Handwashing Hack, by Jessie Blaine

This article is extracted from the boring life of one of the Brushbeater students and a pound member of the Mossy Oak Militia.

Using an empty laundry soap container, you can make a portable handwashing station that can be used in a variety of circumstances. Having adequate handwashing stations will help with the overall sanitation and greatly reduce the spread of germs when you are in less-than-ideal conditions.
I made my simple handwashing station by repurposing an empty liquid laundry soap container. After it was empty all I did was wash it out, paint it black and fill it with water. Super easy!
I opted to paint my containers black to help with the appearance and to try and elevate the water temperature. Painting the containers helped some, but overall, the paint didn’t adhere very well and the water temperature only increased slightly.
To measure the actual temperature change, I did a non-scientific experiment and saw a marginal increase of the water temperature. Container A was painted black with two coats of flat black paint. Container B was left plain, just as it came from the store. The containers were not identical, but similar in size and filled with approximately the same amount of water. The atmospheric conditions were normal for a West Texas summer; barometric pressure indicated 29.93 inches, the clouds were nonexistent, and the relative humidity was at 41%. The ambient temperature was 98 deg Fahrenheit at 1500 when the test was over. The containers sat in the sun for approximately 7 hours and the results are as follows:

Container A (painted) had an exterior temperature of 149 deg F and the water inside the container was 110 deg F.
Container B (unpainted) had an exterior temperature of 106 deg F and the water inside was measured to be 100 deg F.
The results indicate that the unpainted container was only 2 degrees above ambient, while the black container was approximately 12 degrees hotter than ambient. The water was slightly warmer, but I was really hoping for a larger temperature change.
In my current set-up, I have two handwashing containers: one with soap and water for scrubbing and one with plain water for rinsing. Both are painted black.
I really like this system. It’s cheap, with the only out of pocket cost being the spray paint. I also like the simplicity and effectiveness of the container. They have easy to open spouts, are easy to transport, are self-contained and the default position of the water spigot is closed.
A few normal use-cases for this type of set-up could be:

  1. Hunting camp. Set the containers on the bed of your truck and have a fast way to wash the feathers, furs and fins from your hands.
  2. Car camping. Place the containers on the end of a picnic table and it’s an easy place for kids to wash their hands and get cleaned-up.
  3. Remote work site. When working remotely and access to conventional plumbing is limited, this set-up would be a great way to wash your hands when dealing with mud, grime, and whatnot.

In a grid-down or austere environment, this might be helpful at the following:

  1. Field clinic. When possible, you want to wash your hands before and after providing patient care. This set-up makes water readily available for handwashing in a remote care setting.
  2. Out-house. Everyone has to go at some point and having a sanitation station pre-planned and set-up will help prevent the spreading of germs.
  3. Camp Kitchen. For the cooks preparing group meals, washing hands before handling food is always a good idea.

If we enter a grid-down situation or have to work in an austere environment, having a simple handwashing station could help with general sanitation and improve morale. Instead of having to “make-do”, with a rickety handwashing set-up (or no handwashing at all) this set-up will provide a sense of normalcy and dignity.
Happy washing.
Jessie
Jessie Blaine is a former Marine living in refuge somewhere in the Lone Star State.  He is in a perpetual state of learning, which is the second best state to be in, with the Lone Star state being the first. 
 
 

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

19 Comments

  1. Anonymous September 13, 2021 at 08:11

    5

  2. Jon September 13, 2021 at 08:44

    Pure genius! And practical too!

  3. Michael September 13, 2021 at 08:50

    When your working with a diffuse heat source like Solar pay attention to the little things. Heat is transferred by 3 main ways.
    Conduction, like the frypan on the hot iron stove, Radiation like the heat you feel on your skin from the sun or that hot iron stove, and convection where the heat warms the air and you feel the warm breeze from that fan blowing across that hot iron stove.
    My point here is the black bottle adsorbs more radiation heat than the reflective white bottle from the sun but your Losing Heat Energy by breeze convections as well as conduction if it’s on the ground or uninsulated surface. Like feeling warmer in a wind blocked area in the Sun you need to protect the wash-water from breezes stealing your heat. You can build a insulated angled box to keep both convection and conduction losses down.
    Normally I’d suggest some clear plastic or glass glazing BUT the glare from that is not tactical. Same with building reflectors to gather more solar energy towards that hand washing bottle.
    I’ve used these at the deer camp for handwashing, works well enough but the rubber valve system doesn’t do well over time with sunshine’s UV rays.
    A rocket stove or Kelly kettle works well to quick brew up hot water to mix with your cold for wash ups. A short burst of thermal signature.
    Question, since I have a app that “listens” to bird song and ID’s the probable bird, has anybody created a app that can listen for a drone signature? Would be nice with a parabolic mike.

