I need help with a pool heater?

[jemshkoj]

my friend is making a red neck water heater for his pool and he wants to use copper and a fire to heat the water up and put it back into the pool. but what i want to know if the chlorine will corrode the piping?

[toolguy1000]

wish i could help, but i'm from NY, so i don't know how to think like a redneck.

[Stytooner]

I gotta say that I can think like a red neck and that right there would not be my first concern on such a project.
I'd be more concerned with keeping the ashes from floating on the surface.
If you really want to know though, Google is your buddy.
Here is one link I found and they suggest that copper consumes chlorine.
http://www.waterone.org/Water_Qualit...pperpiping.htm

[Daryl]

Many of us have copper lines in our houses, and chlorinated city water.

[chopnhack]

Not to mention that the inside of the plumbing will eventually corrode to a point and then stop, kinda like a sacrificial coating. What size pipe is he thinking? Copper pipe is not cheap and most pools use fairly large size tubing, say 2" to prevent back pressure on the pump from being too excessive. BTW copper pipe for a 10' stick at 2" is about $110, not to mention all the fittings and then the risk of theft :-o

[RAFlorida]

Red-neck pool heater???

Get some pvc, appropreate size, building a coil like in a still, and drap black plastic tarp over it during the full heat of the day.

[vaking]

I am questioning the idea of a redneck pool heater.
Firstly - why people install pool heaters escapes me altogether.
When I bought my house it came with a pool and heater. In the first ten years I used the heater probably 2 times. For me - it is simple. I like to jump in a pool to cool off on a hot day. On a day when I need heater - I don't really want to use a pool. After ten years of watching that heater covered with spider webs taking space in my back yard I finally decided to rip it out. So much better without that monstrocity.

I am also afraid that redneck pool heater may turn out way too expensive to use. You might be able to build something cheaper than the professional version but I am sure it will not be as efficient as the real thing. Keep in mind that typical pool contains 10,000 - 15,000 gallons of water. If you really get to use that heater - heating that much water with inefficient unit will eat those savings very quickly. I am assuming you still plan to use gas to heat the water. Trying to heat it with firewood looks like a joke to me. Estimate how much firewood and time you will need to heat 10,000 gallons of water. Remember the time you tried to bring a pot of water on a camp fire to boil? That pot was probably 1 gallon.

[Slik Geek]

I am questioning the idea of a redneck pool heater. Firstly - why people install pool heaters escapes me altogether.

You didn't specify... is your pool in ground? Here in northern Illinois, my above ground pool (even with a "solar cover") loses alot of heat during the cool evenings at this time of year, such that the water temperature is so cold that you likely would jump in and jump out really fast, even on a hot day. We heat our water so that we can stay in the water long enough to enjoy it starting about Memorial Day.

I heat the pool with a solar redneck pool heater. I tapped off the filter output with a couple of hose spigots (from PVC pipe). Those spigots feed 200-300 feet of black garden hose that is coiled around the sunny side of the pool on a bed of gravel that surrounds the pool, with the ends held so they return the water to the pool. On a sunny day, the water coming out of the hose is rather warm, not scalding, but one would call it "hot". That heats up the pool reasonably well (15,000 gallons). I probably could get more heat if I added black material under the hose.

Keep in mind that typical pool contains 10,000 - 15,000 gallons of water. If you really get to use that heater - heating that much water with inefficient unit will eat those savings very quickly.

Efficiency is the key word. The big expense in heating the pool water is not so much the energy it takes to heat the water, it is how easily that heat is lost to:
1) inefficiency in the heating system
2) the atmosphere and earth

If you had a 100% efficient electric heater, for example, you could heat 10,000 gallons of water for under $30, assuming 12 cents a kW-hr and 9 degrees Fahrenheit increase in water temperature:

2.44 Watt-hours per gallon per degree F x 10,000 gal x $0.00012 per W-hr x 9 degF = $26.38

It would actually take more than that because the heater isn't 100% efficient, and the pool will dissipate some of that heat while you are heating. Then over the course of a day or so of cool nights, you may lose that heat you added entirely and have to spend the money (and effort for the firewood plan) repeatedly.

If you had dry red oak, and you could burn it 100% efficiently (good luck with that!), it would take less than 10% of a face cord. Given that most of your heat will NOT go into heating the pool water, it will take alot more wood than that.

The solar option is much more cost effective.

[pelligrini]

Knowing the volume of water to be heated and the delta in the degree change desired would help. My first thoughts would be that it woulsn't work very well and it will be expensive. Copper isn't cheap, and it would probably take a lot of wood to make a decent degree change, then take a lot more wood again, and again. Solar would probably be the best DIY solution.

If he's a real redneck, save the wood for the big smoker.

[jAngiel]

Can't say that I have ever heard of a wood burning pool heater but I have seen and read a lot about home made solar heaters using coils of polyethelyene tubing. That is pretty easy to do. As far as the wood burning project, the heat exchanger in my tankless water heater is copper but that is for indoor plumbing, if the chlorine is consumed by the heater who cares. For a pool it would make a difference. Your friend can always try it out and just take measurements of the Cl levels to see if it decreases more rapidly while heating. If its a saltwater pool I wouldn't think it would matter as you can usually turn up the generator a tad to compensate for it.

Let us know if it works, I may want to give it a try too.

[jdon]

I don't know much about pools, but according to this: http://www.troublefreepool.com/coppe...ion-t10871.htm using copper could be a problem.

I really don't think that checking the chlorine level while heating will tell you whether the chlorine is corroding the copper. Chlorine outgasses from water (which is why you can smell it!), and heating the water only increases the rate of outgassing. The amount of chlorine lost to the atmosphere is probably considerably greater than that consumed in corrosion, but corrosion would occur nonetheless.

Corrosion with chlorinated drinking water does occur, but at a low enough rate not to be significant. However, chlorine concentrations in pool water is much higher, so a greater corrosion risk will occur.

FWIW, I agree with others who recommend plastic tubing of some sort.