Nothing is standard

It was a good news and bad news sort of day. The plan was install a heater coil in the woodstove to produce hot water.

The good news is that nothing leaked. Water is flowing through the pipes.

The bad news is that it's not actually producing much hot water.

Now the fun begins. It would have been nice if everything worked the first time. Occasionally that happens. More often than not there's a dialing in period. This one of those times.

When everything is custom built there's plenty of room for little problems to crop up. It appears that something is restricting the convection process. One solution would be to just put a pump in the line and force the water to flow at the correct rate. That's not going to happen, as it complicates what should be a simple elegant system. Eventually I'll work my way through various solutions until it functions to my satisfaction.

The next chance to work on it will be in the morning once the stove has cooled down. I'll make some changes and fire up the woodstove once more. With any luck, that should do the job. My lovely wife has reached the point where she really wants hot water.

It has been a few years since I built one of these wood fired water heaters. Every single one of them has been a little different, depending on the situation and the materials at hand. I'll be an expert by the time time I help someone else install one. There's will most likely work the first time.

-Sixbears