Wood fired pool heater

Tacoma747

Tacoma747

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Winston-Salem
Figured I would share a picture of my latest contraption. Picked this and another autoclave up from a former co-worker on Wednesday. Ordered a circulation pump off Amazon for $60, some brass fittings garden hoses, and old rotten firewood and I'm in business. I put a thermometer in the pool at about 3:30 so we will see how long it takes to hear up, but the water coming out of the hose is ALMOST too hot to hold your hand in front of it (while submerged in the pool).

The door could be fixed without much work so it could be closed to hold the heat in better with a chimney coming out the back and you could really get the heat rolling in it, especially if you put a couple fans force feeding air.

If anyone wants one hit me up haha. I have two!

Anyone else have homebrew pool heaters?
 

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Raised the water temp by about 8-10 degrees on Sunday in a matter of hours (I am sure the sun helped). Then boys went swimming and got the suction hose above water I think and caused issues... it pushed rusty water back through the pump and into the pool 🤣. Have the water back almost clear now, and swapped this unit out for the other one that has a stainless steel vessel. I am going to add a check valve, and change the plumbing up some, but still overall I am pleased.
 
So who wants to design a water stove system for house heating? I fired up the stainless steel unit that has a door on Tuesday of last week (around noon), water was 65°. The kids swam Thursday-Saturday, temperature was in the 90's Wednesday night, and 98-100 thursday, it felt GOOOOD. 15' hot tub!

The heater will easily burn for 15 hours if I shut the door 7/8 of the way (vertical door is slides up/down).

I want to use the steel vessel unit as a water stove for the house, I have a much larger one, but after I see the efficiency of these 20x20 units, there is no need for the big boy (24x36" door best I remember).

If anyone has a water stove, or pointers on plumbing, I have been researching them, they are a little more complex as there are thermostats, etc. I think I can figure something out, my biggest hurdle will be deciding to make it a pressurized or non-pressurized system.

My daughter swam for 30 minutes Thursday----loved it, but she got out because she got too hot 🤣
 

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Wood fired boilers exist and have for quite awhile.

Good friend of mine has a wood fired boiler in MA and has run one for quite some time. He is a heating guy and says it's more efficient than his oil fired unit.
 
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