*2022 ECOFLOW PRIME DAY SALE: Click below for up to 48% up to $900 OFF EcoFlow adding on my Special Extra 5% off Coupon Code: efmodern5 for best Prime Day Deal on top of your order:* - Prime Day EcoFlow Amazon USA: amzn.to/3QGC6YY - Prime Day EcoFlow Website USA: us.ecoflow.com/?aff=167 - Prime Day EcoFlow Amazon CANADA: amzn.to/3QGnN6J - Prime Day EcoFlow Website CANADA: ca.ecoflow.com/?aff=7
Hey modern self-reliance if you would put that pump a little bit below the pond or the pool you will get so much more flow it's a gravity fed pump so it's going to be below the water level so if you would have raised the lever of the cold water so being so low you would have had so much more water pressure and be coming out like a shower head
You can’t use those screws to hold the pipe in place. Your going to wreck the copper (electrolysis, dissimilar metals touching is bad ) having said that the barrel is going to have the same effect Look into stainless steel tubing maybe
Also Kevin pro tip If you want to remove a pec ring just hit it with your torch. It will net the pex pipe and the ring just pulls off with channel lock pliers
This is correct except for one thing You do not have Syphon Because of the t piece it's letting air break the Syphon process If you have the return going into the water with no way for air to break and you need around 1 ft fall into the pool so that it can draw water as it flows
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!
I read the entire Ryan’s ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxGqOCINHE0Z0E5gxzSdNi9NWGugRY5Hm2 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.
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.
Even easier is to dig out a fire pit underneath the tub, or raise the tank on bricks and fire up under the tank - much quicker and more efficient, you only need an isolating grid of heavy wood to lay down in the tub and avoid overheating any bunns...
@@user70331 Do you really want to constantly sit in that smoke and handle a fire underneath your pool that you can hardly reach for cleaning and adding wood?
Do you think putting the coil inside the barrel packed full of sauna rocks with a propane burner underneath (think turkey fryer) would work for a small outdoor stock tank hot tub 🤔. I want a DIY solution with the ease of propane.
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.
My neighbor built something like that. Instead of copper he made a coil with a bunch of 5000 psi stainless tubing I gave him. He uses his for a small kids swimming pool.
Most of the heat is being lost from the top. Commercial products for heating water with wood are basically an insulated wood stove with coils on the sides and top. That setup isn't extracting a very high percentage of the energy from the burning wood.
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!
Im guessing you use copper tube inside the wood stove with direct fire to the tube, my question is does the fire eventually burn the copper tube and destroy it ?
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.
I'd also consider making the base adjustable to manage the heat of the incoming water.....you could effectively have hotter or cooler water flowing based on the elevation. Could be pretty simple with a screw jack/scissor-lift platform idea. Then the fire could burn at maximum temperature but if it isn't, you could still achieve adequate heating regardless.
Maybe adding a check valve at the bottom of the pool would work, since water opens the valve as it rushes to the heat exchanger, once in the exchanger it boils and creates pressure closing the valve and forcing hot water to the exchanger outlet. Just like a glorified coffee maker. Although he just wanted to pump water by the difference in density between hot and cold water.
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.
That makes much more sense his heat is just escaping upwards , and only indirect heat is ging to the poor contact from the wall of the drum to a small surface of the pipe
I made a solar pool heater and had the coil on my garage roof to get better sun and added heat from the rest of the hot roof. I used a sump pump and plugged it into a timer. It would cycle and run for 30 seconds to add the hot water and pause for 15 minutes. I would just plug it in each morning and it helped a lot in the spring and fall. The one year I plumbed it into a mess of old galvanized pipe and elbows and threw it directly into the fire pit and worked even better but had to babysit the fire. I love watching all your projects thanks for sharing
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 ❤️
You need to add a pool noodle to the hot pipe to preserve the heat and protect people and pets from being scalded. Perhaps at a future date you can augment the burn barrel with a bricklayer or stone outer shell similar to the pizza oven structure. You are correct in your assumption of adding a thermal insulating layer to the outer surface of the copper coils. Wishing you and your family a blessed summer season, gentle weather and restful evenings. Peace brother
Played around with a similar setup. The best solution is to add an inlet on the tank below water level so the hot water can flow into the tank easily. The pump is a workaround.
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
I questions too, how much heat is lost by putting the coil on the outside versus inside, but since the coil is in direct contact with the metal that’s in direct contact with the fire, it may not be as much loss as we think. Greatest loss is not having a cover like a grill.
