Using a Wood Boiler as a Hot Tub & Pool Heater

Avoid the high energy costs this summer by heating your pool or hot tub with an outdoor wood furnace, commonly known as a wood boiler.

For those who already heat their home with a wood furnace, adding a pool or hot tub is easy. For those who don’t, let us walk you through the benefits and the process of adding a pool or hot tub.

How a wood furnace works

If you’re unfamiliar with how a wood boiler works the process is simple science. Using a process called gasification, wood boilers have been used to heat homes for over 180 years. Gasification optimizes a small amount of oxygen to burn wood at a high heat, which uses up to 95% of the energy in the wood.

Because it is highly efficient, gasification wood boilers are able to meet the demands of many home heating needs. The energy from the wood and smoke heats water that is distributed into homes and outbuildings for home heating, radiant floor heat, hot water, pools, and more.

HeatMasterss outdoor wood furnaces are available in a variety of models. Our popular G series wood furnace has many innovative features that make it safe, clean, and easy to use.

Using a wood boiler to heat a pool

Heating a pool with an outdoor wood furnace is an ideal way to extend the swimming season and save money on operating costs. The trick is to get the heat from the boiler to the water in your swimming pool. A swimming pool heat exchanger uses the hot water from a boiler to heat the pool water.

A heat exchanger’s job is to transfer heat from one fluid to another fluid without the fluids coming in contact. A good pool heat exchanger is durable and efficient. There are a variety of options for hooking up your wood boiler to your pool. The most common is a tube and shell heat exchanger.

Tube and shell heat exchangers are made up of a large number of small tubes which are encased in a cylinder. Inside the hot fluid is running in one direction while the cool fluid is running in the opposite direction. As the hot fluid cools down the cold fluid warms up keeping your pool water at the ideal temperature.

Using a wood boiler to heat a hot tub

Who doesn’t love a hot soak in a hot tub, especially in colder weather? However, it takes a lot of energy to keep a hot tub at the perfect temperature but heat exchangers work great here too.

Your wood boiler can efficiently heat your hot tub with a heat exchanger. Converting your hot tub from electric heat to wood heat to enjoy the perfect soak is both sustainable and saves money. The water temperature of the wood boiler runs between 160 and 180 degrees – so there is plenty of heat to keep a hot tub at optimal temperatures.

HeatMasterss wood boilers have modulating air dampers and oxygen sensors that keep the BTU output in just the right place. Our recirculating pump helps keep temperatures consistent from top to bottom which creates a greater heat storage capacity and shorter recovery times during periods of high heat demand.

Adding a pool heat exchanger

There are a few different options but, as with most things, not all heat exchangers are built the same.

While our recommended heat exchangers are available through your local authorized HeatMasterss dealer, here are things to consider when looking for a heat exchanger to heat your pool with an outdoor wood furnace:

Self Cleaning: keep your maintenance low with a heat exchanger that has a high flow rate that makes it inherently self-cleaning and offers the increased capacity for heat transfer.

Corrosion resistance: both chlorinated and saltwater are hard on heat exchangers. Look for corrosion-resistant materials for extended life. (Saltwater pools should always use a cupro nickel heat exchanger).

Long life span: exchangers with wider channels take longer to build up hard water scale.

Investing in a pool or hot tub is a great family gift and with an outdoor wood furnace, the cost of enjoying a warm swim or a hot soak is only an extra log or two.

Why HeatMasterss?

HeatMasterss outdoor wood furnaces offer innovative features that give you freedom from energy bills. By saving you money, time, and effort while avoiding the mess, our outdoor furnaces help you stay in control.

Our ultra-efficient heat exchanger is designed with the perfect quantity of heat exchange tubes to match the BTU output of the furnace so that more heat is transferred to the water. Modulating air dampers and oxygen sensors keep it easy to maintain maximum performance and home monitoring lets you access your furnace from any device on our home network.

Because we know that an outdoor furnace is a long-term investment our engineers are constantly researching to find innovative ways to improve our products so you can live in freedom and comfort.

Talk with a local HeatMasterss dealer near you to get started and find the right outdoor wood furnace for your home and pool heating needs.