We buy all the products we test — no freebies from companies. If you purchase through our links, we may earn a commission, which helps support our testing.
How many orange and grey battery-powered showers can there be? At least one more, and the Pyle Portable Camping Shower is among the crowd. This inexpensive option won't put you in the poor house, and the rechargeable battery means you can get your shower on without pumping or squeezing. However, you can't get the battery wet, which can be a bit challenging. It's a very comfortable shower to use, though it does have a shorter battery life and some easy-to-lose pieces that have no replacements.
REASONS TO BUY
Wide shower head
Easy to use
REASONS TO AVOID
Shorter battery life
Durability issues
What's in a name?
We tested this shower when it was called the Pure Clean Battery-Powered. Along with some recent updates, its name has been changed to the Pyle Portable — despite still having Pure Clean printed boldly on the side of the pump.
Our Analysis and Test Results
This shower (and it's many seemingly identical clones available on the internet) has recently received some updates. Importantly, the battery is now housed inside the pump and can be submerged, eliminating the issues we previously had keeping an external battery from getting wet while taking a shower.
See the differences between the version we tested (below, left) and the updated version (below, right). This review reflects our testing of the previous version.
-- June 2020
Performance Comparison
The Pyle Portable is a battery-powered shower that needs to be paired with a water-holding receptacle (like a bucket). It's USB rechargeable and features a 5'10" hose, a 2" spray, and attachments to hang or stick it to something while you use it.
Even, steady coverage makes the Pyle Portable a rather useful shower.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Comfort
Overall, the Pyle Portable and its many “body doubles” are incredibly comfortable showers to use. These seemingly identical orange contraptions boast a usable showerhead width of 2 full inches. Powered by a rechargeable battery and little orange pump, the Pyle delivers a comfortable and steady stream of water to users.
While there's no way to adjust the rate of flow, the power button on the battery pack of the Pyle makes it easy to conserve water during your shower. And with an included hanger and suction cup, a hands-free shower is actually possible! However, these attachments have a loose fit making it easy to knock the nozzle from its fixture and onto the ground in the middle of your shower if you're not careful.
The Pyle has a wide shower head that's nearly as comfortable as our home showers!
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Functionality
All the physical measurements of the Pyle exactly, or nearly exactly, match those of the other orange and grey lookalikes you'll likely see online. It does have a marginally lower rate of flow at 4.2 L/min, but we think it honestly feels the same and is equally as comfortable to use.
The one place where the Pyle let us down is in its battery life. This shower only made it 32 continuous minutes, not nearly as long as others we've tested in the past. To be fair, that's still a pretty luxurious shower — you'd need a gigantic water reservoir to bathe that long. We ran through an entire 5-gallon bucket in about 5 minutes.
At least part of the pump comes apart to help clean and maintain this shower.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Ease of Set Up
The Pyle is simple to set up. It essentially stays set up after you put it together the first time — just set the pump in your water container and press power.
As a reminder, you'll need a bucket to hold all your water and a way to heat it as well — unless you're down with cold showers or are cleaning things other than yourself that don't require a balmy 103 degrees.
Toss the pump in a bucket of water and you're good to go!
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Durability
The Pyle feels as though it's made of cheap plastic that could potentially crack if dropped the wrong way on the driveway or kept in a cold garage over the winter. However, we did throw it on cement repeatedly, and nothing broke, which bolsters our confidence a bit.
One odd thing that the Pyle does sporadically is, even after being switched off, it continues pumping a small amount of water until the battery gets disconnected. Weird. Additionally, when finished, the directions suggest emptying the unit by removing the showerhead and holding it upside down. Which, of course, means we promptly lost the O-ring connecting the two, and it includes no replacement. This left us with a tiny leak at the base of the showerhead, spraying water every time we turned it on.
Though they appear the same as the other lookalikes' hangers, the Pyle Portable versions are looser and less stable to use.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Portability
The Pyle is a fairly lightweight unit that doesn't take up a ton of space in your camping kit or car. However, remember that you'll also need a bucket or other water-holding container to go along with this shower to make it useful. And, while the Pyle is easy enough to bring along on a car camping trip, you'll always be tied to some source of electricity to be able to use this shower more than once.
A sampling of the showers we tested, filled with water.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Value
While this shower isn't the best and has some quirks and durability issues, it's still a solid value for what you get. The wide showerhead provides a comfy home-like experience, and the rechargeable battery power plus hanging hardware means you can take a hands-free shower as many times as you want (as long as you can recharge).
One of many lookalikes you can buy online.
Credit: Maggie Brandenburg
Conclusion
The well-priced Pyle is a comfortable and easy to use device with a wide showerhead and good rate of flow. It isn't perfect and has some challenges, but if you're on a budget and have a place to recharge the battery, this can help you get clean in comfort.
