Water hose heater?

Jul 2, 2014
749
Athens, GA - USA
Pool Size
19000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
My pool's water level is low. To take advantage of the heat in my heavy black hose, I have the water just trickling in. Even after an hour, the hose absorbs enough sun light to make the water going in substantially warmer than the current pool temperature. Has anyone actually built a hose heater? Maybe use a fountain pump to circulate pool water? If so, care to share the experience?
 
I tried it. The water coming out of the hose is indeed warmer, but there's just not enough volume to make a difference in the entire pool. Your money and effort will be much better spent on a solar cover. Now THAT will really warm a pool up!
 
If you are interested in solar heating you will be FAR better off with a commercial built pool heater such as this DIY kit from Amazon Amazon.com : SmartPool SunHeater-Solar Heating System : Swimming Pool Solar Heaters : Patio, Lawn Garden

With solar heat there are 2 important factors, surface area and enough water flow to make the return water only slightly warmer than the pool water.

The first part of this agrees with common sense, bigger is better, etc. but the second part gives people a problem. Simply put you loose a lot of heat to plumbing, wind, etc. when you try to make the water HOT, so instead you should try to increase the water flow up to the point where the return water is just slightly warmer than the rest of the pool.
 
Thanks, guys, for the feedback. I will look at getting a good solar cover. They just seem so expensive for what they are. Maybe look at getting a real solar heater next year. I can get the pool up between 79 and 82F on good days but I lose so much heat at night. Cloudy/windy days are just killing me.
 
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