A hunting cabin shower is one of those things you only start thinking about seriously when you are standing outside the cabin after a long driven hunt in November, soaked through and covered in mud. There is rarely any electricity out in the hunting ground, and cold spring water at three degrees is not a serious option.
In this article you will find out how the Feuerwasser outdoor shower delivers hot water from a wood fire in around five minutes, what water pressure it needs at the cabin, how it survives weeks of frost with nobody around and why a hot shower after the hunt is more than a bit of comfort for hunters.
Why hunters want a hot shower at the cabin
Hunting rarely leaves you clean. After field dressing, blood sticks to your hands and forearms, after tracking a wounded animal there is mud up to your knees, and in autumn you often spend hours out in the wet and cold. The small sink in the cabin is not up to the job, and nobody likes getting into the car or sitting down with the hunting party in that state.
Then there is a point that experienced hunters take seriously: their own scent. Deer and wild boar have a sharp nose. If you take a hot shower with unscented soap before heading to the stand, you carry far less human scent into the hunting ground. A hot shower right at the cabin makes that possible without driving home first.
And on a purely practical level: after a day in thickets and long grass, the hot shower is the best moment to check your body thoroughly for ticks.
No power or gas in the field, but plenty of firewood
Most hunting cabins are remote on purpose. There is often no mains connection at all, sometimes a small solar panel for lights and phones. That is not enough for hot shower water, because an electric flow heater needs more power than any small off-grid system in the woods can supply. Gas bottles do work, but they have to be bought, carried up the forest track and stored safely.
The Feuerwasser outdoor shower takes a different route: it heats with wood. And wood is usually the one thing a hunting cabin never runs short of. Finely split, dry softwood such as spruce burns fast and hot, which is exactly what the flow heater needs. A basket of kindling next to the shower and you are independent of cables and bottles.
A solar shower only helps at the cabin in the warm months. It needs sunshine, and that is in short supply between October and January, when most driven hunts take place.
How the wood fire turns into hot water
The heart of the shower is a patented wood-fired flow heater. The combustion chamber is completely surrounded by water and fitted with a four-stage heat exchanger. Water from the hose flows through this system, takes up the heat of the fire directly and arrives warm at the shower head. After around five minutes it is at the temperature you want.
There is no tank. The shower holds only about 7 litres of water, which flows through constantly and stays fresh. At a cabin that often stands empty for weeks, that is a real advantage: no stale water and no tank to clean.
You set the temperature at the mixing valve, just like the shower at home. A thermal drain valve protects against overheating and a pressure relief valve against excessive mains pressure. Both work purely mechanically and need no electricity.
Water at the cabin: spring, cistern or pressure pump
The shower needs no electricity, but it does need water pressure: 2 to 4 bar at the garden hose, connected via a Gardena click coupling. If the cabin has a mains connection or a well with a domestic pump, that box is already ticked.
With spring water, physics helps: every ten metres of height difference between the spring catchment and the shower produces around one bar of pressure. If the catchment sits 20 to 40 metres above the cabin, the water arrives with enough pressure and no pump. With a cistern or a rainwater tank you need a small pressure pump. It can run on a battery with a solar panel, because it only pumps and does not have to heat the water. The wood fire does that.
A quick test before buying is worth it: a simple pressure gauge on the tap shows you what pressure actually reaches the cabin. If it is in the right range, the shower is ready to use in no time.
Frost-proof, even when the cabin stands empty for weeks
A hunting cabin is not used every day. Weeks can pass between two sits on the stand, and in January the frost can hold the hunting ground for days. Any pipe that still has water in it becomes a risk.
The outdoor shower solves this with the red lever. Open it after showering and all internal pipes drain. No water is left behind that could freeze. After that, the shower can stay outside at any temperature, with no cover and no dismantling in autumn. You can read more in our article on the winter garden shower.
