Thread: EPS (Chiller Panel) shower install help

Hi lads and ladies,

I picked up some chiller panel to build a chiller however my wife has convinced me to build a portable bathroom for a section we have in the Marlborough Sounds.

For the life of me I can’t work out how I would install a shower mixer in the wall. Any solutions would be appreciated. I could frame off the wall but I’m sure there is a better solution.

Panel? Can you box a hole through and clad both sides?

Originally Posted by No.3

Panel? Can you box a hole through and clad both sides?

The panel is 100mm thick and the mixer only needs to be seated say 50mm in but fixing to the soft poly will not provide enough strength.

Ideally I wouldn’t be cutting a big hole in the panel

Cut the small hole in the inside skin and the larger clearance hole thru the outer skin and foam. Glue a sheet of Ply/fibrelite to the inner skin inside the larger hole for strength. You can pass the pipes straight out that large hole to your water heater or cut a slot down the outside of the panel and cover it.

Edit: You can use the outside skin of an offcut as the cover and fit it so it's again waterproof & has some insulation.

Originally Posted by No good names left

Cut the small hole in the inside skin and the larger clearance hole thru the outer skin and foam. Glue a sheet of Ply/fibrelite to the inner skin inside the larger hole for strength. You can pass the pipes straight out that large hole to your water heater or cut a slot down the outside of the panel and cover it.

Edit: You can use the outside skin of an offcut as the cover and fit it so it's again waterproof & has some insulation.

Apologies for the delay in reply. Thanks that all makes sense. I guess I was trying to avoid cutting the outer skin but it sounds like that’s not really possible.

There was really neat shower unit photos floating around awhile back.shower cubicle made from two ibc water/chemical containers welded together. You could do same and use freezer panel outside that for warmth if wanted but may not need at all.too easy to hook up gas callifont n bottle on outside of IPC shower.

Please consider that you will likely end up with little bits of polystyrene all over your section over time. Some absolute specimen has at some point dumped some EPS and bean-bag balls up the back of my property, now it is all through the soil 50+m from where it was dumped. I have spent hours digging through the soil trying to remove it, but only covered an area of 1sq.m, 300mm deep - horrible shit. Could you stick to your original plan of making a chiller, and find an alternative material for the shower?

What's the brief for the shower? Does it have to be portable? I have some friends who just made a shoulder-height, rectangular enclosure, with a door opening on to a bit of decking for a changing area, next to a shower tray. They lined the inside with some leftover colour steel (or equiv.), the outside with thin ply, and had a hose running through a gas califont feeding a shower head. Easy, and you get to look at the stars while you're showering... also no polystyrene floating round your section.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

There was really neat shower unit photos floating around awhile back.shower cubicle made from two ibc water/chemical containers welded together. You could do same and use freezer panel outside that for warmth if wanted but may not need at all.too easy to hook up gas callifont n bottle on outside of IPC shower.

Immediately post Gabrielle we assisted a local plumbing business make 16 x IBC based portable shower units for deployment to Hawkes Bay. Very simple and portable. Used three IBC's. The third was used as the water supply, so was deployable anywhere, even without plumbed water on site. Cost about $1600 in parts: shower head, califont, water pump, battery, solar panel, 3 x IBC's, screws and hinges, some pipe.

and build your chiller.....keep wife happy and also have chiller you wanted in first place. your shower in batch will get used a little but the chiller alot.

Originally Posted by XR500

Immediately post Gabrielle we assisted a local plumbing business make 16 x IBC based portable shower units for deployment to Hawkes Bay. Very simple and portable. Used three IBC's. The third was used as the water supply, so was deployable anywhere, even without plumbed water on site. Cost about $1600 in parts: shower head, califont, water pump, battery, solar panel, 3 x IBC's, screws and hinges, some pipe.

Can you rough sketch up how that worked? Did you have to truck water in to fill up the supply etc? How big was the pump? The local option I saw assembled out of IBC's used a $1000 pump - the califont is $450-600 so all parts for $1600 sounds like an absolute steal and I reckon I'd make one for myself at that cost!

go industrial style - exposed pipes and create a surface mounted box for the mixer.

I have a water supply and septic on site so will include a toilet and washing machine.

Polystyrene is a non issue, it’s xflam foam and built correctly nothing is exposed.

I want something permanent in nature and lockable. So keen to build in the panel.

As for chiller, by the time I buy the door, make up a steel base and purchase extrusions it would be just as cheap buying one.

Originally Posted by No.3

Can you rough sketch up how that worked? Did you have to truck water in to fill up the supply etc? How big was the pump? The local option I saw assembled out of IBC's used a $1000 pump - the califont is $450-600 so all parts for $1600 sounds like an absolute steal and I reckon I'd make one for myself at that cost!

I'm trying to find photos that I took at the time.

Remember that they were a plumbing business, so that $1600 was at their wholesale rates. The third pod was filled using a water tanker that called every week, and replaced the 9kg gas bottle at the same time (gifted by The wharehouse). The pump from memory was one that looked remarkably similar to the sink water pump in our old horsetruck. Diaphram style. So three hundy or some such. Califont was a camping style one, so not a zillion $$. The plastic IBC's liner was cut about 4 inches in from the edge, so there would be a lip for the two pods to sit together on. The entrance was just the removal of three of the steel uprights on one long side, plus the plastic. The bottom steel forklift base of the second IBC was unscrewed and removed, so you got some light in through the top plastic when you upended that IBC onto the bottom one.. Some clips and self tappers held the two pods together. A door was fashioned out of the removed bits with a couple of hinges screwed on. Solar panel on a 45 degree up on the roof kept the lead acid battery topped up. All in all they were brilliant. Goodness knows where they all went to now. We were hoping that Civ Def would keep tabs on them and store them for the next emergency. Ha ha ha! Yeah right....