The Spopal is a convenient camping shower that's great for festival or car camping where there's quick access to an outlet.
While portable units of this size often feel like water is dripping rather than spraying, the spray itself was suprisingly pleasant and coated our skin well. The water pressure felt strong enough to wash away dirt and sweat after a long day of adventuring around our campsite.
Instead of a typical nozzle design, this unit has a wide spray head that almost feels like a rain shower. We also love that the spray itself can be adjusted to our preferences. That said, we really wish this unit came with some sort of heating element. We managed to boil a small amount of water and mix it in with the cold water we hauled along, but the result was a room-temperature shower, which was not the most pleasant. But, if you're not too concerned about the temperature of your water, or don't mind taking the extra time to boil several pots for your shower, this unit offers great comfort for the price.
This shower was designed with several easy-to-reach and easy-to-adjust switches and buttons that offer several modes. One button is a commonly used feature on many modern showerheads that allows us to switch the shower head on and off right on the handle. We appreciate the quick access, since it saves us time (and water) from bending down, dunking our hand into the bucket, and powering the unit off before reaching for a towel. There are also three other modes that change the circumference and concentration of the spray, and all of them have great water pressure.
The Spopal's pump has a couple of extra convenient touches, like a charging indicator that shows the battery level and even tells you the temperature of the water. We also appreciate the suction cups at the bottom of the pump, which held on nicely to the bottom of our water bucket. It even comes with a loofa for scrubbing!
There are two ways to hang the Spopal: suction cups and hooks. The suction cups are very effective, and it even took some muscle to remove them from the side of a car. That said, the hooks aren't very effective. The showerhead was so heavy that it tipped the whole thing downward, and then it fell off the branch we had perched it on—the plastic makes it slip off very easily. We wish the hooks were longer, could wrap around a branch, or were made of grippy silicon rather than hard plastic.
The manufacturer boasts “long-lasting” showers, claiming the Spopal can spray continually for 1 hour and 20 to 50 minutes on a full charge. While our shower didn't last exactly that long on a full charge, it was incredibly close at 1 hour and 10 minutes during testing, which we found to be more than enough time.
The fact that this unit is rechargeable is both a pro and a con. It allowed us to take longer showers, but when we used up all of the battery life, we had to recharge it, which took us over an hour. That said, if we showered quickly, we were able to get multiple showers out of this unit with a fully charged battery.
One minor gripe we had with this unit (as with many camp showers we tested) is that after showering, it was tough to remove all of the water from the showerhead. We were able to get all of the water out of the hose just fine, but the head seemed to trap a small bit of water that would leak into our bag, even after we had disassembled the entire unit.
Assembling the Spopal right out of the box was simple. Although the directions were a bit confusing, we didn't actually need them, as the process is fairly straightforward. The unit just has three different connecting pieces: the pump, hose, and spray head. It only took seconds for us to twist all the pieces together, and even less time to attach the hook and suction cups to the showerhead holder. And, it's just as easy to disassemble. The only thing we struggled with was removing the hooks from the shower head holder, which took a little extra force.
There is no questioning the Spopal's durability, especially after we dropped it countless times due to the flimsy plastic hooks. While we did end up with some scuff marks on the outer ends of the showerhead, the unit itself still worked just fine. We even hung the entire shower mid-air, swinging it around to see if any of the components would fall apart at the seams, and they held together just fine.
That said, we did worry about breaking the hard plastic hooks when pulling them out of the showerhead holder, and we feel that there could be some long-term durability issues there.
While we wouldn't take this heavy shower backpacking, we found that it packs away easily into a daypack or duffel bag for camping. It can also easily fit into a cargo box or into the trunk of a car. We appreciate that it comes with a shower caddy bag that nicely fits all the components and can even accommodate a few small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.
The showerhead holder was so-so. We wouldn't bother using the hook function on any branches (unless you plan to duct tape them), as the hole thing constantly came tumbling down. Instead, we found that using the suction cups on our car was much more effective and held the showerhead sturdily in place. We weren't worried for a moment about it slipping off.
The Spopal needs to be charged and doesn't come with any heating elements, so we recommend using this for events where you'll have quick access to a charging station and heated water, like a music festival or car camping with a camp stove. But, we wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants a true at-home showering experience. But, for under $100, this unit comes with great water pressure and a lot of convenient functions.
The only other shower in this price range that came close in water pressure and comfort is the Ivation Portable, and it's slightly cheaper. That said, we had the same issues with the hooks on the showerhead holder, which fell off of tree branches super easily. Our biggest gripe with the Ivation was that the hose regularly came apart from the pump, and we had to be careful while we used it to not pull the hose up too high. That said, it is slightly less expensive than the Spopal, and will get the job done.
