Hello, A member said they would be interested in hearing about this adventure, so here it is. We lived in Central Oklahoma at the time and were the proud owners of a 28ft. Round Above Ground Swimming Pool. It was a gift to my 12 year old daughter, and I am skipping everything from the gift to the Ice Cold water in August after we finally got it all set up. It was 5 ft. Deep, took a week to fill out of our well. I'm sure you good people can tell me how much water that is, but I am not interested in knowing. We spent a tone of money getting it all set up, loosing nearly every friend I had, and in August it was over 100 degrees and I could barely stand to keep my hand in it very long. During the winter I devised a way to bring Heat to that thing or die trying, and the last part nearly happened several times. I bought 4 100 ft. rolls of that black plastic water well hose, built me a ft. by ft. box, then eye balled what I thought would be a good angle for the sun to heat it up. I also covered the inside of the box with 4X8 sheets of Black Construction Insulation board, covered the top with 3/8 in. Tempered glass and plumbed it into the suction side of the filter pump and back out the return line to the pool. I let it just set and simmer a few days to warm it up good with the valves open of course, and climbed into the pool freezing till I got to the return hole where it was not to bad at all. I placed myself in front of that return hole and as any proud inventor would, stood there to feel the warm water, and gave the command to turn on the pump. I was nearly hospitalized in the Burn Unit of the local hospital, I can still remember seeing layers of my hide floating around on top of the water. The water in the box was Scalding Hot, but as the cold water replaced it the water was just as cold inside the box. I could have boiled 5 gallons of water and threw it in there and accomplished about the same thing. I healed in a few weeks and realized my mistake. I had to heat enough water to bring up all that lake of water in the pool most all of the time to get it warmed up, then regulate just how much Hot water had to be put in everyday to keep it close to a reasonable temperature all the time. I went and got 8 rolls of that Black Hose, got on top of my house and strung 2 length's of wire with turnbuckles to keep the wire tight. I unrolled sort of how it wanted to lay, 4 rows close to the top of the South side roof, and 4 rows the same way closer down to the bottom of the roof. All that warmed the pool up to about 2 degrees warmer till I remembered the hose going up onto the roof, and the hose coming back to the pool needed to be insulated to retain its heat back to the pool. Well, it worked, with me taking temp. readings and adjusting valves till it was just about right. I was pretty proud of myself for a couple of days till the heat in the hose got the water so hot, it began to leak real hot water from all over the pipe on top of the house till I got it all shut down. I found out it would cost me more to replace the hose as it would to just repair the blown out places, so I fixed all the leaks. We could not have as hot a water with the valves open, but it would work longer that way. I messed with my "Solar Pool Heater" for about 4 years and got rid of the whole rotten mess. The system I put together added about 6 1/2 weeks to the swimming season, but as the summer got hotter the more I had to bypass my heater or it would get way to hot in the pool. That 12 year old girl didn't even like me much anymore by then and had run off and got married, I was cleaning and adjusting so much I was sick of it, so we got rid of it and some other nice family bought it and they are cleaning and adjusting now. I thought I was a pretty good salesman, but with the first Northers blowing threw and my water heating system letting their kids keep on swimming, you would have thought they felt bad for taking advantage of me for buying it that cheap. I gave them the spiral notebook plumb full of the whole operation and instructions, the man said he had some idea's for some improvements. We bought a used hot tub and found that to be better to our liking. My Wife told me if she ever caught me looking like I was going to heat the Hot Tub with Solar Energy she would shoot me, she sure saved that swimming pool from getting filled with buckshot a few times, and Yes, if you were wondering if my initial burns caused scarring they sure did. OK Checkers, there it is, it even pained me to recount that experiment, but if you liked it then it was my pleasure. Now I can go hide in embarrassment, I am not an inventor, I was just trying to help. I used to tell my parents that I was just trying to help when I did something that did not turn out to well, they didn't appreciate my ideas either.
srdd76
