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Anonymous
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2011 04:42pm
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I joined the forum group because this is an excellent resource for someone getting started - such as myself. I just bought 5 acres at the base of Crater Lake. I'm in the planning stage for my small cabin and was wondering if anyone has ever heard of or installed a wood stove water heating system - for showers, dishes, etc. I have a year-round creek (spring fed) that runs through my parcel and was thinking of hand pumping it to a tank in the loft of the cabin (to be built). It would be a loop that gravity feeds down to the wood stove, heats, rises, thereby making circulation.
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Just
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2011 04:58pm
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not a good idea unless u move the wood stove out side in spring and back in late fall .. to hot in the cabin!!!! last century they had wood stoves with water tanks but they would move the stove to the summer kitchen in the spring!!
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BadgersHollow
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2011 05:22pm
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Thanks for the quick feedback. I'm at 4800 feet and it gets cold most every night up there. It is normal for it to be 90 during the day in July and 50 at night. I'd like the ability to have warm water at night's end for dinner clean up and shower.
It is zone 1, freezing hard with long winters. Good snowmobiling. I figured that I might be able to pump water up to a holding tank from the springfed creek when I'm using the cabin in the winter. No pipes to freeze. Gravity fed down to a sink and shower. I like the idea, but it might not be practical.
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2011 05:57pm
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You can buy water heating coils to fit inside a wood stove. Many people heat water this way on the island where my cabin is. A quick google on wood stove water heating should get you all the info you need.
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BadgersHollow
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2011 06:08pm
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Thanks, I found this...
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1976-11-01/Wood-Hot-Water-Heater.aspx
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larryh
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# Posted: 6 Apr 2011 07:15pm
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I had exactly that set up for years till the city water came though. I had a force pump that pushed the water by hand to a gravity tank in the attic. I also had monarch wood cooking stove which I purchased a water jacket for, which is ever so more efficient than a coil. Plus it took no room in the fire box, just replaced a side set of liners. I had a range boiler behind the range and lines from the tank in the attic to the boiler and shower as well as the bath and kitchen sink at the time. I used one inch lines for the main supplies only reducing them to fit to 3/4 fittings for the water heater and 1/2 I think it was for the faucets. It worked like a charm and made for big arm muscles. You do need to properly install any heating system involving water and a stove or you can create an explosion that would probably almost destroy a cabin. There are a couple good informative sites that tell how to install a water boiler to a stove properly, one I think is by the Elmira Stove company in Canada. Lehman still sells the range boilers and they also had a brochure on proper hook ups. I heated water year round for baths and laundry on the range. Yes it got hot, but if you design your cabin properly with good ventilation it can be bearable, but it will be hot. I had two kitchen doors opposite each other and windows to either side of the stove as well as a room to the rear of the side of the stove which let air flow in that direction as well. It would be unbearable in a room without proper air ventilation in summer, or maybe in winter as well.
The pump which was a Heller Ader was designed to pump from an underground outlet or at the spout. I would not install it over the actual water as it needs to have the pump leathers to the force cylinder changed fairly often if its doing a lot of lifting upwards. If I had it to do over I would figure some way to have a pit to the side of either my well or cistern than would allow for working on it without being over the water. Not fun changing bolts over 16 feet of water with a wobbly ladder.
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nicalisa
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2011 09:57am
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A number of people have them out in the bush where our lil shack is.
The have their hot water tank behind the stove and suspended about 6 feet up. Usually in a closet. the pipes run from the hot water tank to the stove and back. As hot water rises, a pump is not needed and a constant flow between the pipes is created.
If you need the tech specks i can always take some pics for you and ask the guys that have these systems to provide the details for me:)
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 24 Apr 2011 03:39pm
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i am thinking of doing this to so if you would please post those specs and pics nicalisa they would b very helpful thank you
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larryh
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# Posted: 24 Apr 2011 09:21pm
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There is a book called Homemade Hot Water Systems which may be on ebay. It had a lot of ideas for how to make gravity systems for heating and cooking stoves. I would still double check any ideas or set up against a good source such as the Elmira Stove Co web site.
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Gary O
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# Posted: 26 Apr 2011 07:49pm
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Anyone have or try one of these?
For $100 I'm kinda piqued
Hot water?
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hot_water_2.jpg
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dropkick
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# Posted: 9 May 2011 03:43am
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I have a 2 gallon pump sprayer (usually used for plants - pesticides/feed/etc.) and a small plastic kiddie pool (approx. 3 ft. across) with a valved spigot attached to the bottom on one side.
I built a metal ring the same size as the pool.
I put 4 hooks into my rafters by the front door to hang the ring from.
I hung shower curtains on the ring.
I put the kiddie pool under it.
I fill the sprayer with warm water (heated on my stove in a pan), and pump up the pressure.
I stand in the kiddie pool and spray myself down, soap up and spray myself down again.
I'm clean!
I hook a hose up to the spigot and drain the pool.
I take down the ring and shower curtains and hang them outside to dry.
This is my only major use of heated water in a day. I thought of doing something fancier, but why bother? This is simple and it works.
The only thing I'd like to change is the kiddy pool. I used to just drag it out and dump it, which worked fine but was to hard on the pool and one day it just ripped. After replacing it I mounted a regular outdoor spigot sideways on the side (closest I could get to the bottom).
I mounted it with a short threaded pipe, 2 washers, 2 nuts, and 2 neoprene washers.
I prop up one side of the pool to get it to drain.
The problem is that it doesn't drain all the way, and the bottom is to weak to easily prop up - I solved that with a piece of plywood, but I'd still like something better. I also have to be careful it doesn't fly away if it's outside in the wind.
