copper tubing?

[PoolDoc]

Thanks for understanding!

[Charlie_R]

Well, I did it.

Took an old bbq grill for the housing/firebox, and bought 50' of 3/4" copper pipe along with a bunch of tees and els etc. Even with the fairly small firebox, I'm able to keep 80* water with overnight temps in the high 50s to low 60s, burning junk pallet wood.

I do need to make a few improvements to it, mostly to the flue gas path to bring more of the hot gasses in contact with the copper for longer time. I'm also going to have to enlarge the firebox a bit so I'm not having to add wood so often.

Took a swim this afternoon, 65* air temp, 82* water. felt good, as long as I was in the water, but getting out was problematic.....I got cold real quick!

[Charlie_R]

I goofed. Cost me 2/3 of the water in the pool.

Heater exterior was cool enough to hold my hand on. so I shut off the pump last night. Got up this morning to a muddy mess. One PVC joint failed, and broke free. I assume from residual heat in the firebox.

However, the up side to this is I was able to make the improvements to the heater.

Incoming fill water is measured 63*, yet the pool is holding at 72*, while filling. Current air temp 64*, high today was 68*.

I guess that means the changes to the heater are successful. Looks like I'll be able to get the water back to swimming temperature by tomorrow afternoon. Shooting for 80*+. Anything over that is just gravy......

[Charlie_R]

According to the typical internet meme, pics or it didn't happen, right?

With that said, here is what is happening:

Overall view of the system --



Yes, it looks hillbilly. That is what happens when you use what you have on hand. No filter in the canister, to keep the flow rate fairly decent.

Nice bed of coals --



This is what a pile of used, broken pallets are good for.

Detail of the suction/return lines --





And of course, I can't forget the thermometer --



According to http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/...:65265.1.99999 current air temp is 68*.

I must have done something right, this time!

[PoolDoc]

Uhm. Interesting?

Not sure what to say. It shouldn't be too dangerous, since if the copper overheats, the PVC will collapse before there's any sort of pressure build up. Plus, it doesn't look like you have any valves that would allow a pressure increase to occur.

Not sure how durable it all is, though. Any joints you have that are exposed to the fire are unlikely to last long, unless you used high temp silver solder. If you have calcium in your pool, and get build up in the coil, it can insulate the pipe from the water enough to allow the pipe to over heat. And . . . copper is not especially resistant to combustion gas effects.

But, time will tell.

[Charlie_R]

Uhm. Interesting?

Not sure what to say. It shouldn't be too dangerous, since if the copper overheats, the PVC will collapse before there's any sort of pressure build up. Plus, it doesn't look like you have any valves that would allow a pressure increase to occur.

I do have one valve on the return side, to be used only when removing the apparatus at pool closing. It remains fully open otherwise.

Not sure how durable it all is, though. Any joints you have that are exposed to the fire are unlikely to last long, unless you used high temp silver solder. If you have calcium in your pool, and get build up in the coil, it can insulate the pipe from the water enough to allow the pipe to over heat. And . . . copper is not especially resistant to combustion gas effects.

But, time will tell.

I really don't expect this to last more than 1 or 2 seasons in it's present configuration. This initial build is intended as a "proof of concept", to see how well it will work.

I used lead free potable water (95.6%Sn 4%Cu .4%Ag) solder on all copper joints. With water flowing through the pipes, I doubt that the joints will get anywhere near the melting point of the solder, even with a 10* rise in water temp from suction to return.

One other problem that I probably will need to address is the tendency of creosote to condense on the tubing. This was fully expected. Knowing that creosote is acidic, but not knowing how far down the scale it is, leads me to expect failure of the tubing itself within the 1-2 season life expectancy. At least this will give me enough time to procure thin wall stainless tubing, along with the means to either bend it or braze fittings into the shape I want.

I'm not sure I'll have much of a problem with calcium build up in the tubes, before the creosote corrodes the copper to the point of failure. Fill water has 180-240ppm calcium, depending on what week I check. I'm not sure why it tests differently one week to the next. Probably which well the water co drew from that week. For our domestic hot water, I've found that I need to clean our gas fired water heater only every 2nd year, so I think I can assume that the heat exchanger in the pool heater won't have too much of a problem with this before corrosion failure.

[PoolDoc]

For our domestic hot water, I've found that I need to clean our gas fired water heater only every 2nd year, so I think I can assume that the heat exchanger in the pool heater won't have too much of a problem with this before corrosion failure.

Not necessarily a correct assumption.

In your water heater, scale prevents heat from escaping as easily, but the scale stays wet (unless you hear popping noises) and so the heater element is temperature limited by the boiling point of water.

This may not work out as well with tubing exposed to uneven fire box heating, compared to tubing exposed to very even heat element heating.

BTW, you can prevent having to replace heater elements by using a low watt density Inconel sheathed element like this one:

Camco 4500W 240V Screw-in Water Heater Element -Ultra Low Watt Density
Camco 5500W 240V Screw-in Water Heater Element - Ultra Low Watt Density

Years ago, when I was a plumber doing commercial service work, these were hard to find. But thanks to Amazon, they are now available to everyone. In most installations, this is a life-of-the-heater replacement. Because of the much larger surface area, scale formation is greatly reduced. And, because of the inconel sheathing, the elements don't fail even when they do get coated with scale.