Portable Baptistries

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Portable baptism involves the use of a portable baptismal pool for baptizing candidates. Some frequently discussed points about portable baptistries are covered here.

How To Fill Your Portable Baptistry
Most churches typically fill their portable baptistry with water from a garden hose either from outside or attached to their hot water heater (or even an indoor kitchen faucet with an adaptor.)
Either
-drape it over the top and secure the hose so it doesn’t come out while filling or
-attach it to the drain and open the valve on the drain (not all units have a drain)

The only disadvantage to filling via the drain is you might not hear the water as well and accidentally overflow

In either case do not leave the unit unattended when filling.


We recommend that you move the baptistry into place and then fill it. Most portable baptistries weigh around 250 pounds and hold about 100-150 gallons of water. Water weighs about 8.3 pounds per gallon so figure on your full baptism pool weighing as much as 1000 to 1500 pounds so you can see that you don't want to be rolling a portable baptism pool around that is full of water.

Draining the Baptistry
Some portable baptistries have a drain and some do not. Either way, you can usually use the same hose you filled it with to drain it.  Either create a syphon or use a small manual hand or electric pump from a hardware store connected to the hose to empty the baptistry. For units with a drain, you can screw the hose to the drain and let gravity finish the job as long as it is downhill to the water runout location or sewer.

Leaving Water in the Baptistry?
You will want to empty the baptistry after each use for sanitary and child safety reasons. Stagnant water will develop bacteria fairly quickly unless treated with pool chemicals and pool chemicals aren't really that good for your baptistries finish. The fiberglass interior will also hold up longer if it not exposed to water constantly. If you have ever seen blistering on the bottom of a fiberglass boat you will understand what can happen if you leave water in your portable baptistry pool without ever draining it. Sure, you can occasionally leave water in the baptistry from one Sunday to the next and maybe add a very small amount of chlorine to the water to keep it from developing bacteria but we would not recommend this as regular practice.

Most importantly, when ever a baptistry is filled with water it MUST be safe-guarded so that small children cannot climb or fall into the unit and drown.

What's the best Way to finish off the baptistry ?
Depending on the look you want and how much of a project you are willing to tackle there are a couple of good ways to finish the baptistry exterior. One option is to use table skirting and velcro. You can order table skirting in a variety of colors with velcro tape sewn into the back of it. By applying velcro tape to the exterior of your baptistry, you can then simply "hang" the skirting across the front, sides and rear if necessary to make an attractive presentation that is easily removed.

Another option is to make a cabinet from furniture grade plywood. Some baptistries, like our model 9533 come with a factory installed wood 2 x 4 frame that you can easily attach panels and trim to give your portable baptistry a custom finished look. Other models are available with factory made wood cabinets and accesory tops so your unit can double as a communion table or even a pulpit.

Here's a beautiful example sent in by a customer showing our Model FUN-6KFR before and after they covered it in synthetic stone. (Note that the church also made the steps


What about wheels for moving the baptistry?
We recommend if you are moving the baptistry often, you consider purchasing the wheel kit. Available on our "FUN" models, the wheel kit is a heavy duty metal frame with locking wheels that can be used to move a filled unit. For our other units that don't have wheel kits, we suggest using a couple of furniture dollies to move the unit around. Be sure to remove the unit from the dollies before filling with water.

How should we heat the water?
Ideally, you can either fill the baptistry with warm water from a regular water heater (using a garden hose) or you can use one of our Protable Baptism Heaters. Immersion heaters are available in either 120v or 240v plug in models. The 240v will heat 60 GPH with a 40 degree rise in temperature. The 120v will heat 15 GPH so while the 240v will heat a portable baptistry in about 2 hours or less, the 120v model will require about 6-9 hours. We suggest attaching the heater to a 2x4 that simply lays across the top of the baptistry and is removed before use. Be sure to use a GFI protected outlet with your heater and as with any baptistry, remember to take precautions to prevent small children from playing in or near the baptistry.

We also offer a removable heater with pump that can be used to drain as well as heat the unit. Our "FUN" models are available with an optional built in circulation heater for ease of use.

How much is shipping on a baptistry?
If you click on the picture of the baptistry above, you will go to the ordering page. At the bottom of the ordering page you will see the shipping charge which is based on zone.


How do we order a portable baptistry?

If you decide to order, you would do so online.
Click on the picture of the portable baptistry model you want.
You can then select the color and any desired options
At the bottom of the page you will see the shipping charge based on various zones.
Select the Zone you are in and the price will be updated at the bottom of the page.
After you place your order you will receive a confirmation email.
When your order ships we will email you.
Once the shipment arrives in your town, the freight company will call to schedule delivery.


Frequent Questions
...Our pastor recently saw a portable baptismal that came from your company and I am hoping to ask a few questions regarding it's portability.  We begin a special weekly service at a local baseball stadium this summer and need a better baptismal set up.  However, we need to set it up and break it down each week for this service.  Can you advise what portable baptismal's you have that are best for this purpose...

I think the “frame only” models are best for your situation because they are the lightest weight and there is not an exterior shell or casing to get damaged in transit and handling.
We have 3 sizes and they are shown in the portable baptistry category. You can see pricing and shipping options by clicking on the baptistry picture.
For heating you can either use the immersion heater or the portable heater which has a pump, otherwise you can drain them with a hose.

Pastor wants to know if you ship the portable baptistries to Canada?

• *No but he can have shipped to a US border state and pickup at the freight terminal.
• *He will need to track it closely and call them as soon as it arrives at the terminal
• *He must pickup within 3 days of it arriving or pay storage fees of $50/day or higher
• *There is no warranty coverage outside US
• *He must inspect for damage at the freight terminal.
• *If there is any damage in transit, we do not ship any repair materials outside the US.
• *We do not provide any customs paperwork. The only thing we can provide is the Sales Order he gets when he places the order.