A one-way check valve would help with flow greatly without a pump. Also, putting the coil pipe inside the barrel, rather than outside, would greatly help with heating the water quicker.
this is such a cool project! very doable and not too complicated. love the father/daughter interaction. I'm sure she'll cherish this moment for years to come. p.s. I'm thinking about adding a faucet to the output so when it gets hot enough you could turn off the flow without getting out of the pool!
I grew up in northern Montana and remember well the warm (hot to us) mountain days. Our only option was the creek that ran past our cabin. Ice cold, but once you were numb, a lot of fun. Wish we had had you as a neighbor… 😄
Kevin….if you can you need to cover the pool at night. You are right they loose a LOT of heat during the night. If you have any more of that heavy duty stuff you used as a roof on your cabin maybe you can cut a circle to cover the pool. Your little girl reminds me of my daughter when she was that age. PS…..rain has a lot of acidity & I always had to shock my in ground pool because it would turn green after a bunch of rain. Rain + pools & ponds are not a good mix. It’s a pretty cool set up you got. ♥️
I’ve boiled water in a plastic water bottle before because the max temp you can get water is 100°C 212°F . I’m 100% confident you could have the coil inside the burn barrel for Max heat transfer/efficiency and not worry about the copper/solder joints melting (provided the tube is primed with water). Insulation on the inlet/outlet pipes would further increase efficiency. As well as insulation around the tub (under floor as well), and an insulated cover while heating would also prevent heat loss. One more thing I would do is have the burn barrel closer. So adding wood is within tossing distance so you could add wood while inside the pool (and have a stack of wood within arms reach of the pool) Nice job on the pool! 👍
🤣🤣🥰🥰Adorable at the end!! Your daughter has grown so much, she is so sweet. That pool turned out awesome 👌. How fun. Peace and good fortune and good health to you and your family. 😃
for the opposite effect (cooling wort) - I've found that the surface area to volume ratio was improved using several small diameter annealed lines in parallel as a heat exchanger - maybe for a future project... Enjoying the vidoes!!
you make a strench, of the basin diameter a gently sloping side : air inlet, and wood-burner, 2-3 gas outlets connected-stick to the basin, such as clay craters (you redo the seal with clay before each heating) and a last chimney exit on the other side. you remove the wood when it's hot before entering the water
If you want to use power. A small little giant submersible pump in the pool. Connect to some PEX at a safe distance away from barrel to save on costs. Works great.
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.
My only suggestion is perhaps a lid you can put on top after you switch from sticks to actual firewood, then you can possibly keep the heat in the barrel longer by damper on the exhaust pipe coming out of the lid. I don't know if I explained it well at all, anyway you are very intelligent so I'm sure you can figure out what I was trying to say . Always glad to see Don on the video. A Forrest buggy would be a fun build, gasifier powered. For hauling people and materials and lumber.
I took the easy way (just built a bit fire pit under my 6 X3 cattle tank). It takes 3-4hours but gets up to about 105 with just direct exposure to fire. 2 full years & it's blackened but 100% still intact.
With the flame directly under the floor wouldn't that make it too hot to have your feet make contact with the bottom or do you get in after the fire is out?
@@salvadorw.empent2778 Ah, I added a thick yoga/exercise mat (a bit tricky to keep it at the bottom), which works fab. Otherwise there are a few very hot spots!
Dude this makes me so pumped, I had A 8 inch steel tube welded in the middle of a huge cooking pot that fits in a 55 gal drum and put 300 feet of landscaping tubing fitted with pecs to copper to the outside In/Out and keep it filled with water with wood fire on the bottom middle of winter I can keep the water over 90f in a greenhouse environment....... I do have a pump though
Looks good! Hey, regarding the heating rate and water circulation, it would've made sense to install cold water PEX at least 90 degrees away from the hot water inflow. That way you'll be getting cold water into your exchanger (instead of tepid water,) and that will generate an internal current in the pool. I'm using a $20 large fishtank filter/circulation pump on our 150 gal soaking tub, and it's strong enough that I think that might do for your pool. If not, they have larger models with wave action and fountains for larger marine tanks. Those will draw less power off your EcoFlow, too.
Nice try on the heater, I think that for efficiency sake maybe a small firebox with a chimney piped into a chamber full of copper tubing before venting out would make better use of heat source kind of like a meat smoker only you'd be smoking tubbing, this is just my idea, love the show. Cheers from Jacksonville Florida 🌞
My neighbor put this copper coil on his woodstove with a high pressure relief valve and circulated it through his water heater. It worked perfectly saving electricity by pre heating shower and dish water
As soon as i saw that pump i knew youd hate how loud it was 🤣 we just bought one at work to replace an old pump on a flower basket water system. Apparently the old pump was an RV pump, it was almost silent and it had a pressure switch built into it so you can turn it on or off with a valve.
