Camping gear gets a kind of blind trust that your kitchen appliances never do — you pack it once a year, you don’t think hard about it, and you assume if it worked last summer it’ll work this one. A new recall on a popular portable shower is a good reason to break that habit, at least for this one.
What the recall actually says
Golden Resale has recalled about 400 of its Portable Camping Showers after the manufacturer itself acknowledged the immersion heater can ignite — and not only when fully submerged. Even partly out of the water, the heater can burst into flame, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall notice dated October 1.
That detail matters more than it sounds: a lot of safety assumptions around portable water heaters hinge on the idea that staying submerged keeps them safe. This one breaks that assumption directly, which is part of why the company flagged it rather than waiting for a pattern of injuries to force the issue.
Why “partly submerged” is the dangerous part
Think about how you’d actually use a camping shower — you fill the bag, you dunk the heater, and at some point during setup or teardown, it’s going to be half in and half out of the water. That in-between moment is exactly when this unit is most likely to fail.
It’s not a hazard tied to misuse or an old, worn-out unit. It’s built into how the heater behaves the moment it isn’t fully covered, which means following the instructions carefully doesn’t fully protect you here — the fix has to come from the manufacturer, not from using it more carefully.
What to do if you own one
Stop using the Portable Camping Shower immediately if you have one, and don’t wait until your next trip to deal with it. Contact Golden Resale directly for the remedy rather than trying to troubleshoot the heater yourself.
About 400 units is a small recall as these things go, which also means it’s easy to miss if you’re not specifically looking for it. If you bought camping gear from this brand in the past year or two, it’s worth five minutes to check the model against the notice.
Why a small recall still deserves your full attention
It’s easy to read “about 400 units” and assume the odds are in your favor — but a small recall usually means the company caught the defect early, not that the hazard is minor. A fire risk doesn’t scale down just because fewer people are affected by it.
If you’re not sure whether your unit is on the list, treat “not sure” the same as “yes” until you’ve checked. A five-minute look at the notice costs you nothing; skipping it costs you the one summer you didn’t expect to need it.
You didn’t do anything wrong packing gear that worked the last time you used it — that’s not negligence, it’s just how camping gear gets trusted. The honest move now is to pull this one out of the bin before your next trip, make the call, and let the rest of your gear earn back that trust the normal way: by working exactly how it’s supposed to.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Womens Overview editors prior to publication.