How I Built a Reliable Camping Water Setup for Under $70

Gear Review
Written By David Wong

Our camping running water setup in the back of our car. Photo by David Wong.

There was a time when I thought grabbing a few plastic gallon jugs of water at the grocery store was just part of camping prep. Like marshmallows or forgetting your headlamp batteries. But over time, the pile of empty awkwardly crushed jugs started to feel wrong. Cheap plastic, single-use, completely unnecessary. Especially when I’ve got a good water filter system at home.

What I needed was a better way to bring clean water to camp. Something BPA-free and built to last, not a reused grocery store water gallon jug that’s been stabbed with a pocket knife and looks like it’s been through hell and back.

Links to all products in this camping water setup

Scepter Water Container

The Scepter 5-Gallon Portable Water Storage Container is the kind of gear you’d expect to find tossed in the back of a dusty Humvee somewhere in the desert. And that’s not an exaggeration, this thing was literally built for military-grade abuse. It’s made of dense, BPA-free plastic, and features a wide mouth that makes it easy to fill and clean. It stacks, it stores, and it just works.

I can vouch for that last part. I accidentally dropped ours from the back of the car, where it bounced off the garage floor like a bowling ball, and lived to tell the tale with nothing but a few scratches. If that’s not a field test, I don’t know what is.

The Pain of Pouring

After a few trips with the Scepter container, I ran into a small but annoying issue: pouring water. Sure, you can tip five gallons of water to fill a cooking pot, drinking mug, or onto your hands to wash them. But should you? Not when you know there’s a better way.

Scepter even makes their Scepter 10266 Military Water Can Spout, but it looks unnecessarily long, lacking pressure, and is shown in pictures with the container laid on it’s side so that gravity helps the water flow. An awkward solution still requiring moving the container around.

I started looking into those USB-rechargeable water pumps. You’ve probably seen them. Little nozzles with a spout and a button that bring running water to the campsite. I found one for $15. And yes, it kinda-sorta worked with the Scepter… if you jammed it on hard enough and didn’t mind it popping off randomly, exposing your clean water source to the dirt, dogs, and mystery crumbs of the campground.

It was a novelty at best. A liability at worst.

Premium Solutions

I considered upgrading entirely. Dometic’s GO Hydration jug and water faucet combo looked slick. I mean come on, it’s Dometic. Modular, stylish, easy to use. But at $170 for the set? I’d rather spend that on gas, food, or gear I can’t hack together myself.

That’s when I realized: the pump wasn’t the issue. The container wasn’t the issue. The connection was the issue.

What I needed was a proper adapter, something to bridge the spout of the Scepter with the standard size that these little water pumps were made for. It seemed simple.

The Product Designer Detour

I called a friend who studied product design. We talked about 3D printers, filament options, design files. I got inspired. And then reality set in: I don’t have a 3D printer. I don’t have the space. And I don’t have time to fall down the rabbit hole of CAD software and filament specs. That lightbulb moment of innovation and potential entrepreneurship died after the call.

Not soon after, I stumbled across Lone Rock Concepts, a company selling a solution for this exact issue. They have patent pending adapter kits for Scepter, Rotopax, and more. But there was a catch: they bundled the adapter with a pump. What looked like the exact same pump I already had. For $80.

That doesn’t include a container, which would bring my Scepter water setup with Lone Rock Concepts products to $125.

No shade to the team at Lone Rock Concepts, but I already had a water container and similar or exact pump, so had to pass on spending $80 for the small adapter.

The $8 Solution

Months passed. My sad, janky setup survived a few more trips, impressing some at first glance, and frustrating me when it would fall off and tumble to the ground.

I started looking at new rechargeable water pumps, thinking I could find a review confirming compatibility with a Scepter container.

Then, one night scrolling Amazon, I found it. An adapter. No reviews. $8. Worth the gamble. It arrived in blazing orange instead of the black shown in the listing, with a small chip at a thin point. I didn’t care.

I screwed it onto the Scepter spout. The pump sat on top. It held.

No falling off. No pump touching the ground. No more awkward pours. Just running water at the push of a button, a camping luxury. After a few trips, it’s held strong. The pump doesn’t lock in or click into place, it simply rests on top. But after multiple trips, it hasn’t fallen once. And for an $8 fix compared to the premium options above, it’s more than good enough.

Final Thoughts

I know the pump will die eventually. They all do. But this adapter? This ugly little $8 piece of plastic? It might outlive me. If you're going to use this system, just remember to rinse and dry your pump after each trip. It’s the price you pay for not living in a hotel.

Would I still recommend the Lone Rock kit if you don’t already own a pump or jug? Probably. It’s a clean, compatability-tested solution. But if you’re already halfway there like I was? This adapter is the missing link.

Our Scepter 5 Gallon costs $45, the water pump under $15, and the adapter was $8.

Which brings this setup total to under $70. All thanks to the $8 adapter.

Cheap. Effective. Durable. That’s what good camping gear should be.

This post is based on personal experience and may contain affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps support future adventures and keeps this blog going. Thank you!

David Wong
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