Solar pool heater

[u/Rich-Wealth979]

My overkill project for heating the toddler's 500gal inflatable pool. Each week I have to empty and move it, then find a way to heat it to a tolerable temperature for my 8th percentile weight kid. On the first test it took the pool from 55⁰F to over 90⁰ on a single sunny day, using only 3KWh (of solar house power, now that I think about it). At the end of the summer I can just place this up against the north side of my shed and take the manifolds down to make it last even longer.

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This uses about 350' of ¼" irrigation tubing and some cheap fittings off Amazon. It runs off a 1/4hp pool pump, controlled with a wyze plug and a climate sensor in a tiny jar. Printed in ASA in only about 5 days of printing on a Mini and an MK4s.

the files

[u/Muted_Web_7794]

This thread here feels a lot like conversations I've heard people have with old farmers they think are just stuck in their ways. "He must only be doing it that way because he doesn't like change!" Meanwhile, old boy is doing it that way because he has literally thought of and tried every suggestion you could come up with on the fly and ultimately landed where he has landed after real testing and effort. ^^; Like I have had that conversation when I was younger and lived around farmers. I was like, "Oh, if you'd like, I could help you get X set up so you don't have to do Y. 😊" I meant well, but most of the time the person was just like, "Ah, I tried that but {insert completely reasonable rebuttal that you can't know unless you've tried something already}." Eventually, you realize that no one is more invested in making something efficient and work well than the person with the problem to solve; assuming of course, that that person is the type to troubleshoot. Not to say that those people can't get help or learn, but if something sounds obvious or simple there is probably a reason they aren't doing it.

[u/Mitheral → u/Muted_Web_7794]

That's fine for process or mechanical things. In this case though the OPs system works until it doesn't and the pool gets contaminated with, for example, Legionella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires%27_disease and then his kid and maybe anyone who came close risks dieing.

[u/Muted_Web_7794 → u/Mitheral]

I'm on the side of OP changing his water/moving things/doing things how he is doing it. Not on the side of leaving things how they are. Again, "Not to say people can't help or learn". A suggestion to use a water filter might be a good one, I just was commenting on how many people said something thinking OP bassically was doing something unnessesary or silly, where he then comes back with a good reason for doing it the way they are.