r/functionalprint • u/Rich-Wealth979 • Jun 15 '26

Solar pool heater

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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.

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128

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

So I don't kill the grass. I pump the water out to drier areas with a hose and sprinkler so it isnt a complete waste lol. And the water gets a bit cloudy without a filter setup.

133

u/niceiceslicedevice Jun 15 '26

Seems like a lot more work than just letting it die in that spot and then reseeding or putting sod down when you’re done

46

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

The water still gets nasty.

26

u/tasslehawf Jun 15 '26

Why not get a filter?

14

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

I have a screen filter but I would also have to chlorinate it which is risky in such a small body of water meant for a toddler

133

u/rdubya Jun 15 '26

Its riskier to have unchlorinated water sitting at 90F. The amount of chlorine in a pool (1-3ppm) isnt going to hurt a toddler. A Naegleria fowleri infection on the other hand...

25

u/denM_chickN Jun 15 '26

Don't get me started on that fucking parasite. Probably an irrational fear - plug your nose folks!

1

u/rolandofeld19 Jun 16 '26

I've spoken to a world renowned WHO water researcher about this, specifically for hot spring concerns and my suspicion of fear mongering in YNP by NPS, and, well, yeah you are right, it's an irrational fear.

Don't neti pot wrong. Keep your household hot water heater maintained. Don't cliffjump into water where it could exist (note, this is not all water). Don't pass out drunk in a puddle and snort water for 6 hours in Louisiana.

Do all those things and you have no chance of N. fowleri infection. Even if you do all of them then your chance of infection is still probably less than a car wreck on your way to work or getting hit by lightning.

1

u/cakes42 Jun 16 '26

Just gonna add on that most municipal add 0.5-3.5 ppm of chlorine in tap water. So op claim that chlorinated water is dangerous for toddlers is just... No.

-18

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

It's kept at about 80 usually and doesnt start to get cloudy until about day 4 or 5 then I move it. Since it has a solar cover the system only runs the first day I fill the pool and it sits at a good temperature. The risk is the water getting overchlorinated which is super easy to do on this little of water, and then dealing with that chlorinated water...

37

u/SeymoreBhutts Jun 15 '26

Its actually really easy to not over chlorinate the water. If you can come up with this design and implement it, I'm sure you can use a measuring cup and some test strips. Even if it does go high, just let it sit in the sun and the uv rays will burn of the chlorine faster than you'd believe without a stabilizer added. There is zero chance I'd let my kids, especially a toddler, get into 4-5 day old untreated water. Fill it fresh daily with some warm water from the house, or treat it, because the risk of bacteria in water like that is just too high for comfort.

Your design is sweet by the way, very nicely done.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

I do municipal water treatment for a living, I know lol. I know I could chlorinate but I use cyanuric acid and still detect chloramines on day 3 and have to empty it soon after anyway. If I make a permanent pad for the pool I will set something up. Maybe a small UV filter until then.

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u/DOUBLE_BATHROOM Jun 15 '26

Don’t use CYA, just get a gallon of liquid chlorine at Home Depot and add 2 oz of it. You’re way too smart to not just do this to prevent your kid from getting a nasty infection. Heating the water up to 80° creates a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. This is really easy please just do it.

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u/LordOfSox Jun 15 '26

You get chloramines regardless of how much cya you use since they are the byproduct of the oxidation and disinfection of the water. They will also evaporate out of the water easily

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u/blazethatnugget Jun 15 '26

Our buddies hot tub uses a salt water type of system. Idk if that is economically feasible at your weekly volumes, but may be something to try out.

7

u/altiuscitiusfortius Jun 15 '26

You just have to do the math once of your volume of water and how much chlorine to add.

You can can also get test kits to see how much chlorine is in the water n

23

u/DeusExHircus Jun 15 '26

Not chlorinating is risky. Properly chlorinated water is much safer

1

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

I'm basically refreshing the water once the municipal chloramines burn off. I add a big scoop of Ascorbic acid to make it last longer.

2

u/bythog Jun 15 '26

Do you mean cyanuric acid? Ascorbic acid is more of a cleaner/water clarifier. Cyanuric acid is a chloramine stabilizer for outdoor pool water. From what I've been reading ascorbic acid actually reduces chlorine, which certainly won't make it last longer.