I really got into this one for the powerless heating and flowing water then it went to pumps n power:( but still enjoyable n the family involvement with lil miss shows your a true father and nothing mattered just playing mermaids and swimming with your daughter love that good family natured stuff 👌😎
My heart is always happy when you salvage, save, and repurpose material. I know it’s a huge part of your builds, but as a fellow saver of everything, because…”you never know when it might come in handy”, I get so pumped when you share stories of where your materials come from. 👏🏻☺️
OMG 😳😳😳 hi there, long time, finally beside the pond , now comes the heated pool and kid's pool. Jolly good 👈👍 Kelvin, you sure know how to utilize your area and used materials too. Good job 👌👍
We use a heater named popcorn heater. just pass the water thru the 45 gallons drum on its side... you need to adjust the inlet with a valve. put the fire under. The drum will start to pop out when heating, creating a siphon, water will steam out in the pool. You got to find the right flow to control the pop
I suggest adding chlorine and algae control chemicals. I live in Texas, where the pool temp can rise to 95+ degrees on its own. That temperature is a perfect environment for stuff you don't want in your pool/hot tub! A minimal amount of chemicals will probably not affect the chemistry of your plumbing.
Guessing now you have the pump you don't have to drill the hole in the bottom either. Thanks for the journey and the benefit if your trial and error experience. Saved me so much time.
Awesome video as always Kevin! I think you done great !!! Your daughter was so excited about it ! That's memories worth all the money in the world ! Anyways great build ! Take care and stay safe my friend!!
Copper has dropped for scrap prices so much in the last few months too Triple M taking over every scrap yard here Was $5 for bare bright, now its $4.25 Peterborough Ont. Prices
Put the inlet hose into the water a foot or so inside a cage. You got the right idea without an electric pump. Thermosyphons are amazing. I also feel your clay addition is holding back your thermal conductivity. Copper to steel is best. Add some insulation between the chunk of barrel if you want more retention.
Have the copper in direct contact with the flame. Have the return enter below the water. A tiny pump will help but a simple check valve works for free.
just a thought... your current setup is pumping hot water directly above the cold water drain, effectively supplying the pipe with lukewarm water rather than the coldest current pool temp. if the drain was opposite to the hot water supply you could maybe increase efficiency? you could rotate the pool 90 degrees to create a triangle to the fire. just a theory. Loved the video!
Easy peasy hippy hot tub. Dig fire pit! 6 - 8 cement blocks or stones work too. Get it level! You need enough crawl space under hot tub to put your wood in. Start your fire and don't burn yourself. 2nd idea- hot tub burn barrel in the (middle) of your hot tub. Add wood start fire then add water but you could start the fire from outside tub too. Blessings yall!
I haven't gotten all the way through the video yet, but I believe if you add in a one-way check valve (on the cold end) you might get better pressurization on the hot side.
If you don't want direct flame contact that could melt your solder you might want to tighten the copper around your barrel. With the air gap you are losing a lot of heat. Also if you restrict the airflow (i.e. chimney) through the barrel you will burn less fuel and most of the heat will not be lost to exhaust. Just another thought. Have you considered with all the clay you appear to have building a rocket/thermal mass heater? It could work in conjunction with a thermo siphon as well as giving a heated seating area depending on how far you want to go with it the possibilities are quite broad. I wondered as I saw a video where they used it to heat a green house with not much more than a handful of sticks and this was in Canada as well.
When the copper tubing is filled with sand prior to wrapping it around the barrel the tubing is flattened slightly as it’s wrapped and this increases the surface area in contact.
That is how your coffee pot works also A check valve at the bottom pipe would also help so water can only flow one way You can also solder the pipes to the barrel the water will keep it cool enough so the solder will not melt
my thoughts are make the fire barrel more like a furnace with a lid and a smoke stack it would hold more heat and also make a hot tub lid it probably heat up way faster if it kept its heat contained much love man you did a amazing job and ps I felt so happy when you threw a pump on it
Just use a tankless propane water heater that costs $150. Mount the intake and outlet towards the bottom of the hot tub. Should be enough pressure to push water through. You can mount the heater and propane bottle on a dolly so it's easy to move around and store.
May as well combine this kind of build with a "smokeless" burn barrel setup. And then add a small electric trolling motor to the pool just to circulate it better during the warm-up.
