How do you wash dishes in camp?

[doug hodder]

The 3 gal. insecticide sprayer with a sink sprayer works great! Just heat up some water on the Coleman stove, and it's good to go, dishes or a shower. Best thing going for dishes in my opinion. Paint it black with the Krylon fusion plastic acceptable paint and it heats up on it's own if you got the sun and the water isn't snow melt. Doug

[nevadatear]

Yup. Im with doug, that s my method. Works great for showers too.

[capnTelescope]

Most of my camping of late has been dry camping, or boondocking if you prefer. One major thing you have to do in the middle of nowhere is conserve water and propane. The 5 gallon jug has to make it until you get back to civilization. Same with the propane supply. So there's no heating big pots of water here.

Paper plates clean up in the campfire just fine. For pots and pans, I fill the pot/pan part way with water and heat that to a boil on the stove. Soap is optional, as things are going to be sterilized by the time you're done. Boiling gets a lot of the residue off. Scrubbing gets done mostly by silverware which gets those clean, too. Then wipe with a paper towel. Paper towels are your friend, so bring plenty.

Non-stick cookware is also a great idea. Just wipe the warm pan clean with a paper towel. That's how the "experts" say to clean those anyway. If you're a germophobe, finish by adding a little water, bring to boil, and enjoy watching the germs run away screaming in pain.

Rinsing gets done under the water jug faucet. Gray water gets tossed into the bushes. Everything goes in the dishwasher when you get home.

This seems to work pretty well. Haven't had "camper's cramp" in ages.

[doug hodder]

If dry camping, you can always drain the cooler and use it for dishwashing to stretch your water supply. Not all that great if you have any "leaking" packages of stuff in it though. Doug

[Catherine+twins]

We usually do our camping during stage 2 fire restrictions. We can use a gas stove, but no camp fire. Paper plates go in the trash, not a fire, and then the trash goes in a bear safe or in the car to be "packed out." Yuck! Not in my plan, so we use real dishes. When dinner is done the water pots go right on the stove to heat water. I have two large SS bowls, one wash, one rinse. Lately I have been camping and cooking with a friend with a food service background, so we also do a third pan with bleach in it when we are with her. But just soap and water is enough that we have never suffered from camp crawls.



Catherine

[bdosborn]

One of the nice things about a standy is you have room for a sink and a hot water heater to make washing dishes a snap:





We boondock quite a bit as well and the propane water heater is surprisingly efficient. The standing pilot light is more than enough to keep the water hot. We use a single 20# tank of propane a season and most of that goes to the BBQ and the stove. I added a valved hose to the hot water heater so we can wash the dutch oven with hot water as well since the sink is little small for that. It helps when draining the system too.

Bruce

[JSadler]

Nothing exciting or fancy for us. We just heat water in a pot and then pour it into tubs. One for washing one for rinsing. Simple & easy.

[capnTelescope]

If dry camping, you can always drain the cooler and use it for dishwashing to stretch your water supply. Not all that great if you have any "leaking" packages of stuff in it though. Doug

I've never not had "leakages" by day 2. Kinda spoils any plans for refreshment on the rocks. I should get better at this.

We boondock quite a bit as well and the propane water heater is surprisingly efficient. The standing pilot light is more than enough to keep the water hot. We use a single 20# tank of propane a season and most of that goes to the BBQ and the stove. I added a valved hose to the hot water heater so we can wash the dutch oven with hot water as well since the sink is little small for that. It helps when draining the system too.

Bruce

Bruce, what water heater are you using? Sounds like you have a good one.

[bdosborn]

I have an Atwood 6 gallon Water Heater. Make sure you get the standing pilot ignition instead of the piezo electric ignition.

Bruce

[Mukilteo]

Not knowing, what is wrong with the piezo style?

[bdosborn]

Nothing, it's just that the pilot light on mine keeps the water hot without using the main burner. I've never heard the burner come on except for when I light it, and then it runs for about 20 minutes. It never comes back on, even after a shower but the water is always hot.

Bruce

[Bogo]

Thinking of RV water heaters. This idea came up a few days back. I was wondering if for a well insulated TD if using heat from the water heater could be viable for heating the TD. A small pump and heat exchanger with fan could be used for heating the cabin air. Use a radiator core like used for water cooling a CPU. They are available in 1, 2, and 3 fan sizes. Take water from the water heater's output, pipe it to the radiator core. From the core, pump it through a check valve, and back to the water heater's input pipe. The water heater would then act as a boiler. A mechanical thermostat could be used to control the power to the fan and pump.

[Mukilteo]

Why not route the heat exhaust from the water heater through some sort of heat exchanger.
There is a lot of waste heat coming out of it.

[droid_ca]

hmmm
vesta dishwasher

[Bogo]

Why not route the heat exhaust from the water heater through some sort of heat exchanger.
There is a lot of waste heat coming out of it.

'Mucking about with exhaust is fraught with problems. The first will be the connection between the water heater's output and your pipe. It needs to be 100% air tight as that is a forced exhaust system. They use a small fan to blow air into the combustion chamber which means the exhaust gasses are blowing out of the exhaust pipe and are under a little bit of pressure. This brings us to the other side of this which is back pressure on that fan. Adding more pipe length to the exhaust path may cause too much back pressure which will lead to incomplete burning of the fuel and carbon monoxide production. Third is condensation. If you make it long enough, then you will start condensing the water out of the exhaust air, and then you will need it to drain properly. The idea you have is good, but unfortunately it really needs to be designed into it from the beginning, not as a retrofit later.