Water is one of the first things you run out of when free camping. A standard caravan carries 150 to 200 litres, and a couple using water normally will burn through that in two to three days. A family of four? Maybe a day and a half. That means either refilling constantly (which limits where you can camp) or finding ways to use less.
Water-saving gear won’t change your life, but it will extend your free camping range significantly. A low-flow showerhead alone can double your tank life by cutting the biggest single water draw in half. Add a few more small changes and a couple that normally gets three days between fills can stretch to five or six. Over a year on the road, that’s dozens of fewer refill stops and a lot more flexibility in where you camp.
Where Your Water Actually Goes
Before buying anything, it helps to understand where your water is disappearing. For most caravanners, the breakdown looks roughly like this:
Showers: 40 to 50%. A standard showerhead uses 9 to 12 litres per minute. A five-minute shower uses 45 to 60 litres. For a couple showering daily, that’s 90 to 120 litres per day on showers alone, which is most of your tank.
Kitchen: 25 to 30%. Washing dishes, rinsing food, cooking, and filling the kettle. The kitchen tap runs more often than you’d think.
Bathroom sink: 10 to 15%. Teeth brushing, hand washing, face washing.
Toilet flushing: 5 to 10%. Each flush uses 0.5 to 2 litres depending on your toilet type.
The shower is the obvious target. Cutting shower water usage by even 50% has a bigger impact than eliminating every other non-essential use combined.
Low-Flow Showerheads
This is the single most effective water-saving purchase you can make. A low-flow showerhead reduces flow from the standard 9 to 12 litres per minute to 4 to 6 litres per minute, immediately halving your shower water usage without making the experience miserable. Modern low-flow heads use aeration and pressure optimisation to maintain the feeling of adequate water pressure even at reduced flow.
Camec Water-Saving Showerhead
Purpose-built for caravans with a flow rate of around 5.5 litres per minute. It includes a push-button pause function that lets you stop the water while soaping up without turning the tap off and losing your temperature setting. This pause function is the real water saver: a two-minute soap-up with the water paused saves 10 to 12 litres per shower. Around $30 to $45. Available at Caravan RV Camping and most caravan accessory shops.
Methven Kiri Low-Flow Showerhead
A household low-flow showerhead that works equally well in caravans. The Kiri uses Methven’s aeration technology to deliver a comfortable shower at 6 litres per minute. It doesn’t have a pause button, but the spray pattern and pressure feel noticeably better than most caravan-specific options. Around $40 to $60. Available at Bunnings and plumbing suppliers.
Whale Elegance Caravan Showerhead
A popular OEM showerhead fitted to many new caravans. If your van already has one, you may not need to replace it. The Elegance has a flow rate of around 6 litres per minute and includes a trigger-style on/off control. If your current showerhead doesn’t have a pause or trigger function, replacing it with the Whale Elegance is an easy upgrade. Around $35 to $50.
The “navy shower” method saves more water than any showerhead: wet yourself (30 seconds), turn off the water, soap up and shampoo, then rinse (60 seconds). Total water usage: around 8 to 10 litres. Combined with a low-flow showerhead, you can shower comfortably on under 10 litres.
Tap Aerators & Flow Restrictors
Tap aerators mix air into the water stream, reducing flow while maintaining the feeling of adequate pressure. They screw onto the end of your kitchen and bathroom taps and reduce flow from the typical 8 to 10 litres per minute to 4 to 6 litres per minute. You barely notice the difference when washing hands or rinsing dishes, but the water savings add up over weeks and months.
Most hardware stores and plumbing suppliers sell aerators for $5 to $15 each. Check the thread size of your caravan taps before buying; most are standard but some caravan-specific taps use non-standard fittings. Carry a spare, as they can clog with sediment over time (particularly when filling from bore water) and need occasional cleaning or replacement.
Inline flow restrictors are another option. These sit in the water line before the tap and limit maximum flow regardless of how far you open the tap. They’re less refined than aerators (they simply restrict flow rather than aerating it) but they’re effective and work with any tap style. Around $10 to $20 each.
Foot Pumps & Manual Tap Systems
Some caravanners, particularly those focused on extended free camping, retrofit a foot pump to their kitchen sink. A foot pump lets you control water flow with your foot, dispensing water only when you press the pedal. This gives you precise control over exactly how much water you use, and you naturally use less because every drop requires effort.
A foot pump is a more involved installation than swapping a showerhead or adding an aerator. You’ll need the pump itself ($40 to $80), plumbing fittings, and either the confidence to do the install yourself or a caravan technician to do it. The water savings are real though: foot pump users consistently report using 30 to 50% less water at the kitchen sink compared to a standard tap.
The trade-off is convenience. A foot pump requires you to stand at the sink and use one foot, which isn’t ideal for everyone. Some caravanners install a foot pump alongside the existing tap, giving them the option of either.
Grey Water Recycling & Collection
Grey water recycling (filtering and reusing your shower and sink water) is still relatively uncommon in the caravan world, but some travellers use basic systems to collect grey water for non-potable purposes like flushing the toilet or washing the van exterior.
The simplest approach is a grey water collection container under the van’s grey water outlet. When free camping in areas that don’t allow grey water dumping on the ground, you need to collect it anyway. Using that collected water for toilet flushing or vehicle washing means you’re effectively using it twice before disposal.
Full grey water recycling systems with filtration and UV treatment exist but are expensive ($500 to $1,500+) and add complexity. For most Big Lappers, the simpler water-saving devices covered above deliver better value for the investment.
Other Water-Saving Tips That Cost Nothing
Gear helps, but habits matter more. A few zero-cost changes that make a measurable difference:
Fill a container for washing dishes rather than running the tap. A 5-litre basin uses less water than five minutes of running water. Wash in the basin, rinse briefly under the tap.
Catch cold water while waiting for hot. It takes 30 seconds to a minute for hot water to reach the tap from the hot water system. Put a bucket or container under the tap and catch the cold water that would otherwise go down the drain. Use it for drinking, cooking, or the kettle.
Use a spray bottle for rinsing. A spray bottle filled with water and a drop of detergent is surprisingly effective for wiping down benches, rinsing dishes, and cleaning hands. Fraction of the water usage of a running tap.
Cook with less water. Steam vegetables instead of boiling. Use one-pot recipes. Reuse pasta water for washing up.
- Showers use 40 to 50% of your water. A low-flow showerhead with a pause function is the single most effective water-saving upgrade ($30 to $60).
- Tap aerators at the kitchen and bathroom sinks reduce flow by 40 to 50% for $5 to $15 each.
- The “navy shower” technique (wet, soap, rinse) combined with a low-flow head gets you clean on under 10 litres.
- Water-saving habits cost nothing and often save more than gear does. Fill a basin for dishes, catch cold water, use a spray bottle.
- Combined, these changes can double your free camping range between water refills.
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