The hot water output pipe needs to be connected to your pool tank below the surface of the water to allow the natural circulation of the hot water to occur. The heating circuit must be full of water at all times. As a lad our house was heated by a coal furnace. A large storage tank was connected to a loop that was inside the furnace. As the fire heated the water it naturally rose up to exit through the piping connected to the upper port in the side of the tank. The natural convection will continuously circulate the heated water. Be carful , this can produce extremely hot water.
Great project. I loved the whole process and was excited at the end of the video… with all that white skin I was sure we were going to see you burst into flames when the sun hit you. I guess sitting in water makes you fireproof. Thanks for sharing!
California is coming into fire season. Be careful with them burn barrels!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. I liked this video. It was fun to see you experiment with the coil system. It was also fun to watch you interact with the kid. Keep up the good videos, and good luck with the pond.
Yes sir 👊🏻 I was going to do this to our pool years ago and never did. Unless I get a roll of copper given to me it's never going to happen 🥴 Great video
I love the way you repurpose stuff my man. This is how we done it all my life, my father saved any material. Anyone looking for something they would come to my dad and bring something to trade, everyone got what they needed without money.
I was at a backyard party once and they had one of these large plastic pools sitting out. They used a large (2-3 gallon) stainless stockpot anchored to a smooth rock on the bottom in which they had a fire going. They said they started the fire about 3 hours before, tending it to keep it going moderately hard for that time and the pool was nice and toasty warm... (from tap cold mind you) So you don't need any plumbing, siphons, pumps or the like, just a stainless stockpot, a large smooth rock, some stainless wire and some firewood...
I don’t really understand the set up you’re describing… the pot of water was being heated by the fire but how was the heated water transferred to the pool?
Now I'm thinking of a raspberry pi pico with a thermal sensor and an on/off circuit running to the relay that feeds the pump to make you a 6 dollar thermostat that you can program. But with that you'll need a pressure release valve so that you don't build up pressure in the pipes.
*2022 ECOFLOW PRIME DAY SALE: Click below for up to 48% up to $900 OFF EcoFlow adding on my Special Extra 5% off Coupon Code: efmodern5 for best Prime Day Deal on top of your order:*
- Prime Day EcoFlow Amazon USA: amzn.to/3QGC6YY
- Prime Day EcoFlow Website USA: us.ecoflow.com/?aff=167
- Prime Day EcoFlow Amazon CANADA: amzn.to/3QGnN6J
- Prime Day EcoFlow Website CANADA: ca.ecoflow.com/?aff=7
Hey modern self-reliance if you would put that pump a little bit below the pond or the pool you will get so much more flow it's a gravity fed pump so it's going to be below the water level so if you would have raised the lever of the cold water so being so low you would have had so much more water pressure and be coming out like a shower head
You can’t use those screws to hold the pipe in place. Your going to wreck the copper (electrolysis, dissimilar metals touching is bad ) having said that the barrel is going to have the same effect
Look into stainless steel tubing maybe
Also Kevin pro tip
If you want to remove a pec ring just hit it with your torch. It will net the pex pipe and the ring just pulls off with channel lock pliers
Had you put the coil inside the drum without any joints, you would definitely get the flow you need without needing to worry about the solder...
This is correct except for one thing
You do not have Syphon
Because of the t piece it's letting air break the Syphon process
If you have the return going into the water with no way for air to break and you need around 1 ft fall into the pool so that it can draw water as it flows
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!
Good man thanks very much for your information, made things very clear. Makes so much sense when you explain it like that.
I read the entire Ryan’s ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxGqOCINHE0Z0E5gxzSdNi9NWGugRY5Hm2 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.
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.
Even easier is to dig out a fire pit underneath the tub, or raise the tank on bricks and fire up under the tank - much quicker and more efficient, you only need an isolating grid of heavy wood to lay down in the tub and avoid overheating any bunns...
Where do u buy the coil from
What if you make fire under the tub. Won't it heat better?
@@user70331 Do you really want to constantly sit in that smoke and handle a fire underneath your pool that you can hardly reach for cleaning and adding wood?
Do you think putting the coil inside the barrel packed full of sauna rocks with a propane burner underneath (think turkey fryer) would work for a small outdoor stock tank hot tub 🤔. I want a DIY solution with the ease of propane.
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.
It also looks like that pump has a filter port on it. Gotta keep your water clean!
Yah. The hot pipe it's at the right height for someone to bonk his head on it.
My neighbor built something like that. Instead of copper he made a coil with a bunch of 5000 psi stainless tubing I gave him. He uses his for a small kids swimming pool.
I was thinking a rocket stove would be much more efficient with the wood use.
