Titanium coated ACR Tubing?

Home Depot Employee

Anyone know where I can get 3/8" OD ACR tubing that is coated with titanium (outside) in order to construct a hot gas heat exchanger off my AC condensers to heat my salt water pool?

Hvacman

Why not...

Why not use a cupronickle WSHP coil?

Less $, time, and heartache.

[Deleted User]

i have the perception

that my leg is being pooled

Home Depot Employee

Salt water pool

I've thought about it but, I believe the Cupronickel coating is reversed from the side I want exposed. But more important, my 2' PVC line is probably flowing around 30-50 GPM. (WSHP Coils are too small)

Let me explain I have a saline (salt water pool). The 3000 ppm salt water flows through a chlorine generator and it produces chorine returned to the pool. The benefit is great soft pool water, salinity is close to a human tear (no red eyes) and 40lbs of pool salt last a month and get this is $7.00 from Home Depot.

So I wish to make tube bundles out of the tube, insert into 6 or 8" pvc with caps and TY's for connections and tap and install compression adapters for the refrigeration line penetrations epoxied to the pipe.

Alas, a simple hot gas ht exchanger for the pool water return line. Very similar in principle to a DHW pre-heater tank used with remote compressor banks commonly found in restaurants.

Also involved are ball bearing condenser motors, head pressure controllers, heat or current sensing relays to activate pump during off cycles when AC starts and perhaps motorized butterfly valves and setpoint controller when pool is already at desired temp in summer.

Mike Thomas_2

Zinc Annode

You should also consider zinc as an annode. It can be as simple as zinc beads in the pump basket. Also, be sure that everything is grounded in the pool, check ph and alkalinity at least twice a week, use a good algaecide, and shock with extra chlorine or non-chlorine shock as your combined chlorine levels reach 1 ppm. Salt water chlorination works, but it creates it's own set of problems that may or may not offset the convenience of not adding regular chlorine.

[Deleted User]

hmmm, interesting

but why not simply use ti tubing and pure silver braze it?

and if i may, why are you heating a salt pool in summer/ what temp do you need? isolation tank at +/- 98.6?

[Deleted User]

What ARE some of the other problems Mike....

Other than having the ability to chew through SS FP HXers in less than a year... (Don't ask, and I won't tell...)

I've also noticed a white fur growing at the face of all threaded fittings.

Seeing more and more of these beasts these days.

ME

Mike Thomas_2

More Problems

Salt water pools create all the problems you normally think of when you think of salt water. Just think salt on the highways and your vehicle. The other problem is they will lower the ph of the water and the water becomes acidic. The pool owner should monitor this and make the necessary adjustments, but most think the chlorine generator just makes chlorine and ignore their usual routine. This acid will eat everything in or around the pool in 30-90 days. Concrete, metal fittings, heat exchangers, pumps, filters, vinyl liners. My advise, take test strips with you to check ph and alkalinity before you touch any equipment. You know that feeling when the homeowner says "it wasn't broke until you fixed it". Zinc beads in the pump basket become sacraficial and will go before everything else.

Home Depot Employee

Not just the summer

We had 80 degree days with the AC running in December and soon again in March but with the cooler nights a pool temp can drop 2-3 degrees till it sits in the 50's.

Home Depot Employee

Salt water pools with a chlorine generator hooked up to a automatic controller is the best, just set it and watch the salt ppm lights and its all automatic. I still have a tablet/stick feeder for stabilized chlorine though when I need to catch up due to heavy swimmer load, heavy rains or water temps below 57 degrees when it doesnt work.

Never needed algecide, ample circulation and salt along with proper PH and I always have crystal clear water. This includes the spa and waterfalls.

Home Depot Employee

The only other chemicals I regularly use is muriatic acid to lower the PH and I'm told it's inherent of salt water pools, with a occasional need to raise alkalinity due to adding the acid.

Mike, never heard of the Zinc beads before in the pool basket though, makes sense since I had them on the outdrive of my boat.
Sounds like a great idea even though I have very little metals in contact with water.
Where do I get or just cut up a WH anode rod?

Home Depot Employee

Thought about that Mike, can even buy tubes lengths on eBay but I was hoping to get something continuous without having to have immersed joints and most importantly, less work for a continuous coil

Mike Thomas_2

Just Google zinc beads or salt water chlorination and you should come up with a source for zinc beads. More and more of the pool supply houses are carrying them. Sounds like you are doing a good job with your pool chemistry. Even though your water has been good, I would still recommend algaecide. Algaecide does nothing to improve water quality in a pool with the proper chlorine level. It's job is to be a backup for the chlorine. On that hot sunny day, when the sun burns out all the chlorine in your pool in about 3 hours, the algaecide will hold off the algae until you can get the chlorine level back up. The cost of algaecide is nothing compared to the cost of extra chemicals needed to get rid of an algae bloom. Another chemical I like is non-chlorine shock, potassium mono-persulfate. It will convert combined chlorine back into free chlorine. It "polishes" the water, makes it sparkle, oxidizes waste. Really good stuff! A beautiful pool is like a beautiful garden. It is not what you did today or even yesterday that makes it look good. It is what you have been doing for the last month that makes it look good....

[Deleted User]

and while i can appreciate the idea

of 'free'/eco-heat, and even the gyro gearloose aspect of it, but why not just use an electric heater that's designed for the situation, or just go with a heat exchanger. because it's a lot of work, pulling refrigerant, cutting/soldering, adding an indeterminant amt of refrigerant/unbalance your evaporator, and you may not get enough heat to do the job. and the reason i say all that? i tried to balance my mis-matched condenser/evaporator, and it took 4 tries, cap tubes, then pistons, before i got it right. and now that heating season is here, the balance is wrong for heat pump operation and i'm undercharged

but, if you're determined......there are high-temp, marine grade, two-part epoxies out there that may allow you to coat plain ol' copper tubing. and as you know, unless you lose the balance, you're not dealing with extremes of chlorine/salt ph

Home Depot Employee

Thanks for the advise Mike on the two chemicals.

As to the other Mike, This isnt like I'm tryng to balance an unmatched system (that would be brought upon by one's self).

The result-
I am leaning towards two cupronickel superheaters (2 circuits). As far as system balance, that can easily be controlled by a head pressure control once the proper refrigerant amount is weighed in.

[Deleted User]

good luck my man

not that it can't be done, but it sounds as though you'll be living on the bleeding edge instead of the cutting edge of science