The health crisis has shaken up demand: now, the models with large autonomous bathroom - with shower - are popular.Simply because these caravans can be used at the campsite without going to the sanitary block.To guide you in your research, we take stock of these arrangements which include a large bathroom -often heavier versions.At the end of this file, also discover the test of the Dethleffs 560 Ret, equipped with a cabinet in the width.By F.Lutz.DR photos (opening, hobby)
Article (extract) published in our n ° 161 of February 2021
For many users, caravan offices are superfluous, since we have the installations of the campsite field.It's true in summer, it is less out of season when all services are not open, and that you have to do 100 m in the rain to go and take the shower.The presence of a small child can also change the vision of things: it is very practical to be able to be cleared it directly in the caravan without having to take it to the health block with all its affairs.In terms of equipment, only models of the middle range/premium segment have standard water.Take a cold shower not part of the dream comfort, the caravanners wishing to have a slightly more independent vehicle will have to opt for a water heater.Be careful, the 5 -liter tr ", which is largely found in the catalogs, and which heats up well, is only enough for a person.
If it is not expected a bit that it warm up, the device will only give lukewarm water to the second user (of course provided that there is enough water on board).It is better to opt for a larger capacity device if you intend to take your showers with several, a 14-liter boiler for example or even a water/heating heating handset.This ability to have hot water is all the more important than the pressure, lower than in the tap at home, rinses the body less well.
Often optional, the shower curtain, offered alone or with a pack including the shower, for a few hundred euros all the same.The curtain itself is essential when the shower is in a cabinet whose all the walls are not perfectly waterproof.Projections can also reach the wooden storage furniture installed in the room, or even worse, pass between the interstice from a badly silicone shower tray and the wall.
The most usual caravan toilet cabinet is in the lateral position, sometimes an angle.It consists of a space of about 100 x 80 cm where chemical toilets are housed, a shower tray, a basin, a mirror and storage.But this compartment remains cramped.As for compartments with a beveled wall, which are wedged between the front door and a living room, or even the cabinets with liftable sink, they allow no comfortable use as soon as you are tall or have a bitoverweight.
The motorhome plan offers a more interesting solution, without taking up much more space, the shower compartment being common with WC.The sink, also used as a hairdresser with its mirrors, is installed in the room.This development has the disadvantage of making this piece the obligatory passage to go to the toilet, not very well for privacy!In some cases, the manufacturers have designed an in -depth cabin which allows you to have a completely separated shower corner of the toilets or the sink by removable partitions.Examples: Bürstner Averso 465 TS, Caravelair Artica 520, Sterckeman Evolution 520 CP.
Another solution, the modular toilet cabinet, as designed by the Mancelle: in several models, this compartment has a swivel wall that alternates the basin/WC and the shower alone.Advantage, this solution takes up little space and adapts in small models (see for example the 410 clm stopover in this issue).
In some family caravans, there is room to integrate a separate shower.They are however quite rare, the most presented arrangements in 5 and 6 places remaining with a cabinet like a motorhome plan or an angle.In large locations, the shower can sometimes be completely separated, this is the case of the Caravelair Allegra Optima 560/562 and Sterckeman Alizé Connect 550 LJ/560 CP.
Read also tips for choosing the right family caravan
Must in the caravans of 2.30 or 2.50 m wide.This arrangement has long been the fact of Hobby, who believed there by offering some models with double fixed bed or twin beds in a room with direct access to amenities.These models can be identified in the catalog by their letter "W".Now, more and more brands are getting into it, and not necessarily in large versions.Dethleffs, from last year, presented the Nomad 490 is, which is relatively compact for this kind of development.Bürstner joined the movement with the Averso 525 TS this year (see Test in Harmony Line finish in n ° 160).Behind the scenes, it even says that other manufacturers, having understood the effect "the COVVI 19" effect on campers, would be ready to draw in the summer of 2021, with other novelties.
Last important point, which applies to all bathrooms, ventilation.The lantern is the minimum solution when there is no opening bay.The latter, in a translucent wall, must be equipped with a mosquito net to let the room get rid of the entrance to mosquitoes and other insects attracted in the evening by light.Some manufacturers, finally, offer rods to suspend the towels, a solution for the off-season, which also requires this piece to ventilate this piece to evacuate humidity to the outside and not inside the passenger compartment.