Most of the heat is being lost from the top. Commercial products for heating water with wood are basically an insulated wood stove with coils on the sides and top. That setup isn't extracting a very high percentage of the energy from the burning wood.
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!
do you even know to build something?
Im guessing you use copper tube inside the wood stove with direct fire to the tube, my question is does the fire eventually burn the copper tube and destroy it ?
@@brianblithe2271 It's amazing how long the copper tube lasts if directly exposed to the fire IF you keep it full of water.
@@cody481 Ah my brotha, dere is a trick to it, much obliged
Honestly, best part of the whole vid was the time you spent with your daughter. Those times make forever memories.
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.
I'd also consider making the base adjustable to manage the heat of the incoming water.....you could effectively have hotter or cooler water flowing based on the elevation. Could be pretty simple with a screw jack/scissor-lift platform idea. Then the fire could burn at maximum temperature but if it isn't, you could still achieve adequate heating regardless.
Maybe adding a check valve at the bottom of the pool would work, since water opens the valve as it rushes to the heat exchanger, once in the exchanger it boils and creates pressure closing the valve and forcing hot water to the exchanger outlet. Just like a glorified coffee maker.
Although he just wanted to pump water by the difference in density between hot and cold water.
Yes you are spot on in out water below durface
That’s correct, plus by the looks the pipe is still going uphill and looks possibly too far from the pool too.
You are the living proof that when someone wants something they can build it.
Great job !
I've been told that more than once in my life! You can do anything you put your mind to.
yea man
Where do u buy the coil from
Subtle comedic gold: the wireless angle grinder is the perfect tool for "changing out your catalytic converter" 😂
lol heard this as i read it and died haha
was gonna say exactly that... made me laugh
well, he didn't say "replacing"
Or your neighbors catalytic converter LoL
It was so unexpected and that's what made it so funny.
I love hearing the laughter of children.🥰They are all so precious.
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 👍
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.
That makes much more sense his heat is just escaping upwards , and only indirect heat is ging to the poor contact from the wall of the drum to a small surface of the pipe
I made a solar pool heater and had the coil on my garage roof to get better sun and added heat from the rest of the hot roof. I used a sump pump and plugged it into a timer. It would cycle and run for 30 seconds to add the hot water and pause for 15 minutes. I would just plug it in each morning and it helped a lot in the spring and fall. The one year I plumbed it into a mess of old galvanized pipe and elbows and threw it directly into the fire pit and worked even better but had to babysit the fire. I love watching all your projects thanks for sharing
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 did the same thing on our swimming pool, a coil in a barrel and burnt sticks and limbs from my trees worked like a charm
You need to add a pool noodle to the hot pipe to preserve the heat and protect people and pets from being scalded. Perhaps at a future date you can augment the burn barrel with a bricklayer or stone outer shell similar to the pizza oven structure. You are correct in your assumption of adding a thermal insulating layer to the outer surface of the copper coils.
Wishing you and your family a blessed summer season, gentle weather and restful evenings. Peace brother
Played around with a similar setup. The best solution is to add an inlet on the tank below water level so the hot water can flow into the tank easily. The pump is a workaround.
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
yeah, you should!
Pipe wrap for the return pipe. insulate the heat and prevent burned fingers. Love the concept!
Came here to say that exact thing 👍🏼
I was hoping that your redesign was going to expose the pipe directly to the flame of the fire.
Fun video 👍
I questions too, how much heat is lost by putting the coil on the outside versus inside, but since the coil is in direct contact with the metal that’s in direct contact with the fire, it may not be as much loss as we think. Greatest loss is not having a cover like a grill.
@@NealD with the copper tubing being round, the surface area that's making contact is relatively low 🤷♂️
@@NealD best bet would be pipe in the chimney of any fire box. Or directly over the coals with a lid/vent
A one-way check valve would help with flow greatly without a pump. Also, putting the coil pipe inside the barrel, rather than outside, would greatly help with heating the water quicker.
Yes yes yes
"Daddy, I love playing with you!" Absolutely worth the build and the time to watch it!
Your ideas are amazing, this video is a blast to watch. I’m thinking you made your daughters day, she really liked it.
We use a butterfly net as a pool skimmer. Looks like she's enjoying it and that's all that matters. Great job Dad!
this is such a cool project! very doable and not too complicated. love the father/daughter interaction. I'm sure she'll cherish this moment for years to come.
p.s. I'm thinking about adding a faucet to the output so when it gets hot enough you could turn off the flow without getting out of the pool!
That's a terrible idea. If it gets too hot you should extinguishing the fire.
ps: nobody asked
@@ModernSelfReliance harsh response
Our power went out while we were watching this segment so we plugged our TV and router into our Ecoflow Delta power pack!!! Bingo!! Back in business!
