10 foot or bigger paddling pool

drystonewall · 15-06-2007, 15:28

Just looking around the argos book and see that they do a 10' pool for under fifty quid.

now, the weather here in blighty is not that good, but when I was repairing the shed roof the other day I was surprised how hot it was. what I then thought about doing was sticking a centeral heating radiator on the roof of the shed (next to where the pool is going to be), painting it black and pumping the pool water through it.

I was thinking it aught to raise the temp quite a bit!

am i missing something or do you think it will work?

DIY Guy · 24-06-2007, 02:02

Hey Drystone

This sounds like a great idea and sounds like it will work perfectly well.
It might be best to use speedfit plumbing for this as its flexible, and relatively cheap, and very easy to just push all the connections together.

It also comes apart in seconds too if you ever need to remove it during winter.

Be sure to take some snaps and show us how you get on if you do set this up

drystonewall · 24-06-2007, 06:45

Hi Richie,

Thanks for replying. With the Weather over here at the moment I have not even bothered to buy the pool.

I watched 'its not easy going green the other night on the telly and they came up with a similar way to heat water there. they used loads of copper pipe and soldered it together, of course with that amount of joints, it leaked like a sieve and as this guy was using it for his washing up I am unsure what precautions he is going to use for frost damage in the winter.

The plans are to build a box with a glass front and paint the inside black, then mount the radiator inside it, and ofcourse use the speedfit pipes if nothing else other than the speed and ease of use. this is after all going to be in the garden!

Things are coming together in my mind and when we get the pool I will start work, as I have not done this before I will play it by ear and see how it goes.

best wishes,

Nige'

griffdsp · 27-06-2007, 23:28

Just been thinking about your idea. Radiators are quite bulky and hold large volumes of water but only a cirtan amount of the water will come into contact with the sun warmed metal.

With this in mind, this would be my solution.

I would have thought that using a similar system (Glass box with none reflective backing to hold the heat) but instead of using a rad, use a length of micro bore gas pipe, say 8mm dia, coiled, but spread out. this would improve the surface area of the water in contact with hot metal and as copper conducts heat better rather than an aluminum rad, this would improve the effectiveness of the system!

With this system you would need to fluctuate the pump on and off giving the pipe time to reheat the cold water say 30 seconds on, 240 seconds off bursts. Your local electric parts supplier should be able to help you out with a suitable device to do this.

Just a thought!

drystonewall · 28-06-2007, 19:42

thanks,

I have bought a cheap rad at my local wickes, co I am going down that route to start with and I will let you know how I get on, I was thinking of just using a central heating thermostat to turn the pump on and off, but I think it would be almost on all the time.

I think that I need to get this up and running before I can go to 'plan b' or tweak it even further, It is my plan to paint the rad black before installation. the first install will be pretty crude any way as I wont want to invest too much time or money on what is just an Idea.

thanks for your thoughts though, if my idea does not work, then I will be down the shops to buy some small bore copper pipe.

nige'

griffdsp · 28-06-2007, 19:47

it would make for a good experiment to see which method works best, takes me back to my school days

drystonewall · 18-07-2007, 19:37

Okay,

got th pool now, but have thought about the radiator, it is going to turn the water rusty isn't it?

with this in mind I am going to sandwich a hosepipe coiled up in between to thick sheets of steel and use that as the heat exchange, all I need now is some fella with a load of blue pipe he is never going to use.

hey oh, a trip to ebay to see the market value i think

DIY Guy · 18-07-2007, 20:56

Hey Drystone...

Plumbing pipe (20mm blue plastic) is only £14.99 in wickes for a 20metre roll, so its not really worth the hassle of buying it on ebay then paying stupid postage for it...

The rad will indeed rust the water, so it might even be a better idea to make some crazy plumbing shaped like a radiator out of speedfit stuff...

The heat can penetrate the plastic easily and the water stays totally clean

ajwt2 · 09-09-2007, 19:12

this sounds like an awesome idea. from my A-level physics you should definately put a sheet of glass infront of whatever you choose, they will really help to trap the heat in. Copper coils sound like a good idea, radiators aren't actually that great at exchanging heat with the environment and actually work more on a convection current (i.e force a small draft of air up past the fins at the back of them)

I wouldn't dump the water directly into the pool either, put another heat exchanger there. That side should be easy as the pool water will quickly suck all the heat out of the warmer water.

reallylight · 20-05-2008, 09:04

Yea, we got one of those Argos pools last time it was listed on HotUKDeals - was 30 quid I believe and it's perfect for the little'uns.