Can you convert a hot tub to wood fired?
Oct. 21, 2024
Wood Fired Coil Kit - Salty Barrel Hot Tubs
Wood Fired Hot Tub Coil Kit
Our coil kit can be attached to your own tub to convert it into a wood fired hot tub. Everything is included for quick and easy installation, all you need is a power drill and the tub.
Goto LITONG to know more.
Powerful Heating Performance
The Coil Kit is powerful and efficient for quick heating times.
Average Heating Time to 40C (104F):
500L Uninsulated Tub - 1.5 hours
800L Uninsulated tub - 2 hours
1,000L Insulated tub - 1.5 hours
1,500L Insulated tub - 2.5 hours
2,000L Insulated tub - 3 hours
No Electricity Needed! But How?
You only need two things to work your wood fired hot tub: water and wood. As the water is heated in the coil it begins to rise (hot water rises just like hot air). The water follows the spiral of the coil up and back out into the tub. Cold water from the bottom of the tub is sucked into the bottom inlet of the coil which starts a steady flow without a pump. This scientific phenomenon is called thermosyphon.
Quick and Easy Installation
Installing the Coil Kit to your tub takes about 20 minutes and the only tool you need is a power drill. Simply drill two holes in the side of your tub, screw in our universal through wall ports and connect the coil using the easy to connect fittings. The video below shows a quick overview of the installation process.
BBQ Grill Functionality
Place a grill, hot plate or large wok over the coil to enjoy flame grilled food while the tub heats up.
What's Included
Stainless Steel Heating Coil
Fire Resistant Hoses
Universal Through Wall Ports
Quick Connect Fittings
Thermometer
What's Not Included
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The company is the world’s best wood coil supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
A Tub
Firewood
Power drill (to drill holes for installation)
Have Questions?
Visit our FAQ page
The Woodfired Hot Tub
Its true. We fat cats have added a FULLY FUNCTIONING AMAZING WOOD-FIRED HOT TUB to our lives of bliss in the wilderness.
Weve had the water up to a very toasty 48ºC and have been enjoying many a pleasant frosty evening in the tub, watching the stars and listening to the frogs when we would usually be rugged up indoors in front of a fire. After years of living a fairly unconventional life on a rural block with no power or services, it is strange and wonderful to own something as luxurious as a hot tub.
Building a woodfired hot tub was very much a trial and error process. For details of what that entailed- PLUS a photo of me in a bikini- click these links here and here and enjoy a laugh at our expense. If you are planning on trying to build your own hot tub, these pages should steer you away from some possible mistakes.
Here is the abridged version of our method.
1. Purchase a container to use as a hot tub.
Many people go for the corrugated iron stock watering tank, but while this makes for a nice rustic container, we went ahead and bought a secondhand jacuzzi for the following reasons:
- A stock watering tank requires more water to fill, and water is a precious resource on our property. We wanted to avoid chemicals in the hot tub, using it more like a Japanese onsen, which would mean regular emptying and refilling. The moulded seats of a jacuzzi allow us to use far less water than needed to fill a watering tank of a comparable size.
- Secondhand jacuzzis are readily available and can be very cheap, even free if you organise its removal from a property.
- Jacuzzis often come with other useful accessories, like a cover. For best efficiency YOU MUST HAVE AN INSULATED COVER!
- The seats are already in the jacuzzi. With a watering tank, you will need to add seats (people use common moulded plastic garden seats). The seats in a jacuzzi are REALLY COMFORTABLE.
2. Fit caps onto all jacuzzi pipes outlets, turning the jacuzzi into a basic tub.
We dont use a jacuzzi pump- we didnt want to rely on electricity in any way- so those pipes are unnecessary and can be blocked up. We also dont use a filter, since we empty and refill as needed, so those pipes were capped as well.
3. Create two inlets in the jacuzzi shell at different heights.
These inlets are for the water to travel to and from the heating source. We do not use a pump to circulate the water; we rely on a thermosiphon effect. Water from the tub travels to the wood heater; as the water heats, it rises. We make use of this phenomenon as the sole means of moving and heating the water without any pumps or power. To achieve a thermosiphon effect, one hole in the tub (the outlet) needs to be as low in the side of the fibreglass shell as possible. The other (the inlet) needs to be high up in the shell, but still safely below the top of the water level. REMEMBER: The heating component of the woodfired hot tub must remain full of water at all times or it will burn out.
4. Build/Convert/Prepare the Woodfired Heat Source
We took a 44 gallon drum and used a barrel stove kit to convert it into a nifty wood heater. We bought the kit at Bunnings Warehouse; it contains a wood heater door, a collar for a flue, and legs for the barrel. Flue kits are also available from Bunnings and wood heater stores, but we buy lengths of flue whenever we see them at recycling and tip stores.
We tried a few different methods to create the heat exchanger (which you can read about in the links above), but the one which ended up being successful was the copper coil method. We purchased an 18-metre roll of 3/4 annealed copper pipe, coiled it into a spiral, and fit as much of the pipe as we could into the barrel stove while still having room for a fire.
Then we drilled two holes in the barrel stove to fit the ends of the spiralled copper pipe- one low down, the other much higher.
5. Connect the hot tub outlets to the copper spiral pipe ends.
We used flexible, heat resistant hoses, but we have seen other people use metal pipe or rigid plastic pipe.
6. Extra Options
- We had planned to empty the tub with a siphon each time, but we decided to put a tap on the lower hose to drain the tub easily.
- Adding a swing valve: a swing valve allows water to flow in one direction only, so it can massively improve the efficiency of the hot tub by preventing cold water from the tub from flowing into the water inlet coming from the wood heater. We highly recommend the addition of a swing valve- it has taken an hour off our heat-up time. Make sure you attach it to lower outlet leading from the hot tub to the wood heater. It can be placed just before the water enters the wood heater.
And there you have it. A woodfired hot tub! Fill the tub with water, light a fire in the barrel stove, put the cover on the jacuzzi, and wait. We put approximately 800 litres into our tub and if the water is very cold (4ºC), it takes around 4 hours to be over 40º. I like it to be about 46º, but 42º suits the rest of the family perfectly. The experience is unbelievably indulgent, and were really glad we built it.
Keep checking back here- videos of the tub in action coming soon!
Related Posts: Hot Tub, Anyone? and Hot Tub Fail # 1
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