Maybe a short stock tank? Do they make those?
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hotandeasy1
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# Posted: 14 Oct 2011 06:38am
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Heat-Booster Energy Systems makes water heating plate coils for woodstoves and flue gas heat reclaimers that can be fitted with finned copper coils for water heating. Use these during cold season. Solar heat can be used for water heating rest of the year. Attic heat or hot air from solar panels can do the job. Systems run on 110 V
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Steve961
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# Posted: 14 Oct 2011 12:32pm
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dropkick
Behrens has a 35 gallon galvanized tub that's just a bit smaller than your kiddie pool. It's what I plan on using for my shower pan, although I will be plumbing it in. Amazon has them for $47 delivered.
URL
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 14 Oct 2011 10:37pm
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Why not go on Craigs List and see if anybody is giving away a free bath tub or selling one cheap?
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dropkick
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2011 03:48am
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I didn't use a bathtub because it would take up too much room, and wouldn't be moveable. And while soaking in the tub sounds fun, I can shower with as little as a gallon of warm water, a tub would take upwards of 15 gallons.
While I can get by with just sponge baths, I really like to have a real shower or bath every day, so a shower just makes more sense for me.
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dropkick
Member
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2011 04:29am
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Quoting: hotandeasy1 Heat-Booster Energy Systems makes water heating plate coils for woodstoves and flue gas heat reclaimers that can be fitted with finned copper coils for water heating. Use these during cold season. Solar heat can be used for water heating rest of the year. Attic heat or hot air from solar panels can do the job. Systems run on 110 V
I'm big on solar, though I'm much lower tech than most people.
I built a passive solar panel for warming my cabin on sunny days. I have it mounted on the slope below my cabin (with passive solar heaters you should have them lower than the building or they don't work well - have a habit of sucking the heat out instead of heating).
I also warm my water with solar on sunny days. I have a clear 3 Gallon container that I painted one side black. I fill it with water, set it in the sun and most days it warms the water more than enough for a shower.
But flue gas heat reclaimers worry me. If you don't keep your flue gases fairly hot you deposit a lot of soot in the pipe, and if you have a lot of soot you're liable to have a chimney fire, which quite often can lead to house fires.
I used to have metal fins wrapped around my stove pipe. I bought them at a hardware store. They were like the old metal lawn edging - if it had been cut into sections and then joined together with wire so it could wrap the pipe.
I actually don't know how much of a benefit I got from this in heat return, but I found that I was having to clean the soot from my pipes 3 times a year instead of just doing it once in the fall.
As I don't like heights and taking off the roof cap and running the brush down the pipe is a messy bother I decided I'd rather burn a little more wood.
P.S. If any of you are new at being your own chimney sweeps I though I'd pass this hint along. Take a chunk of rope with you and tie one end to the pipe or chimney, tie the other end to the cap before you undo the screws and try to remove it. When you don't have to climb down your ladder to retrieve the cap off the ground and pound out any new dents in it you'll thank me.
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Bzzzzzt
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:23am
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I got one of these for my shower:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Zodi-Instant-Water-Heater-and-Hot-Shower/4698021
If you recycle the water back into the shower it heats it up very nicely. Currently I have a shower tent outside the cabin but I just bought a rubber tub that I'm going to put a drain into similar to dropkick's and fix up a place to shower inside the cabin. Space is my biggest issue so I need the shower to be easily removable. Once I get my bedroom set up in the loft area this wont be as big a deal.
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b.b.
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# Posted: 17 Oct 2011 12:35pm
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We just bought copper pipe and coiled around oven box just under the top of our woodstove, the pipes are routed out the back of stove and into galv. tank, which then feeds kitchen sink and soon bathroom, plenty of hot water, but remember to drain during winter
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AU2009
Member
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# Posted: 17 Oct 2011 10:49pm
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this is what I meant to post a while back
http://thermacoil.com/index.html
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dropkick
Member
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2011 01:34am
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Now I've been thinking about a bathtub, and craving it.
AARGH...I'd have to build an addition, or a separate steam room (with a concrete tub - my favorite idea) and then come up with another way to heat my water as a pot on top of the stove would no longer work.
Thought about adding pipe and a tank to my current woodstove, but then decided it would work out better if I actually got another stove just for this.
Then I thought about building a fire box under a gas water heater, which would work, but I'd have to have it plumbed to a constant water source - which is doable but I'd have to add plumbing coming from my spring house and bury it deep enough or insulate it so it wouldn't freeze (I currently haul water by hand from my insulated spring house in a 5 gallon container and use it to fill two 55 gallon plastic drums - which lasts me for weeks).
Then I thought about putting legs on a metal 55 gallon drum (setting on it's side) plumbing it, adding a funnel for filling it on the top (would also act as a pressure vent) and building a fire under it to heat the water. - This would be the easiest.
Any way you cut it, come spring I'm in for quite a bit of work.
I think I'll try digging a hole in the ground, lining it with some black plastic, filling it with water, covering it with some clear plastic and letting the sun heat it. Maybe that will solve my urge.
...Or maybe I'll just buy one of those black plastic stock tanks...I could use it as solar water heater/occasional bath in the spring/summer and I wouldn't have to dig a hole...Plumb it with hoses and only use it during warmer weather...hang tarps around it for privacy... Maybe build a submersible wood fired water heater (easy build).
Might come up with another idea (like the one I just did) but I think I've found a winner.
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:50am
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I am looking for a cast iron claw foot tub. We are off grid with no running water. I'm thinking about building a small water tower outside the bathroom and getting a on demand hot water system.
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