    • donovang September 15, 2021 at 00:44

      There was an app to detect drones a few years back. They had one those Kickstarter funding things to design and produce a black-box detector using an early iteration of the Raspberry Pi. Had a little external mike, and a power cable. It required a wi-fi connection and access was via web interface. It used drone sound signature files they kind of updated occasionally.
      I owned one. It was essentially useless as intended, but I got some decent, albeit overpriced, parts out of the deal. I don’t recall the name of the product.

  4. Rooster September 13, 2021 at 08:56

    Thats a great idea for general cleanup. Laundry soap is not required to be sold in a food safe container so there are toxins present that you do not want to ingest. Great idea though!

  5. Johnny Paratrooper September 13, 2021 at 09:55

    Awesome Idea!

  6. 71M September 13, 2021 at 14:07

    What a fantastic idea! A great re-purposing of an otherwise one use container.
    A similar note: The Woolite container in your laundry room has the pouring spout built in so that the liquid does not drip around threads of cap when the cap is screwed back down. When the container is back to “up” position, any drips fall back into container via design cut-out in spout. If you are a user of chainsaws, and we operate four chainsaws here for firewood, that Woolite container is perfect for filling your chainsaw bar lube tank. No drips or spills with that re-purposed container.
    But the detergent containers for portable wash station, is simply brilliant!!!

  7. Patrick September 13, 2021 at 14:18

    Very good write up! Sure to put “Tide Pods” back where they belong… in the snack isle

  8. Paulo September 13, 2021 at 15:37

    Way to go.
    Another good idea is getting 1 gallon or more pump sprayer and replace the sprayer with a
    small shower head. Pump it up, and you get some psi….

    • Patrick September 13, 2021 at 16:30

      Paolo. There was a blogger pre 2010, who dry-camped in the California desert in a broke down, 15 foot camper.
      She used a 2.5 gallon pump sprayer to shower. The small size due to the amount of water she was able to heat under the sun.
      With a little forethought, a 5 gallon sprayer would do a thorough job if one were to construct a solar heater in advance.
      You could fasten a plant watering head and do a decent job at personal hygiene for less than 50 bucks…

      • NC Scout September 13, 2021 at 16:31

        That is an outstanding idea.

      • Hank September 13, 2021 at 20:19

        Someone on the forum put up a video of a west coast hippy that lives off grid nomadic lifestyle free grazing his sheep. Like you mentioned, he used a pump sprayer for a variety of tasks including personal hygiene. His was an all metal one, painted black that he could heat over fire in addition to warming passively in the sun.
        Link to video in question: https://youtu.be/U54HRmglYEA?t=433

        • Large Marge September 26, 2021 at 16:09

          a — Laundry detergent jugs are in recycle boxes and trash-barrels at laundromats.
          .
          b — For over-nighting with a bladder but you want to stay inside, knock the spout out of a jug.
          A nice wide can’t-miss opening.

      • Paulo September 13, 2021 at 20:46

        First time I did it was around 1999 on a 5 day pontoon trip on the ten thousand
        islands area on the Gulf Coast of Florida, interior and exterior.
        To add, in cold weather, one can coil up a copper pipe and bypass and put in
        little fire to heat the water going through. Guess one would need a longer hose
        or even use long steel hose like the ones used in kitchen/bathroom sinks in
        case its too hot.
        Years ago, someome gave me a huge rooftop water solar heater. This one was huge
        and heavy, and friend of mine asked if he could have it to heat his pool ( I doubted it
        would heat his 10 to 15 thousand gallon pool but a few degrees), but I gave it to him thinking it would at least
        heat up his jacuzzi area. He set it up right next to the pool pump using the existing 2 or so inch
        PVC pipe, and once he got it going, the damn PVC warped all to heck :-)
        No wonder that rooftop water heater had a pressure valve. Toot toot….

  9. Anonymous September 13, 2021 at 16:06

    4.5

  10. Mike Papa September 13, 2021 at 16:08

    Brilliant!

  11. Quietus September 13, 2021 at 20:14

    Good article!
    Ammo cans make pretty decent and durable hot water heaters. Choice of size is dictated by intended use. A .30 cal can and a washrag makes for a luxurious cleanup and is about as portable as it gets. Bonus: the factory OD paint stays on, huh.

  12. Paulo September 13, 2021 at 22:08

    Jessie, happened to save my first one today after reading your write up.
    Good one Leatherneck :-)

  13. Doc September 13, 2021 at 22:37

    Even with the black paint, the plastic is not an efficient heat transfer medium, so the black paint absorbs solar energy, but the plastic is not effective in transferring that heat to the water. If you painted a metal can black, you would find the water would get a lot hotter under the same conditions.

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