Outdoor woodburner can heat pool - any experience?

[Kym]

We have a very large outdoor woodburner that heats our home and hot water as well as barn. It was sized to heat half the Township and can also heat a swimming pool/spa. (You might be a redneck if you heat your pool with wood!

That said, does anyone have any real world experience with the viability of woodburner/similar heating of a swimming pool in midwestern climates?

I think it sounds great - we already own the woodburner - but the attachments and extras will cost a bit and I'm wondering if anyone really finds it useful to burn wood through, say, mid-end May just to heat the pool?

TIA!

[fortune.wizard]

You will need a heat exchanger between the woodburner and the pool. To size the heat exchanger you need to know the temperature of the hot water coming out of the wood burner, the desired temperature of the pool, the flow rate of the water and the volume of the pool. You may not have access to all the information but guesstimates can be worked out. If you have a chlorine pool you need a stainless steel heat exchanger and if you have a salt water pool you will need a cupro nickel heat exchanger. What is the size of the hot water connections?

You can go to heatexchangersonline(dot)com for more information and/or email them.

[KFS]

Thank you for your very detailed reply.

I really appreciate it!

[dnd]

try,redneckpoolheater(dot)com

[jnmb1291]

Whats the purpose of the heat exchanger? I have a 55 gallon drum that I have split to make a BBQ type heater. I use wood, wood pellets, and briquets as a heat source in the drum and then redirect the the water from the pump through the drum using 1 1/4" copper tubing. I lay the copper directly into the glowing embers. It is the most redneck contraption I've ever seen but if I run it for 4 hours I get about 10-15 degree rise in a 15x30 oval, but that's with constant tending too. I'm just not sure what the purpose of the exchanger is.

[Backglass]

Whats the purpose of the heat exchanger? I have a 55 gallon drum that I have split to make a BBQ type heater. I use wood, wood pellets, and briquets as a heat source in the drum and then redirect the the water from the pump through the drum using 1 1/4" copper tubing. I lay the copper directly into the glowing embers. It is the most redneck contraption I've ever seen but if I run it for 4 hours I get about 10-15 degree rise in a 15x30 oval, but that's with constant tending too. I'm just not sure what the purpose of the exchanger is.

To exchange heat from one medium to another. You built one yourself...the copper tubing IS a heat exchanger!