Heya,
A few years ago I did a post on my BBQ heater that I made for our 10' AGP. Since then, it's been optimized quite a bit and is now heating our 16x8 AG.
Here's the original post for reference: My DIY BBQ AG Heater - It Works!!
Changes since then:
A few years ago I did a post on my BBQ heater that I made for our 10' AGP. Since then, it's been optimized quite a bit and is now heating our 16x8 AG.
Here's the original post for reference: My DIY BBQ AG Heater - It Works!!
Changes since then:
- Got a new BBQ that will be used for grilling. The current one is now dedicated to the pool heater, so I don't have to flip flop roles anymore between cooking and heating. The old one was getting pretty long in the tooth and starting to get some rust, so it allowed me to give it a permanent role as a heater.
- Replaced the radiator with a higher flow, smaller, new one that can fit directly onto the grates, increasing conduction. Previously, the rad was suspended over the grates allowing only for convection transfer of heat
- Ditched the sump-pump-siphon-garbage-can setup and replaced with the 1500GPH pump/filter that came with the new pool. I already had a 2500GPH for the old pool, so that one remained our "main" pump/filter, for which I put in a Hayward through wall skimmer. I feel better about using a pool specific pump for the heater, mostly for GFI/electrical safety
- The 1500 GPH pulls from the two "B" outlets and pushes through the BBQ/radiator before being sent back to the pool via a 1" PVC pipe
- I got fire brick to seal off the rest of the grill (still need to cut down a couple for a better fit), and packed the spaces with aluminum foil, which works surprisingly well to direct airflow through the rad
- Relocated the BBQ around the corner from the pool so it's out of arms reach. I've never been concerned with the kids touching it (they're all 10-11 now) but it was something folks said I should put a little more space between. Having the pumps down the same side makes it a very unfriendly place for running and playing, so it's a good visual barrier.
- Put some pipe insulation on any of the 1" I could just to conserve whatever heat I could on the round trip to the pool when the air is cool outside overnight
- I'd like to cut down the BBQ and fully enclose the radiator so there's more heat getting to the top side of it. I have to figure out how to deal with that without overheating the rad hoses or PVC
- It'd be really cool to use a Raspberry Pi or something to make a controller for it, but I would worry that a gas misfire/no-light situation would be dangerous and hard to program for
- I might upsize the 1" PVC to better match the full size of the rad hoses, just for a bit more flow. Currently we have a decent water volume going through it, but as I learned along the way, the more volume the better heating efficiency you'll get, so that might be something to work on
- A wider rad that has the same flow but covers the 3rd burner could significantly improve heat transfer. I currently just use 2 of the 3 burners since the one side isn't covered by the rad at all
- Yeah, eventually I'll probably just bite the bullet and get a "real" heater so I can set and forget. Probably a 125K Pentair, but I really don't want to have to go all in on new pumps/filters etc, since that starts getting into thousands of investment
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I'm sure the additional heat comes in handy up there. 
Thanks for sharing.