I Built a Wood Fired Pool Heater! (Raging Hot)

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I built a hot tub just like this, one thing that made a huge difference was putting down 2 inch foam board under the tank and wrapping the tank in foam board. Now I can easily heat the 8 foot diameter tub from about 70 to 105 in about three hours. Before adding the foam board I noticed the bottom of the tank had cold water while the top was much warmer until you stirred it. after the foam board underneath it now heats up evenly without stirring telling me I'm not loosing nearly as much heat to the ground.

I read the entire Ryan’s youtube.com/post/UgkxGqOCINHE0Z0E5gxzSdNi9NWGugRY5… Plans and was able to make a shed plan. Using Ryan’s Shed Plans alone, the shed itself is great. Where I wish I knew more is with respect to ground preparation and foundations. Maybe that's beyond the scope of Ryan’s Shed Plans.

A note on flow rate, as you have the pipe into the pool with an air gap the system must boil water to push it out, if you submerged the tube it would flow faster at a much lower temperature as the slight difference is density would begin to Syphon water round after the initial boil bleeds the air out. This would make it much more efficient as the fire doesn't need to heat the water to boiling.

I built a hot tub with the same concept. I built a rocket stove with the copper coil inside with direct contact to the flames. Also while heating the tub I covered it to help retain the heated water. Your losing heat from it not being covered and you could insulate the return pipe from fire. That will also protect anyone from getting burnt. Great to see you work through the process.

If you want steady flow without a pump both ends need to be submerged. One at the bottom and one just below the surface. The pulses of really hot water is because there is air in the system and when some of it boils it forces some out. Same as a coffee perk. Get both ends in the water and get the air out and you will have steady flow without a pump and a more efficient heat transfer in the exchanger too.

We have a lot of wood heated hot tubs here in Finland. We call them "palju". They all work without pumps. They basically have a woodstove that has pipe inside it just like yours, but with direct contact with flame. Also a difference with our hot tubs is that we do have both ends of the pipe submerged in the water. Intake at the bottom and hot water comes out usually about half of the total depth. This way you dont get air in the system and water doesnt need so much heating to circulate effectively. Pipe is also wider diameter and there is surprisingly little "loops" inside the wooden stove. Also as others already mentioned, Insulated all way around, lid too!

Tilt your entire barrel rig at an angle and it will significantly increase the thermal efficiency. Open top burning loses 95% of heat exhausting right out the top instantaneously, and pull up your coil and tighten the last few winds samller so it is directly in the heat plume. Or re-do the thing with the coil on the inside of the barrel (not at bottom/will burn/steam too much) Condensation becomes a big problem in the combustion chamber though. just lean it over and reap the added heat!

You are the living proof that when someone wants something they can build it. Great job !

Subtle comedic gold: the wireless angle grinder is the perfect tool for "changing out your catalytic converter" 😂

I built my wood burning heater using 60 feet of copper inside the fire barrel wrapped on the inside exposed directly to the flame. I have a 1/2hp transfer pump to flow the water through. It comes out about 25-30 degrees warmer than the base water temp. I have a 12500 gallon pool and in a few hours the pool will warm 5-10 degrees. I will fire it up first thing in the morning and by lunch time the water is nice and toasty in the pool. A partial cover over the barrel to reduce the amount of heat that escapes helps too. Flow rate is more important than temperature differential. A thousand gallons of 5 degree warmer water per hour is better than 10 gallons at boiling temp.

Honestly, best part of the whole vid was the time you spent with your daughter. Those times make forever memories.

Any plans building a deck so you can feed the fire and get back into the pool to keep your feet from getting caked with mud? Might be a good idea to build a fence to protect the hose from the pool to fire heater and the Cooper piping. It will also give you and your guest somewhere to hang your clothes. Maybe even build a little storage compartment to keep chemicals for the pool and house the water pump.

Love seeing this. Glad to see you got around to doing it after we talked about it. I never did get the heater done on my hillbilly hot tub because I haven't gotten a good deal on copper yet lol. This is awesome

Awesome job on the pool. I really enjoyed the daddy/daughter time in the pool, kinda reminded me of the times I spent with my daughter 👍

So glad to see you put some uumph into the flow, and extra copper tubing to help increase the amount of heated water returned. We used this type system for fumigating termites years ago with Methyl Bromide gas, it was called a heat exchanger. Also, I've built several mosquito foggers out of lawnmower exhaust pipes and ice maker line as a drip method directly into the hot exhaust pipe. Great build! Love what you're doing ❤️

I was hoping that your redesign was going to expose the pipe directly to the flame of the fire. Fun video 👍

"Daddy, I love playing with you!" Absolutely worth the build and the time to watch it!

Pipe wrap for the return pipe. insulate the heat and prevent burned fingers. Love the concept!

All you need is to install a check valve at the inlet. The overheated water can only exit through the outlet. That's how the coffee machine works, no pump needed.