After a few rounds of taking my silicone tail to the lake for a swim, then home to wash, I noticed that my efforts at giving my tail a good washing between uses was inefficient. No matter how much time I would put in to washing and drying, I would still have the stench of ineffective cleaning. At first, I decided to just deal with it and use it anyway, but I came to the conclusion that this was caused because the weight of my tail made it difficult to hold and spray without water splashing back in my face. Also because since there is literally only one path that moisture could get in or out, it was not doing so well at drying.
So I started digging around in my spare parts and built a hanger. Of course a normal clothes hanger is far too weak to hold the weight of a silicone tail. I made this out of some excess 3/4 inch PVC pipe and Orbit PVC-Lock fittings. The PVC-Lock is a product exclusive to Home Depot. You can find them on eBay and Amazon, but the absolute cheapest source is either in store, or https://www.homedepot.com/
To make this, here is a list of the parts you'll need: (reference the picture)
1. PVC lock flexible repair fitting. I bought this in Home Depot, but can't seem to find it on their site.
2. 8x short 3/4 inch PVC pipe sections or one long pipe and a method to cut it. PVC pipe is found at almost every home improvement store in the USA. The lengths you need will depend on the size of your tail. Just don't cut them too short that you can't fit the release tool mentioned in step 4.
3. 4x 90-Degree Elbow: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-3-...7774/203193243
4. PVC-Lock release tool comes as a set. You need the blue one for unlocking this fitting: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-PV...5809/206638397
5. 2x Tee: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-3-...7770/203193237
Get all your parts, assemble them to look like the picture, and you will have something that can hold the weight of a silicone tail.
My next problem. Where the heck am I going to use this? My house has 2 bathrooms and I only need one, so I can modify the other to build a wash rack. Most of what you see in this next picture are parts I had lying around in storage, but could be found at any good home improvement store.
1. DO NOT hang it from the shower curtain rod. If it doesn't break from the weight, then it might when you add the extra weight of water sticking to it as you are washing. Plus it will partly be over the floor, not the drain.
2. 4x4 block of wood coated in a few layers of polyurethane for water resistance and cut to the width of the wall above and sits on the edges of the stall.
3. A few layers of duct tape to help prevent the chain from digging into the wood over time.
4. Remove the shower head and add a 3/4 to 1/2GH fitting to connect a common garden hose. Don't forget to use thread seal.
5. An old chain, a couple of chain quick links, and a hook to hold the PVC hanger.
6. The fins will hang over. Make one hang one way and the other hang the other way to balance the PVC hanger.
7. When wearing the tail, my feet would be right about here. That's the point of this whole project: to make it easier to wash dirt and lake water out of this area.
8. It's all above a drain and enough clearance above the floor to add a fan. WARNING! Allow your tail to drip dry for a few hours before placing an upward facing fan here.
Set this up and you can use a common garden hose and sprayer to clean your silicone tail. I am sure some of ya'll have your own methods, but this is now mine and I am sharing it with ya'll free of charge. I avoided boring ya'll with exact measurements because of the varying sizes of tails and bathrooms. I could provide measurements upon request, but there's a strong chance that my measurements won't help you follow my setup. Questions? Concerns? Insults? Comments? Go ahead....
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