Drifta Canvas Shower Floor
Drifta canvas shower floor (tray) review.
In this post we review the Drifta canvas shower floor or tray that can be used in any outdoor camping shower setup.
Why Shower Floor (Tray)
For anyone that uses an outdoor camping shower such as the Joolca Hottap, which is what we use in DOT373, knows that you can have a bit of an issue with all the shower water. It can pool up around your feet and if using close to your camp setup, leave a lot of standing water lying around. If setup on a nice grassy patch then this might not be a big issue, but it is not great standing in a pool of dirty water while having a shower. Our initial solution, which is what a lot of people do, is to use a set of foam mats. We already had a few lying around which didn’t have any holes in them, so instead of buying some that did, we cut holes in a few. This worked ok depending on where we were camping. Camping at the beach on sand was a bit problematic with lots of sand building up on top of the mats. On grass this wasn’t too bad and worked ok, but depending on the drainage of the soil you could still get a pool of water at your feet. If the ground was dirt with little grass then it was a mud bath. Not really the desired outcome from having a shower, still dirty after.
So foam mats work ok, but we found are not the best solution. You still have the issue with using foam mats, of your dirty shower water still having nowhere to go. As a result you have water pooling up around your shower and camp setup. We had seen a few different other options in the market but all seemed quite bulky, heavy and not that easy to store in our trailer setup. This would be even worse if you were looking to store this in your 4WD in a full touring setup. Not many had a solution though for dealing with the dirty water. You really need some sort of a drain so that you can move the dirty shower water away from your camp setup.
The Drifta Canvas Shower Floor
As highlighted above, the issues we wanted to eliminate were:
- Remove standing dirty shower water from our camp and shower setup.
- Not have to stand in a pool of dirty shower water.
- Keep the shower floor and area clean without a pool of sand, dirt or mud.
The Drifta canvas shower floor is obviously made of canvas as the name suggests. It is the perfect size to fit the bottom dimensions of any quick setup ensuite such as the Quik Pitch shower ensuite, the one that we have, but would be the same for say the Kick Ass one that seems to be pretty popular at the moment. The design of this canvas shower floor is really quite clever, as you would expect from the guys at Drifta. Once opened it is really big, but has been cleverly designed to roll away quite small compared to when it is setup. When setup its dimensions are 1,000 x 1,000 x 120 mm. Compared to when packed away its dimension shrink to 1,070 x 270 mm. This makes it super easy to pack away in your trailer or 4WD.
Easy to Pack Away
Packing the shower floor away is actually quite simple. You simply fold the canvas from its square shape when setup into a triangle. You do this by folding one corner onto the opposite corner and then rolling it up. It is that easy to pack away. We also bought a Drifta canvas bag to store the shower floor (tray) away, which is a great option if you are like us and like storing your gear in strong Australian made canvas bags. When setting up, you simply unroll the canvas, fold out, push the sides up, place under your shower ensuite, attach one of the threaded fittings and then connect your drain hose. Then run your drain hose to a lower point away from your camp and shower setup. Done in less than two minutes.
Drain Fittings
When setup, there is a drain in the one corner that is threaded. Drifta does supply you with three 3/4 inch fittings, a threaded bung (end cap), threaded nipple (female to female) and a threaded barb connector. You can then use whichever fitting you need for the type of hose you want to connect. We are not sure on the purpose of the end cap, but maybe this is in the event someone wants to capture all the water within the shower floor (tray). Initially we used the threaded nipple connector and connected a standard hose connection on the end for a normal size garden hose as the drain – standard hose connectors are 3/4 inch so they fit this connector perfectly. We did this once and realised that due to the size (diameter) of the garden hose, the drain didn’t work as well as it should. We then replaced this connection with the barbed one and purchased an actual drain / grey water hose from a hardware store and cut it down to about 3 metres. This simply connects onto the barb easily by sliding it on. We have found that this drain hose works exceptionally well as it is more than double the size of a garden hose. Make sure that the drain hose you are using is not too long as it will struggle to drain correctly.
What We've Learnt
There are a few things that we have worked out with many uses of this canvas shower floor (tray) that you should be aware of. The idea and overall design of the product is great, there is no faulting that. You just need to be aware of where you are setting up your shower. You do not want to be on level ground, if you are then there are a few things you will want to do to ensure the water drains correctly. As the drain cannot be fitted at the bottom of the canvas floor, you will always still have some water that just won’t drain. We can’t see any way around this so you need to just be aware of this. If the ground is fairly level, then you will always have a pool of water about 5-10 mm deep due to the lowest height of the drain connection. The work around here is to place one or two foam mats under the canvas shower floor in the opposite corner to the drain. This then raises 80% of the shower floor above the lowest height of the drain connection. You will then find that 90% of the water will drain out easily with a small pool of water left in the corner nearest to the drain. If the ground is not level, then you can get away without putting anything under the shower floor, but make sure you have the drain corner of the shower floor at the lowest point of the slope. If you are camping on sand then this is really easy as you can use a shovel to move the sand around to ensure you have the drain sitting at the lowest point. This will ensure most water drains out of the shower floor and works as expected.
