Wood fired pool heater

treerat

For the past few years my son and I try to do something constructive over the winter months. 2 yrs ago we built a bandmill, last year we built another wood splitter and this past winter he had the brilliant idea to build a heater for our pool he is 11yrs old now and I take great pleasure spending time with him teaching him hands on.

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Eric Frei

That's friggin great, excellent!

That young fellow wont be your normal run of the mill city dumbo!

And heated pools are useful too.

Thanks, now a pic of the pool thanks.

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Drouin Tree Service

Kool!!!

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treerat

Thanks, we had to make some modifications to the heat exchanger and the pump location. I will post the mods and the pool later tonight.

JohN Dee

Wow! That looks really good and sounds so affective. When it heats the pool, does it pump HOT water or warm?

Can't wait for the rest of the pics

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treerat

Well here are the rest of the pictures, we had to put the heat exchanger inside the fire box we couldn't get the water hot just warm I kind of thought this would happen but my son thought it would be enough. We did this project together so I wanted him to come up with his own Ideas good lesson in trial and error. No biggie just drilled two holes in the back of the stove sodered the pipes back up and HOT water!! We also moved the pump near the pool instead of by the stove.

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spartek

Hey Treerat, Thats An Awesome Setup, But Will The Solder Melt And Cause Failure.if That Could Happen, I Wonder If You Could Just Use An Uncut Coil Lapped Over Themselves.thanks For The Idea.

treerat

So far so good, as long as the pump is pushing water through the pipes there is no problem, if the water is not moving through the coil it will super heat and make steam than the pipes will burst causing a dangerous situation. I installed a pressure releaf valve on the hot side of the line comming out of the stove to prevent this in case the pump quits. Coiled copper will work but with the price of copper now it was cheeper to buy lenths and I had most of the elbows.

aphid

just wondering if you are able to get an outlet temp reading. I once built a hot water heater for a garage with an apartment above and found that the water temp in the burner box had a huge impact on getting the burner to flu properly. any thing like that? hats off to the father-son team

treerat

We didn't get a temp reading of the water but it is hot. We haven't burned the stove in a week or so with air temp being high 70's to low 80's the water is just right. I know come late summer and into fall we will get that stove cooking real good and I will get a water temp reading then.

BCN Cal

Treerat,
That is an awesome pool heater. How quick will it heat your pool? How thick are the steel walls?

JohnC

I’ve noticed that you used cobber pipes. I’ve heard that cobber pipes and chlorine was a bad mix. Something about the cobber would corrode somehow? Have you had any problems with that?

JohnC

Rob Chace

awesome two thumbs up. BUT... you should instill in the young fella WEAR EAR protection, especially for the youngies (aswell as the safety glasses - half points?)

That aside top work.

treerat

Ok replys to the questions:
No problems with the chloine and the copper still going strong we added another coil to the burner

we get about 3degrees per hour with the added air injection system

Ear and Eye pertection is a must when using any tools my son had foam earplugs in and did have safety glasses on look close youll see them.

be safe

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sun64

Well done treerat and son. That is an awsome wood fired pool heater.
I am a boilermaker/ welder ( metal fabricator ) by trade.
You both should be very proud of yourselves. It is a very well made heater.
I need to get my boy away from the dreaded X BOX and do something like that with him, but he usually re-nigs. I am always working at home repairing/ fabricating things myself.
How are you air injecting the water flow, by a compressor.
One thing i thought of if you are only heating the pool up by 3 degrees per hour may be to install another copper coil above the existing one and tee both lines into your pump and return line providing your piping is larger than the copper in use now.
You would have double the flow and hopefully not have to use your compressor to move the water, saving power and wear on the unit.
I like to see other people's ideas.
Well done to you both!
sun64 :

treerat

Thanks, the air injection system we installed was from a blower fan from another wood stove not in the water system.The blower is mounted to the front of the stove near the bottom to induce air into the fire box and we put a reiostat on it to control the cfm's.(Now mind you this whole project started with his trial and error, I let him do the thinking weather it was right or wrong, I wanted him to ramrod this project. We put his ideas to the project although someof them were totally out of the box and had to explain how this whole system should work.) the water is pumped by a transfer pump 3/4 hp with 1'' inlet and outlet.
About the x-box thing he get an hour a day and most of the time he doesnt go on it. Its funny to see the pics of him now man do the youngins grow quick now he's out cuttin with me and the crew on saturdays and when he off of school. Heres a pic from early this spring puttin a smack down on a big red oak.

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sun64

Hi treerat, glad to hear that your son is only allowed on the dreaded X BOX for an hour. We have had to do the same to our son as they get very addicted to it.
Another thing I was thinking about is the length of run for your piping on the return side. Depending on the length of run I am wondering how much heat loss you may be getting through the pipe.
Depending what type of pipe you are using and wether it is insulated.
If you are using just poly or pvc pipe, what you could do is insert your pipe inside a slightly larger pipe, thus helping to stop too much heat loss through your pipe. Just a few thoughts. All the best
sun64