That's seriously cool! And your daughter is sooo cute! She's grown so big! You certainly made her day.😀
23:14 loving Bean featuring so much in this vid and his little bandanna is super cute! 🐩
I grew up in northern Montana and remember well the warm (hot to us) mountain days. Our only option was the creek that ran past our cabin. Ice cold, but once you were numb, a lot of fun. Wish we had had you as a neighbor… 😄
Kevin….if you can you need to cover the pool at night. You are right they loose a LOT of heat during the night. If you have any more of that heavy duty stuff you used as a roof on your cabin maybe you can cut a circle to cover the pool. Your little girl reminds me of my daughter when she was that age. PS…..rain has a lot of acidity & I always had to shock my in ground pool because it would turn green after a bunch of rain. Rain + pools & ponds are not a good mix. It’s a pretty cool set up you got. ♥️
I’ve boiled water in a plastic water bottle before because the max temp you can get water is 100°C 212°F . I’m 100% confident you could have the coil inside the burn barrel for Max heat transfer/efficiency and not worry about the copper/solder joints melting (provided the tube is primed with water).
Insulation on the inlet/outlet pipes would further increase efficiency.
As well as insulation around the tub (under floor as well), and an insulated cover while heating would also prevent heat loss.
One more thing I would do is have the burn barrel closer. So adding wood is within tossing distance so you could add wood while inside the pool (and have a stack of wood within arms reach of the pool)
Nice job on the pool! 👍
🤣🤣🥰🥰Adorable at the end!! Your daughter has grown so much, she is so sweet. That pool turned out awesome 👌. How fun. Peace and good fortune and good health to you and your family. 😃
for the opposite effect (cooling wort) - I've found that the surface area to volume ratio was improved using several small diameter annealed lines in parallel as a heat exchanger - maybe for a future project... Enjoying the vidoes!!
Growing up we had two gutted water hearers on cinder block. Worked great
you make a strench, of the basin diameter
a gently sloping side : air inlet, and wood-burner,
2-3 gas outlets connected-stick to the basin, such as clay craters
(you redo the seal with clay before each heating)
and a last chimney exit on the other side.
you remove the wood when it's hot
before entering the water
I like the ingenious trick with the window screen being used as a pool screener
If you want to use power. A small little giant submersible pump in the pool. Connect to some PEX at a safe distance away from barrel to save on costs. Works great.
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.
Just lower the output below the water leven Will create a slow flow naturally without boiling
You are awesome what you do for your daughter and family. I love your off grid tiny homes. ^^ Keep on keeping on!!!
My only suggestion is perhaps a lid you can put on top after you switch from sticks to actual firewood, then you can possibly keep the heat in the barrel longer by damper on the exhaust pipe coming out of the lid.
I don't know if I explained it well at all, anyway you are very intelligent so I'm sure you can figure out what I was trying to say .
Always glad to see Don on the video.
A Forrest buggy would be a fun build, gasifier powered.
For hauling people and materials and lumber.
I took the easy way (just built a bit fire pit under my 6 X3 cattle tank). It takes 3-4hours but gets up to about 105 with just direct exposure to fire. 2 full years & it's blackened but 100% still intact.
With the flame directly under the floor wouldn't that make it too hot to have your feet make contact with the bottom or do you get in after the fire is out?
@@salvadorw.empent2778 Ah, I added a thick yoga/exercise mat (a bit tricky to keep it at the bottom), which works fab. Otherwise there are a few very hot spots!
Dude this makes me so pumped, I had A 8 inch steel tube welded in the middle of a huge cooking pot that fits in a 55 gal drum and put 300 feet of landscaping tubing fitted with pecs to copper to the outside In/Out and keep it filled with water with wood fire on the bottom middle of winter I can keep the water over 90f in a greenhouse environment....... I do have a pump though
Looks good! Hey, regarding the heating rate and water circulation, it would've made sense to install cold water PEX at least 90 degrees away from the hot water inflow. That way you'll be getting cold water into your exchanger (instead of tepid water,) and that will generate an internal current in the pool. I'm using a $20 large fishtank filter/circulation pump on our 150 gal soaking tub, and it's strong enough that I think that might do for your pool. If not, they have larger models with wave action and fountains for larger marine tanks. Those will draw less power off your EcoFlow, too.
Product is easy to install and kept the pool warmer than it had usually been. Extended the use of the pool by a month or so. Great value!
"changing out your catalytic converter" LOL! Man, your channel is right up my alley. Good content here. Cheers :)
She loves her daddy big time!! Great videos, I always enjoy watching your projects.
sidenote:
Your brother needs to get back into the game again.
