How to Set Your RV Shower Temp Perfectly Every Time

You’d think I would have figured this out sooner after taking showers in an RV for over 5 years now!  After hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water wasted, and subjecting my toes to either frigid cold or scalding hot waters when “testing” the first water out of the shower head (and then routinely spouting dozens of expletives during such testing!), I think I’ve finally figured out how to get my RV shower just right!

Of course, I’ve read the RVing forums of guys “MacGyver-ing” a wide variety of contraptions to install onto their RV plumbing systems (like expensive mixing valves), and others who have desperately marked up their faucets with a black Sharpie or nail polish to know how far to turn a handle.  Fortunately, this solution requires none of that!

I’m not sure if this works on every RV, or if it’s just specific to mine (or Winnie View-Navions), but give this a try next time and let me know in the comments below if it works for you too!

First, a few assumptions—1. that you have a basic two-handle hot & cold RV shower faucet,  2. that you have some kind of “dribbling” water shut-off switch (either on the showerhead itself or near the faucet handles like mine), and 3. that you’ve turned on your RV’s Hot Water Heater at least 10 minutes beforehand (ask me how many times I’ve forgotten this critical step!!!).

My particular shut-off switch came with my wonderful Oxygenics RV shower head (which manages to turn anemic RV shower water pressure into a near-home shower experience, and yet still conserves water at a minimal flow rate).

So, without further adieu, here’s my step-by-step process for setting my water temperature “just right”:

1. Make sure the shut-off switch is in the “off” position (so water will just dribble when faucet handles are turned on).  Also make sure your shower head is pointed to the floor or wall!

2. Turn the Hot Water all the way on.

3. Wait until water begins to dribble out of the shower head, and then turn the Cold Water all the way on.

4. Now, position your finger at the 12 o’clock position of the “all the way on” Cold Water handle and turn it back (closed) about 1/2 to 3/4 of a full turn. My handle turns clockwise to close, so my finger ends up at about the 7:00 position when I do this.

5. Finally, turn the shut-off switch “on” and within a couple of seconds, you should now have nice warm water coming from your shower head.  If it’s not perfect, hold your finger on the cold handle right about where you had left it (i.e. 7:00) and adjust it to your liking noting where your finger now resides on the “clock” —then just set the cold handle to that position for your particular shower faucet in the future.

Hope this tip helps you conserve water and enjoy many “perfect temperature” RV showers in the future!