Transom showers?

[Scandsailor]

Hi,
I am totally new to all this and unfortunately my grandfather wasn't around long enough to teach me much more then the ropes and the basics of sailing. I was looking through my current Defender catalog, and saw these things called "Transom Showers". This seems like a dumb question but, what exactly is a "Transom Shower"? I know what a transom is, and a shower, but what are they used for? Some come in hot and cold. Are they what I'm thinking? A shower for washing off? The idea outdoor showering on deck sounds great to me. Are these meant to rinse the boat off or for a nice hot outdoor shower?

 

[Texas Lake Sailor]

There are what you think they are. A shower that is mounted in the cockpit or on the swim platform that can be used to rinse off after going for a swim. They are not designed for washing down the boat. We find it great after swiming all day, I also love it after getting all hot after doing maintenance on the boat. Be careful however, if you arn't connected to pier water folks will drain your tanks fast.

 

[sailaway78]

I use a solar shower

I use a solar shower for both bathing and rinsing off. If you are on the lake and not out for days at a time, a transom shower may be a good idea. But as mentioned, you use a lot of water, and if out for more than a weekend, is very easy to find yourself totally out of water.
The solar showers are cheap and reliable, nothing to leak and flood the boat, and no mechanical parts to break down. I have my hot water heater disabled, cause I know that with lots of hot water, I'll soon have no water.

 

[Patrick S/V Shangra-La]

I have a transom shower, and on longer trips also use a solar shower. If done right ...you can take a shower with just less than a half gallon of fresh water.

When anchored out...we jump into the water, then soap our selves up with joy dish soap, its then back into the water to rinse off the soap. We then rinse off the salt with a fresh water rinse. You end up feeling clean and salt free.

It worked well for us. We had three guys an eleven day trip, and had 55 gallons of fresh water on board. We came back with water in the tanks. Oh and if you wondered...we drink the water in the tanks too.

 

[Stu Jackson]

One thing that helps conserve water is a shower shutoff plug, right at the shower. We use a solar shower, too, but this works for our inside shower quite well in conserving water. It could work quite well on a transom shower.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4174.0.html

 

[woodster]

i have been looking for fiXtures for my gally and head for both sinks and have come across some that i like but i dont like the prices of the combo ones even though they are cool so i bought dedicated fictures for the head and gally so now i am wondering if anyone has a dedicated hand held shower nozzel that has its own water valves installed in the head and if so where did you put the valves ....in the bulkhead or in the sink counter top....

regards

woody

hope i am not hijacking this thread