Nice try on the heater, I think that for efficiency sake maybe a small firebox with a chimney piped into a chamber full of copper tubing before venting out would make better use of heat source kind of like a meat smoker only you'd be smoking tubbing, this is just my idea, love the show. Cheers from Jacksonville Florida 🌞
My neighbor put this copper coil on his woodstove with a high pressure relief valve and circulated it through his water heater. It worked perfectly saving electricity by pre heating shower and dish water
As soon as i saw that pump i knew youd hate how loud it was 🤣 we just bought one at work to replace an old pump on a flower basket water system. Apparently the old pump was an RV pump, it was almost silent and it had a pressure switch built into it so you can turn it on or off with a valve.
I really got into this one for the powerless heating and flowing water then it went to pumps n power:( but still enjoyable n the family involvement with lil miss shows your a true father and nothing mattered just playing mermaids and swimming with your daughter love that good family natured stuff 👌😎
My heart is always happy when you salvage, save, and repurpose material. I know it’s a huge part of your builds, but as a fellow saver of everything, because…”you never know when it might come in handy”, I get so pumped when you share stories of where your materials come from. 👏🏻☺️
Hi from Syracuse NY USA everyone thank you for sharing your adventures and garbage picking
At the end of the day it’s all about our kids…. Making memories sweet.
OMG 😳😳😳 hi there, long time, finally beside the pond , now comes the heated pool and kid's pool. Jolly good 👈👍 Kelvin, you sure know how to utilize your area and used materials too. Good job 👌👍
Oh my gosh your daughters hair is gorgeous! Jealous of the hottub!
We use a heater named popcorn heater.
just pass the water thru the 45 gallons drum on its side... you need to adjust the inlet with a valve.
put the fire under. The drum will start to pop out when heating, creating a siphon, water will steam out in the pool.
You got to find the right flow to control the pop
I suggest adding chlorine and algae control chemicals. I live in Texas, where the pool temp can rise to 95+ degrees on its own. That temperature is a perfect environment for stuff you don't want in your pool/hot tub! A minimal amount of chemicals will probably not affect the chemistry of your plumbing.
I think the only concern is the runoff and draining later
Your little mini me is adorable! 🥰
That heavily zip tied rubber pipe you found I think it was likely a former solar pool heater outside of its glass box
Guessing now you have the pump you don't have to drill the hole in the bottom either. Thanks for the journey and the benefit if your trial and error experience. Saved me so much time.
Awesome video as always Kevin! I think you done great !!! Your daughter was so excited about it ! That's memories worth all the money in the world ! Anyways great build ! Take care and stay safe my friend!!
Nice creation! I like the simplicity. Also, congratulations on having a precious child. They are such gifts from above.
Man Kevin it blows my mind on how you come up with these things
I was thinking in reverse about building a cooling loop for my server to heat my turtle tank. Thanks for the vid!
Copper has dropped for scrap prices so much in the last few months too
Triple M taking over every scrap yard here
Was $5 for bare bright, now its $4.25
Peterborough Ont. Prices
Put the inlet hose into the water a foot or so inside a cage. You got the right idea without an electric pump. Thermosyphons are amazing. I also feel your clay addition is holding back your thermal conductivity. Copper to steel is best. Add some insulation between the chunk of barrel if you want more retention.
Have the copper in direct contact with the flame.
Have the return enter below the water.
A tiny pump will help but a simple check valve works for free.
just a thought... your current setup is pumping hot water directly above the cold water drain, effectively supplying the pipe with lukewarm water rather than the coldest current pool temp. if the drain was opposite to the hot water supply you could maybe increase efficiency? you could rotate the pool 90 degrees to create a triangle to the fire. just a theory.
Loved the video!
Awesome build and having fun with your family in your own oasis.
Easy peasy hippy hot tub. Dig fire pit! 6 - 8 cement blocks or stones work too. Get it level! You need enough crawl space under hot tub to put your wood in. Start your fire and don't burn yourself. 2nd idea- hot tub burn barrel in the (middle) of your hot tub. Add wood start fire then add water but you could start the fire from outside tub too. Blessings yall!
Like bugs bunny style 😅
I haven't gotten all the way through the video yet, but I believe if you add in a one-way check valve (on the cold end) you might get better pressurization on the hot side.
If you don't want direct flame contact that could melt your solder you might want to tighten the copper around your barrel. With the air gap you are losing a lot of heat. Also if you restrict the airflow (i.e. chimney) through the barrel you will burn less fuel and most of the heat will not be lost to exhaust.
