You Solar Heater Answare And Reviews

Question: Above ground pool - does anyone have plans for a home built solar heater that works for a small 15 ft pool?

(Posted by: imacarter57 on 2008-08-17 08:23:56)

Posted by: rob89434 on 2008-08-17, 08:37:31

I don't know of any plans but I know people have used old car radiators to do this. Hook them up together and then get a pump to circulate the water. Suck the water out of the top of the pool and put in back in at the opposite end in the bottom.

Posted by: Laura M on 2008-08-17, 08:39:26

My husband uses 250' of black garden hose running back & forth on the flat patio roof to raise the temp in our 24' round 3 to 4 degrees warmer. He used some of the fittings & clear hose from our pool fountain (which also while the fountain runs lowers the need for chlorine by aerating the water-also cools the pool) to attach the input of water to the garden hose-the water that comes back out the other end of the hose is HOT! So we run the fountain in the hot summer, and the 'heater' in spring & fall. Your pool being smaller should raise the temp even more. Good luck!

Posted by: johnnydangerously59 on 2008-08-17, 08:46:23

I built one years ago and it worked great. The only thing is I had to have a pump to circulate it but the pump only used about the same energy as a 60 watt bulb so it was very efficient. You need to get a couple hundred feet of hose preferably black but you can always paint it black. An inline water pump. I used an small 110 volt pump I bought at Home Depot but you can also use a 12 volt RV pump but then you have to have a converter from 110 volt. You don't want too high of a GPH rate as you want a slow flow so it has time to heat up in the hose. I believe the one I had was 120 gallons per hour or 2 GPM. You take one section of hose and put the end in the bottom of the pool where the coldest water is. You connect the other end to the pump and connect the rest of the hose to the other end. You then find the sunniest spot of ground (or your roof) and coil up the hose to gather as much light heat as possible in the smallest amount of space. Then run the final end back to the top of the pool. On a clear day I was taking water in at 70 degrees and after the hose it was coming out at 110 degrees. It runs this temp constantly. You can control the heat by adding more hose or less hose or cycling the pump for shorter periods if the pool is getting too hot. I liked it hot and never had a problem. I got the idea after I used a black hose on a sunny day. The water was almost scalding at first. If you are going to put it on the roof or up high, make sure you get a pump that is capable of lifting the water to that level. Height increases the pressure needed. Added: You can't use the built in pump because the flow rate is much to high and you can't regulate it. Plus it is far more expensive to run than the small pump.

Posted by: Rangefinder on 2008-08-17, 09:00:41

The black hose and small pump idea it a good idea for the pool heater. also cover the pool when not in use with a black tarp. uses Bangui cords to keep it in place. it will also be a solar heat collector. As small as the pool is it won't be to hard to remove each time, and it will hold in heat at night and keep the pool clean and cut down on algae build up by blanking of sun light which has to be present to grow Algae

Posted by: Bub on 2008-08-17, 10:40:14

Pipe the solar heater into your pool pump. You may want to add a valve to regulate flow, but why anyone would add another pump and motor is beyond me, you already should have one that filters your water, just run some or all the water through the solar heater before it returns to the pool.

Posted by: sr71black on 2008-08-20, 09:10:02

On this page about halfway down is an above ground solar heater for about 170 bucks: swimming-pool-information.com/ above-ground-pool-equipment.html