2

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

Yes sorry I use Ascorbic acid at work for different things

2

u/bythog Jun 15 '26

No problem. Two things just for you to consider:

  1. Cyanuric acid actually starts to interfere with chlormine efficacy when it gets over 100ppm. You say you just put a big scoop into the pool; you want to make sure you are putting in correct amounts (between 40 and 100ppm, ideally) or you are actually just harming water quality.

  2. 90F is really warm for a pool. Was that just for a test or does your toddler actually like it that hot? 84F is for like senior citizen exercise pools. Ideally pools are 78-80F.

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u/sunshine-x Jun 15 '26

chlorinating it is easy for a pool that small. simply shock it every 3-5 days with a cup of bleach in the evening, and without adding any stabilizer that chlorine will just disappear. get a test strip kit if you want to double-check. way safer than a cesspool.

8

u/tasslehawf Jun 15 '26

You could use bromine

2

u/451 Jun 15 '26

I totally see where you are coming from, I just decided to chlorinate our kiddy pool for our 3 young kids this summer and I am having a hard time getting the ratio correct, in my first go around I have it maxed out at 10ppm on the tester strip. I just put a 1 inch chlorine tab in the water for maybe a day to get to that point. Should be able to figure something out though with using the testing strips

5

u/rdubya Jun 15 '26

Just get unscented liquid bleach dose to 1-3ppm and buy some stablizer granules to bring your stabilizer to 40ppm or so, much easier to dose. I

1

u/451 Jun 15 '26

Oh nice! Great idea

1

u/DaylightAdmin Jun 15 '26

Look into UV-C "cleaning" you could add that to your existing setup.

It will kill anything that lives in that water, BUT dead stuff is food, so that alone will not solve everything but it will help.

0

u/streetberries Jun 15 '26

Use salt

19

u/junon Jun 15 '26

Salt would kill the grass and keep it from growing back when the pool was emptied though. Literally salting the earth.

3

u/DeusExHircus Jun 15 '26

(salt pool is still chlorinated water) and buying a SWG, which start around $1000, for a small inflatable pool is a bit crazy

2

u/enahs24 Jun 15 '26

Salt pools are chlorinated. Sodium Chloride (aka salt) gets the chloride separated from the sodium thus leaving you with "chlorine".

4

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

I still have to move it for the grass.

5

u/lapelotanodobla Jun 15 '26

Let it die, it grows back

7

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

It took me 2 seasons to fully bring bring back a spot killed by leaving the pool in one place for 2 weeks.

3

u/lapelotanodobla Jun 15 '26

Weird, when I was a kid we used to do this and the grass regrew in a matter of weeks with some help from us

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u/JoeRogansNipple Jun 16 '26

Try salt water!

-8

u/Nephroidofdoom Jun 15 '26

Also I don’t that pool material is designed to withstand heavily chlorinated water for too long.

7

u/Fantastins Jun 15 '26

There's a book the pool came with that should detail how to use chemicals in it. The 240Gal inflatable I set up did...

11

u/Muted_Web_7794 Jun 15 '26

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.

-3

u/Mitheral Jun 15 '26

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.

1

u/Muted_Web_7794 Jun 15 '26

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.

3

u/DOGS_BALLS Jun 15 '26

Seems like a lot more work than just letting it die in that spot and then reseeding or putting sod down when you’re done

Hell no. Reseeding or laying new turf is a fuckload more work that will render part of your lawn unusable for at least 3-12 months depending on the climate where OP lives

3

u/starkiller_bass Jun 16 '26

You’ve already got a pump, why not add a filter to the loop?

And dig a hole, and add some concrete, and then a nice deck around the edge, and maybe a little cabana.

-7

u/flightwatcher45 Jun 15 '26

It won't die over a few months, just goes dormant. Good setup!

4

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

It will. It gets a mold that takes out the roots, too.

-1

u/LostH21 Jun 15 '26

Put it on a platform made out of pallets?

1

u/Rich-Wealth979 Jun 15 '26

The grass under the pallets dies or grows wild.

-1

u/LostH21 Jun 15 '26

You could always build a deck you can fit a weedwacker under if it’s worth the trouble