# wood fired hot water heater



## neal68 (May 29, 2005)

Has anyone built or know where I can find planes for a wood burnig water hearter? thanks


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

domestic water or for heating? Try a search on the alt energy board.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

MEN has plans for one using a gas water heater core.


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## Ozarka (Apr 15, 2007)

There is a mfg in mexico and I'm sure someone in the us imports them. Google around.


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## woodsrunner (Nov 28, 2003)

Ozarka said:


> There is a mfg in mexico and I'm sure someone in the us imports them. Google around.


As far as I've been able to find out Magamex stopped making them about 6 or 7 years ago. I'd like to find a new one also. Last summer Pelenaka and I were perusing the flea market at a local steam show. We came accross one that apeared to be in good condition. But, it was used and with no way handy to pressure test the tank, I wasn't going to shell out a hundred bucks for it. I think this year I will start carrying a air tank and some pipe fittings with us.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

Try Google searching on hot tub wood heater. One is: http://www.thesolar.biz/Chofu.htm


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Lehman's Hardware of Kidron, Ohio sells wood fired water heaters, link below. They are made locally by Amish.

http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/pro...75&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=water+heater


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## Guest (Jan 4, 2008)

neal68 said:


> Has anyone built or know where I can find planes for a wood burnig water hearter? thanks


This could be dangerous ...
I built one years ago by putting a copper coil inside a wood stove. (Actually, I added a chamber above the stove for the coil so the fire would go up thru it) A storage tank was mounted high enough so the outlet on the bottom of tank was slightly higher than the inlet of the coil. The water would circulate without a pump. A pressure relief valve (not a temp relief valve) was installed on top of the tank. I forget the psi setting of the valve ... 125 I think. A temp. relief valve like on electric heaters won't work cos the water entering the top of tank from the coil is boiling and will set off the valve long before the whole tank of water is hot. 

I would like to build another but I would have someone that knows what they're doing build me a safe tank out of stainless steel. HTH


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

My German Granny had one, back in the late fifties, in her apartment building. I remember having to build a fire in it, before we could take a bath. But it was only for the tub, the sink had one ice-cold water tap. For the kitchen, there was an over-the-sink gas heater, that had to be filled first, and then turned on to heat. The livingroom had a small coal and wood stove, and the truck with the baskets of coal and small pieces of wood would come and put everything into the cellar at the bottom of the apartment building.

The smell of the cellar, and the smell of lavender soap....


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## raymilosh (Jan 12, 2005)

Do a search on this forum. I remember being in a discussion like this a few years back.
I bought a pamphlet type book form Lehman's that describes systems and safety precautions step by step. I can't recommend it highly enough.
I built a wood fired water heater in my house and integrated it with the solar batch heater (the tanks on the roof beig heated by the sun also store the wood heated water).
Without going into all the necessary details...I installed a tank inside the firebox of my woodstove (the tank is called a waterjacket...I don't really know why), attached copper pipes to its top and bottom and ran the pipes up the top and bottom of a water heater tank that is higher than the woodstove. When the fire is lit,the water heats and thermosiphons up to the tank, resulting in a tank full of hot water. There are 2 other fittings on the water heater tank. one allows cold pressurized water come in, the other leads out to the top of the tank, through an on demand water heater (to boost the temp, if necesary) and then down to all the fixtures in the house.

The system must have TP relief (temp and pressure) valves or popoff valves as they are called here installed and there must not be any shutoff valves that could accidentally shut off the water supply from the TP valves. In the Lehman's book, there are a few stories of steam explosions and what caused them and what they did to the house. I did everything carefully and have had lots of hot water and no troubles for 3 winters now.


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

Yes I build one and it worked fine. I used an old gas water heater cpre. I used to run an outdoor shour off of it and a washing machine. All that i did was take the outer coverning off and replace the t/p valve. Set that up on some cinder blocks and plumb it in. It worked great.


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

0. *RECOGNISE THAT ALL OF THESE PLANS WILL BE DANGEROUS.* they can deliver boiling water, and there's no safety cutout. Be safe, be sensible, be careful, don't be cooked.

1. Google "chip heater" (and check it out on wikipedia as well).

2. Run an iron pipe through the back of a wood stove. Connect it to a hot-water storage tank (like an off-peak electric tank). Inlet comes from the low side, outlet goes to the high side - that gives you a thermosiphon effect, with the water rising as it's heated. You deliver hot water to the top of the tank, it falls as it cools, (slightly) cooler water is sucked out of the bottom of the tank by the thermosiphon effect to be re-heated. Insulate all pipes and the tank. If you like, you can cross-connect it to a solar water heater, so you only need to light the heater in winter (when you'd light it anyway). You can run this water through hot-water radiators if you like.

3. You can have an experienced metalworker do this for you. Get a gas cylinder (as in welding). Slice off top and bottom, and an opening at the bottom. Run a copper coil up the cylinder, then line the inside with flue pipe, with the copper coil between inside flue and outside cylinder. The bigger opening at the bottom lets you feed the fire (say with wood chips, as in "chip heater". The copper coil runs water through to be heated, preferably delivering it to an unsealed metal tank (so there's no pressure worries, and it will boil rather than blowing up). I repeat warnings about being careful not to boil people.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Find two simular gas water heaters. Remove the white skin and insulation. Cut down the water tank on one and weld it to the bottom of the water tank of the other. Cut a feed door and an ash pit door, add a frame and door to both. Make a hearth from inch rod and weld it between the feed door and the ash pit door. Put the fiberglass insulation and splice the outer skin back on, with cut outs for the feed door. The gas exhaust pipe that goes up thru the water tank can serve as the smoke stack. Retain the pressure relief valve. Basicly a copy of the Mexican model, but better insulation and looks factory built.
Copper pipe around any stove is a waste of copper. It only holds a pint or two of water and recovery is slow.


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