Oil fired boiler ......... for pool?

[John T]

It's (above ground) pool season in New England.... and I'm fantasizing again about a heater.

Tell me if this is possible:

I see a lot of used boilers on CL for fairly cheap... some in real nice shape, most sellers have switched to gas.

I'm thinking I could setup the boiler near the pool, build some kind of partial structure around it for the weather... and just run a line in and a line out.. with a circulator pump

nothing fancy...

Of course I would also setup a small oil tank, maybe 50-75 gallons.

my only concern was, I'm not sure if these things need to run in a closed loop, with air bleeders etc. (like in a home baseboard setup)

Any thoughts?

 

[John T]

I've seen 100 different ideas for heating on youtube

but I don't want to mess with a wood fire... and I also don't want 1000 miles of black plastic tubing all over the place...

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

It would get expensive very quickly. It takes a **** ton of BTU's to warm up a pool. My sister had a 13K gallon inground pool with a 400K BTU natural gas heater, in Central Texas. It would take close to 48 hours to heat the pool, with the heater running 24x7. Even afterwards it would have to run quite a bit to keep the water at temp. She would see an increase in her gas bill of about $50 per day for every day that the pool was kept warm. Lots of heat is lost through the ground, evaporative cooling at the surface, etc.

An above ground contains less water, but fuel oil is considerably more expensive than natural gas.

That's why so many people have black plastic rolled up onto boards all over their back yard.

 

[yeldogt]

heating boilers are not designed to have cold water going through them -- CI will crack.

pool heaters have bypass to maintain temps so they don't condense.

They make oil pool heaters -- typically commercial pools.

 

[John T]

heating boilers are not designed to have cold water going through them -- CI will crack.
.

CI ??

as in cast Iron?

The water usually goes through a copper coil.

 

[John T]

I did however find an oil burner model.

oil burner pool heaters seem to be rare.... most are propane.

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/OTF-510.aspx

 

[yeldogt]

CI ??

as in cast Iron?

The water usually goes through a copper coil.

Home heating boilers in New England can be cast Iron

 

[yeldogt]

A pool heater is very simple -- a flame and a coil. My pool heater is 400k -- it's a bunch of NG burners under a large heavy copper manifold grid.

The flow of water through the grid needs to be controlled -- too much flow and it's not hot enough.... the combustion gasses will condense. Too little flow and the heat exchanger is toast.

Because of the difficulty in controlling the exchanger temp --- oil fired heaters area a pain and require more work to maintain ... above what they already require because of the burner and flue cleaning needs. They are also much more expensive .

 

[John T]

A pool heater is very simple -- a flame and a coil. My pool heater is 400k -- it's a bunch of NG burners under a large heavy copper manifold grid.

The flow of water through the grid needs to be controlled -- too much flow and it's not hot enough.... the combustion gasses will condense. Too little flow and the heat exchanger is toast.

Because of the difficulty in controlling the exchanger temp --- oil fired heaters area a pain and require more work to maintain ... above what they already require because of the burner and flue cleaning needs. They are also much more expensive .

Thanks.


I just figured if I can get a good /used oil boiler for cheap or free.. I'd give it a shot.

not something I'd use all the time... just to bump the temps up ocassionally.

especially like, this coming memorial day

when the water is 67° and the dogs and I are the only ones in the pool.

 

[John T]

I'd actually like to throw the boiler and tank on a small trailer....

tow it over to the pool, plug in the burner and drop the hoses in the pool.

I've seen all kinds of crazy contraptions on youtube...

the wood fired heaters are funny..... smoking out the entire neighborhood.

 

[Jackfre]

I'd actually like to throw the boiler and tank on a small trailer....

tow it over to the pool, plug in the burner and drop the hoses in the pool.

I've seen all kinds of crazy contraptions on youtube...

the wood fired heaters are funny..... smoking out the entire neighborhood.

...So you decided to go with one of the craziest contraptions? News flash! Oil boilers are NOT plug and play. This is a good way to turn you pool area into a superfund site.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Working for the gas company, I get to deal with "HOLY ****" moment of people who buy pool heaters on a somewhat regular basis. Many get the first bill and then never run it again.

Just using the previous posters experience of a 400,000 BTU boiler running for 2 days to do some quick math:

That's 19.2 million BTU/s or 192 therms of natural gas...figure about 70 cents a therm right now, gets you to $134.40 to heat up the pool the first time. Sounds right. Then keep it warm the rest of the month and get a $600 gas bill.

MORE MATH...there's about 165,000 BTU's in a Gallon of fuel oil....so that same 2 day warm up would take 116 gallons of fuel oil. What's that cost? $3.50??? Let's just go with that...gets you to $407.27 to heat it up the first time...and if you ran the rest of the month just keeping it warm puts you up to Say $1800 for the month.

If you're independently wealthy, like an Al Gore let's say, this makes all kinds of sense.

PHil

 

[OzarkMan]

One of my clients heats their pool in the offseason here. Gets a $1100 monthly bill. Avg air temps in the 50's

 

[yeldogt]

Working for the gas company, I get to deal with "HOLY ****" moment of people who buy pool heaters on a somewhat regular basis. Many get the first bill and then never run it again.

