Hi all!! Great forum you have here! Finally got out to do some splitting today, it has rained here for the last 3 days. I've been working on this mess of downed trees this spring and cut off and split some rounds of a tree I'm not familiar with. Tried looking it up and I think it's a sassafras but not sure. The bark is thick and when you cut into it, it is an orangeish color. It's a breeze to split and it's very light, so it will probably be going in my wood fired pool heater! Just curious what it might be. Thanks, Chris
That bright orange under the bark would lead me to believe sassafras, as well. Build a campfire with it and see if it sparks and pops a lot.
Welcome to the cuckoo's nest Chris. Sounds like you will have a lot in common with the rest of the wood addicts here... Yeah, it is probably sassafras. It does not burn that hot but it does burn fast. And, as mentioned above, watch out for the sparks. KaptJaq
Welcome Chris! Good bunch of people here and the knowledge base is unlimited. I learn something new here every day.
Welcome CuckooChris You'll like it here-have thick skin, good sense of humor and cold beer...and you're all set! This welcome thread has now officially mentioned beer. Chris is good to go.
Wow! Thanks for the warm welcome and comments! Looks like I found the right place... wood & beer all in one place!!
Welcome aboard Chris. How does it smell? Bogy mentioned a rootbeer smell.......yep. I still have some in a shed in roughsawn form from about 20 years ago I should probably use. Heck, I could run it through the planer and put a nice smell in the shop.
Welcome Chris! It's Sasafrass, take a good sniff after you split a piece and you will always remember that unique smell it has.. We're going to need to see pics of this pool heater and all the details.
Welcome CuckooChris! Yep, sassie Fras, if it smells right... But the bark def looks right. And pics of that heated pool, or it's not real! JK, I'm sure you've got a set up worthy of putting pics on here!
I'll post some pics of the heater tomorrow. It's just a 55 gal barrel stove with a 20' coil of 1/2" copper inside, fed by a 1/3hp sump pump. I built it this spring after seeing some vids on youtube. The coil needs some tweaking or revamping, I think it could heat much better. At best I can get a 12 degree jump in the water temp (70 in, 82 out) with the stove roaring. It's flowing almost 5 gals per minute, which is OK, I only have an 9'x18'x48" intex pool (4,550gals). Currently, I can raise the water temp with the wood heater about 1 degree every 1-1.5hrs. So if the pool is 70 in the morning and it's going to be sunny and 80+ that day... I'll have the pool water at 80 by 5:00pm. I think it works 'OK', but it could be much better. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.
Here are the pics of the heater. First one is the inside with the water coil. It does best when the fire is right under it and flames are all around the coil. Only problem is it's tough to keep feeding it every hour or two to keep it hot enough. Like I said before, works ok for now but I think it can do better with a different coil. Would have loved to have one like gboutdoors has but couldn't afford it, they even make one with a pizza oven in it!!
Welcome to the site cuchoochris. Your gonna like it here. This is the friendliest site on the net. It's like family here. There are lots of great people with plenty of wood burning experience here, and they are happy to help. And pictures in your first post....priceless. I think slowing the water down would help (contact time). Or another 20' coil of copper. Ten degrees in one day is pretty good though, especially in a make shift barrel furnace.
Welcome to the forum Chris. It does look like sassafras and the smell will tell you for certain. I have to cut some of that every once in a while just to enjoy the odor of it. The sweetest smelling wood that I know of. Yes, it does have a tendency to spark so watch that. It is a softer wood so won't last as long in the stove. The light weight always seems good when you are handling it but of course that is a give-a-way to the shorter burn times.
Thanks for the suggestion! I do have a valve on the water inlet to slow down the flow, but it doesn't increase the temp as much as you might think. To raise the water temp a decent amount you need to really cut down the flow to around 2 gallons/min. So with that little flow it's like peeing in the pool. Need to do some more research, another coil is an option but I'm thinking more along the lines of something flat, like maybe a bunch of 2' sections of galvanized pipe to make a 'sort of' radiator, that way I can utilize all of the barrel instead of just the back of it under the coil. We'll see, part of the issue may be the wood I'm using too, it's probably not dry enough. I've been using the smaller branches (2"-6") from the downed oak trees in my woods. They've been down for around 3yrs but the bigger limbs are still a little wet. Thanks again to all for the welcome!! Chris
What kind of temp gain are you seeing between whats going into the coil and what is getting put back in the pool?
