower right after the tank has been emptied?

Thanks Jay u did so good explaining all that!! It's coming along fast and nice!❤

You don’t need a cold and hot pipes, all you have to do turn the heater on or off depending on what temperature you like. That saves you space and also you don’t need an extra pump if you rise the clean water tank in your van. Just use gravity to fill up your secondary tank.

Brilliant! Hats off to you on the design and execution 👍⭐👏

Just a point. We installed a similar system in a house for reuse of rainwater. The filtered water still has to have a physical break (tundish) to meet water regulations.

Love this system, my question is how does the water heater hold up? After say 10 minutes of using the recirculated water does the heat of the water dramatically drop as the water heater won’t have time to heat the water back up? This is the last stumbling block I’m trying to work out before I fit my own. Thanks!

How often do you think you will need to swap filters? I have 5 kids, so the ability to recirculate shower water would be awesome. I was thinking of adding a shower specific gray tank to pull the water from, so after the first 2-3 gallons of fresh water it starts pulling from the filtered drain water. Then when all the showers are done it would be pumped into the main gray tank. That way 7 people could take (brief) showers on 2-3 gallons!!

Hello, building a shuttle bus and looking at your bluonics filter setup. The filters are all 5 microns, whereas in most builds I see a 20, a 10 and a 5. Has this caused any issues/how often do you have to clean the filters? Looks like a great and affordable setup, I would like to know how it’s working out for you guys!

How did u drain into the gray water tank?

Cool! So with these filters, peeing in the shower would actually be helpful in keeping the tanks full. Probably even encouraged?

How long for a unit of water to flow through the shower drain and through the system (and water heater) before returning to the shower head? And what's the flow rate of the shower head?

Hi there. I believe in circulator shower system but I will never use any other component where you mix this water with the other water system that you use to drink and/or wash your dishes and that is exactly what are you doing when use the same water heater. Circulator shower you need to maintain the entire system out of bacterias, soap and others residuos and that include pipes, pump and water heater and you do this using vinegar, magnesio and others. The two water systems need to be separated completely from each other.

Hey- wondering about the flow rate of your filter. I bought the same one and the flow rate is only 1 gpm. I noticed others used a system that could get 2.5 gpm. I am about to install and hesitant to unbox it and try it out risking a return of the filter. What are your thoughts?

Say what?? lol Rick from Kutztown Pa

Jelajah indonesia bro..

Maybe too late, but is there enough clearance to get those first two filters off their housings to change them out? Looks super tight...

Where are you located?

Did I understand that the water heater receives water from the freshwater tans and the gray water tank? Looks like sink hot should be exclusively from fresh. Maybe I didn’t get it right. Looks great.

What about the existing water in the water heater? Won’t that mix the 2 water sources if you don’t flush the heater after the shower?

Do you guys think that there is a risk of some recirculating water remaining in your heater tank when you are expecting to access fresh water with your sink?

Your fresh water and shower water both goes into the water heater. While the shower used water is filtered. You are still getting cross contamination

Flow rate of the triple filter will not keep up with the flow rate needed

IMO, a recirculating shower is a waste of time & money unless you're into taking showers with water that looks clean but isn't. The filters won't capture all of the soap chemicals, soap & body oils, and salts. The UV filter doesn't even kill or remove the microbes but merely makes them unable to reproduce. Get yourself a TDS meter and measure the TDS of your supply water for a baseline reading then measure the shower water after each use. You'll need to replace the filters faster than you think & besides the continued cost the old filters & housings will be full of human muck (hair, dead skin cells, feces, mucous, etc) that will need to be scrubbed from the housing before adding the replacement filters. You'd be better off just adding extra fresh water capacity. It's much less expensive, requires less maintenance, and you won't be sending discarded scummy filters to the landfill. If you can't learn to live with a limited fresh water supply then consider bringing a still with you & distilling your gray water into pure water. With a properly designed 20 gallon still & a lot of firewood or fuel you can distill several gallons of clean water a day.

Kels one question, I’ve watched you since the bus built and now for the van, so I’m asking why are you videos so short. 😢 I want to see more, sorry if I offended you, but I like see you both and how’s Jaime with shoulder. See you next week.

Okay I'm selling my car and buying a van 🤣

Its not free anymore......

If it works it works, but seems over complicated. Ian building my design now. I did the same thing I did with my solar. First thing eliminate as many needs for water as possible, I feel like the idea is mixing water with s*** was not a good idea, it waste water it makes human waste even more disgusting and intakes more room to store this nasty water. Composting toilet was a no-brainer. Then all that's left is the kitchen sink and the shower, at which point I was wondering why bother making a recirculating shower when you can just make a circulating water system for both the sink and the shower you might as well. Also what is the point of a gray tank when your water system is completely recirculating it's just a waste, get rid of your gray water tank and make your fresh water tank the only tank you have, full fresh water heated pump it out to the faucet bring it back from the drain to the main tank freshwater tank filter it as it goes out simple. No valves are control circuits once you get your hot water going turn the cold water off cuz there is no cold water and then maintain the temperature you want on your hot water simple. I use a 20 micron a 5 micron a 1 micron and then a half micron carbon. If you think about it cold water isn't ever really needed, you should be drinking a different water. Thanks for your video!!!

Yuck

Dude! Not cool! There is a possibility of you drinking your shower water!!!