Just using the previous posters experience of a 400,000 BTU boiler running for 2 days to do some quick math:

That's 19.2 million BTU/s or 192 therms of natural gas...figure about 70 cents a therm right now, gets you to $134.40 to heat up the pool the first time. Sounds right. Then keep it warm the rest of the month and get a $600 gas bill.

MORE MATH...there's about 165,000 BTU's in a Gallon of fuel oil....so that same 2 day warm up would take 116 gallons of fuel oil. What's that cost? $3.50??? Let's just go with that...gets you to $407.27 to heat it up the first time...and if you ran the rest of the month just keeping it warm puts you up to Say $1800 for the month.

If you're independently wealthy, like an Al Gore let's say, this makes all kinds of sense.

PHil

My pool is in the 45k range -- I can get about 1 degree an hour running the heater. The weather has been bad this year in my area -- pool opening today. It will run for a full day to get up to temp .. as long as we are around I keep the heater running ... if we leave for a week w/ weekend included I turn it off. In the main part of the summer it's not running much. W/O the heater May early June is too cold and we always have a week in August that's rainy ... W/O the heater that would eliminate September swimming. $200 is common .. $300 is unusual.

 

[Bretny]

Im sure it will work but you will have to remember that an old boiler is just that a old rusty boiler. Its going to pump out rust flakes and possibly stain your liner. On top of that you have the expense of oil.

My father built a solar heater out of 1/2in poly pipe at lowes/homedepot. I believe he had about 7 100ft coils on the roof. Each 100ft piece were held in a spiral by romex wire. Over/under then twist.

He put a ball vale and T in the output to the pool so no extra pump needed. It extended the pool season by a few weeks on either end but he had no solar cover. He also never had a problem with leaking or freezing. He blew the lines out in the fall and stuck the coils in the shed.

 

[DropHead]

Even if you got the boiler for free I wouldn’t waste the time to install it. Between the chlorine and the oxygen that’s introduced to the system I’d be surprised if that boiler would last a month or two before it rotted through. Cast iron is meant for closed loop systems ( heating the same water over and over again ) you would need a means of isolation like a plate heat exchanger or some kind of coil.
Without knowing how big the pool is or the BTU requirements are 200000 btu’s Is about a 1.5 gpm nozzle. 50 gallon oil tank ain’t gonna last very long.

 

[mygarageone]

To properly used that boiler you need a separate heat exchanger to isolate it from the pool water. Which by the way is very corrosive to cast iron. Chlorinated water is corrosive to all metals. But a S.S heat exchanger would last longer.
By the time you get it set up properly the cost will be high.

 

[TangoFoxTrot]

I have an Nat Gas heater for the pool/spa. I remember a pool tech telling me he advises people to just stay at a nearby resort that has a heated pool instead of heating your own because it's cheaper to get a room and use theirs.

I use mine sparingly to just heat the spa, I don't dare try to heat the whole pool with it.

 

[86turbodsl]

Forget the oil boiler. Setup a solar hot water panel on your garage roof and plumb it to the pool. It doesn't care about condensables and it operates at it's maximum output right when you need it most. If you can't do solar, just forget the whole deal unless you are so wealthy you don't care about the bill at all.

 

[Jon_E]

I use an outdoor wood boiler to heat my 18' round above-ground pool. During the winter I use the OWB for both domestic hot water and to heat my house. During the summer I have "excess heat" I need to dump somewhere in order to continue to burn wood for DHW, but I find that I am burning more wood in the summer than I do in the winter, just to keep the pool warm. I found that the easiest way to do it is to run my pool hoses on the outlet side of the filter, through a shell and tube exchanger, and the outdoor boiler supply and return gets fed into the exchanger through some rubber hot water hoses. It's simple, ugly and it works. I wouldn't ever consider oil, gas or anything else to heat pool water, not unless I was filthy rich. Wood is bad enough but at least all it costs me is my time and chainsaw fuel.

 

[John T]

Thanks for the replies.... forgot about this thread...

This year I went full retard and mounted a $50 CL woodstove boiler on a treller and cobbled some plumbing ....

running a submersible pump with by-pass back to the pool...... to limit the boiler feed.

to my surprise... it kicks major azz.
water coming in at 65 degrees F and coming back at 90 DEGREES !!

thanks to covid... the Memorial day party is canceled.... But I will be in the pool with 3 dogs....

 

[ShawnTaw]

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[Nicks garage]

Thanks for the replies.... forgot about this thread...

This year I went full retard and mounted a $50 CL woodstove boiler on a treller and cobbled some plumbing ....

running a submersible pump with by-pass back to the pool...... to limit the boiler feed.

to my surprise... it kicks major azz.
water coming in at 65 degrees F and coming back at 90 DEGREES !!

thanks to covid... the Memorial day party is canceled.... But I will be in the pool with 3 dogs....

Nice, I see no reason why an oil boiler wouldn’t work just fine either, as long as it has a heat exchanger to separate the two systems

When I added central heating to my detached garage the garage wasn’t insulated (it is now) and I wanted the radiators for just when I was in it my plan was going to be a heat exchanger to split the garage from the house, the garage then needs it’s own pump and expansion vessel, fill the garage system with antifreeze, for a pool it would want a copper or stainless heat exchanger

 

[nadogail]

With enough time and money I can make any thing look good, fuel costs and volume of water to be heated are but two of the unknown variables in solving this equation.