Concerning "JEFF on Sun, 2006-03-05 19:25" who makes a recycling shower for high end homes? I've never seen such a thing, link or information or search terms please? I'm not finding anything. :P Would like a lead to find more. Please post here. :P

The only prototype recycling shower I read about let you choose recycled or fresh water whenever you wanted. So simply wash your 'behind' or get the dirtiest stuff off you and let everything flow down the drain... or do a naval style soap and wash, then switch it over to recycle mode after it's passed and get some cleaner soapfree water in the loop.

It's cleaner than floating in a tub full of your own previously used water, let alone others (ever been in a hot tub??) or washing your face with the same bar of soap you shove 'elsewhere', I dont really see a problem or liability issue. :P The health risks are no more than taking a bath or sitting in a hot tub or using the same bar of soap on your whole body. And I like the idea of a high flow long shower in an RV without using lots of water.

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The reason there are not hybrid RV's and people get laughed at suggesting them is that #1 - the hybrid busses with huge 400hp motors and massive battery banks are something like $165,000 additional MINIMUM i've heard, Allison makes a system) #2 - at those costs you'll never make back the cost of gas. Spend $150,000 more when the average motorhome only drives something like 7000 miles per year? How far can you drive on $165,000 of gas? 55,000gal at $3/gallon, and lets say 6mpg that's still over 300,000 miles for free, before you even BREAK EVEN. Not including the needed maintenance probably replacing the battery pack every 100,000 miles making you have to drive further. The systems are installed on busses expecting to drive a million miles or more over a lifetime.

#3 - you only gain the mileage benefit in the cities, almost no benefit on the highway. How many people putter around the city in their motorhome? They take long trips to some beautiful locale then park it. #4 the batteries add so much weight and take up so much space under the floor (give up your luggage and tanks) that it's not worth it and you'd need chassis upgrades in all likelihood. Most RV's are already marginal in weight capacity - you'd be forced to upgrade to an HD truck.

I dont know if incinerating toilets would work as well in an RV for the same reason it's hard to run an air conditioner or electric heater off the batteries. You need ALOT of batteries. Microwaves run for a few minutes, not an hour. If you want that much extra battery capacity in an RV, just put it in for that reason alone? You'll quickly find how expensive and heavy it really is.

Of course since most RV's run with generators or shore power anyways the incinerator toilet WOULD work well in that case - just not as well for boondocking. :)