Just another thought. Have you considered with all the clay you appear to have building a rocket/thermal mass heater? It could work in conjunction with a thermo siphon as well as giving a heated seating area depending on how far you want to go with it the possibilities are quite broad. I wondered as I saw a video where they used it to heat a green house with not much more than a handful of sticks and this was in Canada as well.
When the copper tubing is filled with sand prior to wrapping it around the barrel the tubing is flattened slightly as it’s wrapped and this increases the surface area in contact.
New sub, your builds are brilliant! You're also giving your daughter a great life, top dad 👏
world coolest coffee pot
Those hastings tanks are SUPER nice and BONUS they're made in the state I live in! YAY NEBRASKA!!!
Moving the fire closer and adding some enclosures, it could literally be an awesome fireplace/hot tub combo
That is how your coffee pot works also
A check valve at the bottom pipe would also help so water can only flow one way
You can also solder the pipes to the barrel the water will keep it cool enough so the solder will not melt
Can you turn your Barrel into a water heater/bbq.. A hot dinner poolside with some cold snacks would be nice..
Keep up the good work there brother..
my thoughts are make the fire barrel more like a furnace with a lid and a smoke stack it would hold more heat and also make a hot tub lid it probably heat up way faster if it kept its heat contained much love man you did a amazing job and ps I felt so happy when you threw a pump on it
Another great video! Loved your ingenuity, Kevin! Also loved your Elsa voice! lol
Just use a tankless propane water heater that costs $150. Mount the intake and outlet towards the bottom of the hot tub. Should be enough pressure to push water through. You can mount the heater and propane bottle on a dolly so it's easy to move around and store.
That's the longest mid-roll sponsored ad I've ever seen
Happy Canada day bub, hope you and your family have a good weekend!
This is by far my favorite project you guys have done, seeing your daughter enjoy it made me smile
May as well combine this kind of build with a "smokeless" burn barrel setup. And then add a small electric trolling motor to the pool just to circulate it better during the warm-up.
The hot water output pipe needs to be connected to your pool tank below the surface of the water to allow the natural circulation of the hot water to occur. The heating circuit must be full of water at all times. As a lad our house was heated by a coal furnace. A large storage tank was connected to a loop that was inside the furnace. As the fire heated the water it naturally rose up to exit through the piping connected to the upper port in the side of the tank. The natural convection will continuously circulate the heated water. Be carful , this can produce extremely hot water.
Great project. I loved the whole process and was excited at the end of the video… with all that white skin I was sure we were going to see you burst into flames when the sun hit you. I guess sitting in water makes you fireproof. Thanks for sharing!
That’s hilarious.😂
Shhhheeeeesh feels like months since last posted hahaha good to see you
Awsome idea Kevin.loved the build man you come up with the coolest ideas!great video thanks.😊☮️
u boys consistently blow my mind... luv the shoewww
3hunded dollars for 50 feet wow. Excellent idea to heat a pool. Spot on M.S.R.
California is coming into fire season. Be careful with them burn barrels!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. I liked this video. It was fun to see you experiment with the coil system. It was also fun to watch you interact with the kid. Keep up the good videos, and good luck with the pond.
Yes sir 👊🏻
I was going to do this to our pool years ago and never did. Unless I get a roll of copper given to me it's never going to happen 🥴
Great video
Save up all those off-cuts!
@@ModernSelfReliance 😂 $1500 in fittings
I love the way you repurpose stuff my man. This is how we done it all my life, my father saved any material. Anyone looking for something they would come to my dad and bring something to trade, everyone got what they needed without money.
My place operates like that.
It works. Kris Harbour did this with copper wrapped around a stovepipe for hot water in his house.
Don and his fire 🔥 love that he said if he did anything else than he does now he’d be an arsonist 😂
I was at a backyard party once and they had one of these large plastic pools sitting out. They used a large (2-3 gallon) stainless stockpot anchored to a smooth rock on the bottom in which they had a fire going. They said they started the fire about 3 hours before, tending it to keep it going moderately hard for that time and the pool was nice and toasty warm... (from tap cold mind you)
So you don't need any plumbing, siphons, pumps or the like, just a stainless stockpot, a large smooth rock, some stainless wire and some firewood...
I don’t really understand the set up you’re describing… the pot of water was being heated by the fire but how was the heated water transferred to the pool?
Now I'm thinking of a raspberry pi pico with a thermal sensor and an on/off circuit running to the relay that feeds the pump to make you a 6 dollar thermostat that you can program. But with that you'll need a pressure release valve so that you don't build up pressure in the pipes.