Two camp recalls from October: a bucket shower with a 1,500-watt heater and Snow Peak's propane fire insert

If you bought a ZAREI portable camping shower or a Snow Peak Takibi propane insert this year, stop using it. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled both in October 2026, and both are fire hazards. Neither recall is large. About 400 showers and about 100 inserts were sold, but if one of them is in your gear bin, the fix is a phone call or a return label.

The camping shower

CPSC recall 27013, published October 1, covers a kit with a rechargeable pump, a black 5-gallon collapsible bucket with the ZAREI logo, and a 1,500-watt metal immersion heater with heart-shaped openings in its housing. It sold on Amazon and Walmart.com from February through August 2026 for about $60. The hazard, in the record’s words: the heaters “can quickly ignite when they are partially or completely out of water.” No injuries were reported.

The remedy is a full refund through Amazon’s or Walmart’s return system, with a prepaid return package. One snag: the record gives Golden Resale’s number as 855-927-3440 in the contact field and 855-927-2440 in the remedy text. We have not called either. The 3440 number is the one listed with hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT weekdays, 8 a.m. to noon weekends). The email is [email protected].

The math on a 1,500-watt bucket heater

The kit sold as camp gear. At 1,500 watts, it needs shore power or a generator more than a battery. A gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds (USGS gives 62.4 pounds per cubic foot, and a cubic foot is 7.48 gallons), so 5 gallons is about 42 pounds. One Btu raises one pound of water by 1 degree F, and a kilowatt-hour is 3,412 Btu.

Taking a bucket from 50 to 100 degrees F:

• 42 lb x 50 degrees = about 2,090 Btu
• 2,090 / 3,412 = about 0.61 kWh
• 0.61 kWh / 1.5 kW = about 24 minutes, if every watt goes into the water

A collapsible bucket in cold air loses heat while it warms, so real times run longer. On a standard 120-volt outlet, 1,500 W is 12.5 amps. On a power station, you need an inverter rated for 1,500 W continuous, and one hot shower uses more than half of a 1,000 Wh battery before inverter losses. Our power budget guide shows what that leaves for everything else. On a generator, run the generator sizing calculator with 1,500 W as a running load.

The record does not explain the failure, but the physics is simple: an element pushing 1,500 W into water has nowhere to send that heat once the water is gone. Keep the element under water and unplug it before you lift it out.

The Snow Peak propane insert

CPSC recall 27021, published October 8, covers the Takibi propane insert and lava rocks, model ST-332-US. The insert converts Snow Peak’s Pack and Carry Fireplace L (ST-032) and XL (ST-034) to propane. The hazard: the lava rocks “can ignite and explode when heated.” The firm had one report of exploding rocks with minor property damage and no injuries.

The CPSC record says about 100 sold on snowpeak.com in July 2026 for about $350. Snow Peak’s recall page says fewer than 100 sold, on July 28 and 29, and that the wrong rock was mixed into the supply at the factory. Your choices are a full refund with a prepaid label, or keeping the insert and waiting for replacement rocks. Don’t use it until those arrive. Snow Peak says not to substitute other rocks, and CPSC says to throw out the recalled rocks according to local rules. Snow Peak’s line is 888-424-4916, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT weekdays.

If you are checking your bin anyway, the same October 1 batch also recalled two rechargeable hand warmers, covered in our hand warmer recall piece.