Once you get the canvas shower floor setup correctly, after a bit of trial and error, you will find that it works really well. It sits perfectly under our Quik Pitch shower ensuite and it does catch all the water from our Joolca Hottap shower. The sidewalls of the canvas shower floor (tray) are the perfect height ensuring that all water is captured within the canvas before draining away. The drain when setup right works well and does allow you to move any of the usual standing water away from your camp and shower setup. This is great as you don’t have to worry about a big muddy mess all around your camp setup. Once you get clean, you stay clean. We would definitely recommend using a larger drain hose than a standard garden hose as this will drain your dirty shower water far quicker. Being good quality canvas and fairly water resistant, when packing away there will be little moisture underneath the shower floor.
Dries Out Quickly
Another thing that we have really like about this Drifta canvas shower floor (tray) is how quickly it dries out. After many uses we have found that in the morning before packing up, by simply picking up the Drifta canvas shower floor (tray) and standing it up in the sun against the side of our trailer, Cruiser or even a tree, it will be completely dry within 30 minutes to an hour. By the time we have had breakfast and packed up camp, it will be completely dry so that it can be packed away for the next trip or camp spot that you are heading to. Once dry we find it is a good idea to get a dustpan brush and brush away any dirt that might still be stuck on the canvas. It is much easier to clean once dry so make sure you let it dry out in the sun and then brush away any dirt or hair.
Overall Verdict
Overall we are extremely happy with our Drifta canvas shower floor (tray) and the Drifta canvas storage bag. It is a really clever design and packs away nice and small as well as being real lightweight. We would highly recommend getting the Drifta Australian made canvas storage bag for this as well to ensure you protect this bit of gear as it is not cheap and you will want it too last a long time. The Drifta canvas shower floor (tray) is the perfect size to fit any quick setup shower ensuite such as our Quik Pitch one, or even the Kick Ass version that is pretty much the same. The canvas sidewalls are the perfect height to capture all your shower water. It is so easy to setup and pack away, with a simple fold and roll up design. It does keep your camp and shower setup nice and dry with the added drain hose moving any standing water away from your camp setup. We love that we stay clean after our showers, compared to before where we would still have dirty feet due to all the standing water lying around. Being canvas, it dries out really quickly when left in the sun, so you know you can pack it away without the risk of mould and mildew forming which is a big issue with wet canvas. Once dry it is very easy to wipe clean with a damp cloth or brush to remove any dirt that might have remained on the canvas.
Find a Slope
The only point we think you should be aware of, is the location and height of the drain hose connection. As we highlighted above, we can’t see any work around for the location of the drain. Drifta have modified the poly fitting slightly to ensure that it sits as low as possible. But be aware that there is the potential for about 5-10 mm of water that will sit on the bottom of the shower floor due to the lowest height of the drain. You can ensure that the majority of water drains correctly out of the canvas shower floor tray if setup correctly, either on a small slope or by using foam mats to increase the height on the one side.
With everything that we have learnt after using the Drifta canvas shower floor (tray) for a while now, we would definitely recommend this bit of gear. It does what it is supposed to, is fairly lightweight, easy to setup and pack away, keeps your camp setup nice and dry, dries out quickly and easy to clean once dry. Once you get the hang of setting up the drain correctly, you will have no issues with this product and it should last along time.
More Information
If you want more information on the Drifta canvas shower floor (tray), check it out here on their website. This is not a sponsored post, we bought this product and is our honest opinion after many months of use.
If you have any questions or comments then please comment below this post in the comments section, we will respond. To keep up to date on future posts then sign up to our monthly newsletter here. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube to keep up to date and what we have been doing.
Thanks for reading legends.
The thoughts of Peter.
07/07/2021 @ 4:54 PM
Looking for this shower floor. Can you please tell me if you have stock and what the price is in south Africa rand please.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Regards
Joan brand
08/07/2021 @ 8:37 AM
Hi Joan,
Thanks for the message. We actually don’t sell any products. This is a review of the canvas shower floor that we have been using for a while now. If you want to buy one or have questions about the product you’ll need to speak to Drifta. Here is a link to the canvas shower floor on their website.
https://www.drifta.com.au/product/drifta-canvas-shower-tray/
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Peter