The shower is made of 2 mm 304 (V2A) stainless steel. Rain, snow and condensation do not affect it, and Feuerwasser gives a five-year warranty on the stainless steel. Why the material matters so much is explained in our article on the stainless steel garden shower.
After the driven hunt: how showering at the cabin works
The routine is short and easy to fit in once the game has been taken care of:
- Connect the water: attach the hose via the click coupling and open the supply fully.
- Bleed the system: open the red lever until the water runs without air bubbles, then close it again.
- Light the fire: fill the combustion chamber with finely split, dry softwood and light it.
- Shower: after about five minutes, set the temperature at the mixing valve and open the water.
- Drain: only once there are no embers left in the chamber, turn off the water and open the red lever.
One rule always applies: as long as there is fire or embers in the combustion chamber, the water supply must not be disconnected. The system has to stay under water pressure, otherwise the valves can be damaged.
The hunting dog benefits too. After tracking through ditches and undergrowth, it is often just as dirty as its owner. With lukewarm water it is rinsed off quickly, and at the mixing valve you can set the temperature so it stays comfortable for the dog.
Fixed mounting or slab stand: what suits your hunting ground
As standard, the shower comes with a base for fixed mounting on solid ground, such as a small foundation or the deck in front of the cabin. That is the right choice if you own the cabin and the shower is meant to stay.
If the hunting ground is leased, the optional slab stand is worth considering. It is weighted down with stone slabs (40 × 40 × 4 cm) and needs neither a foundation nor tools. When the lease ends or you move to a different spot, you simply take the shower with you. It is delivered in a solid wooden crate, split into three modules: base, flow heater and flue pipe. On site you screw them together and the shower is ready.
As for the exact spot: keep your distance from the cabin wall and anything flammable, because the flue pipe gets hot. An aluminium heat shield encloses the pipe and prevents direct contact with the hot surface.
From the shower into the hot tub
If you spend more time at the cabin, you can add a stainless steel hot tub to the shower. It holds around 750 litres for two people and is also heated with wood via an external stove. For a larger group, the stainless steel bathing barrel has room for up to six people.
The order is then obvious: first wash off under the shower, then into the hot water. The hot tub needs two to two and a half hours to heat up. That fits nicely into the afternoon after the hunt, when the game has been taken care of and everyone sits down to eat. What matters when choosing the location is covered in our article on the hot tub for the garden.
The facts about the Feuerwasser outdoor shower
- Heating: patented wood-fired flow heater with four-stage heat exchanger, no electricity or gas
- Heat-up time: around 5 minutes to the desired temperature
- Material: 2 mm 304 (V2A) stainless steel, 5-year warranty on the stainless steel
- Frost-proof: complete drainage via the red lever
- Water content: approx. 7 litres in constant flow, no tank
- Connection: garden hose with Gardena click coupling, 2 to 4 bar water pressure
- Dimensions: height 255 cm, width 30 cm, depth 55 cm
- Installation: base for fixed mounting or optional slab stand
- Firewood: finely split, dry softwood
- Origin: handmade in Styria, Austria, free delivery (mainland EU and Switzerland)
Conclusion: hot water where the hunting ground begins
A hunting cabin shower has to manage without electricity, work with whatever water is available on site and survive weeks of frost without anyone checking on it. The Feuerwasser outdoor shower does exactly that: a wood fire instead of a socket, flow-through heating instead of a tank, a stainless steel body and a red lever that makes it frost-proof. After five minutes hot water is ready, even after the last driven hunt in January.
Crafted for the Elements.
Want to know what your outdoor shower costs? Request your individual quote now.
About the author
Karlheinz Levounigg worked at Feuerwasser back in 2023 and knows the hot tub, bathing barrel and outdoor shower from the inside. Today, as co-founder of SWIFTGREEN OG, he looks after the Feuerwasser website and online marketing.
His articles focus on what matters in practice: the right location, heating up, care and the honest question of which product suits whom. Crafted for the Elements.
