Hi Danny,

We got down to about 27 here- very unpleasant. We also had snow but no real accumulation here but just 15-20 miles from here they had and inch or two.

We are still using the wood burning pool heaters. I am personally very satisfied with them. We run 2 of them, one is a large and the other is a prototype huge heater we purchased from the same company. Both really heat a croc pool quickly and hold the temperature very well. I had a 100 gallon per minute well installed so in the case of emergency I can flush the pools with 72 degree water.

We load it up initially and then add to the fire as needed. Once the pool is heated even the coals will maintain the temperature. I usually load it up before bed and then by morning the coals are still putting off decent heat. Off course the kind of wood your burning matters. Ash produces poor coals but oak and mesquite good coals. We also use a chemical on the surface which traps heat in the pools.

The company is warm water solutions, a website link is below. I like them because they are very effective, fast heating, and mobile. Also virtually free to run past the electricity for the pump. We got all our wood from the 'free' section on craigslist last year. This year I paid a HS student $40 for mesquite they needed to get rid of on his hunting lease.

I would buy another one, I sold my small one last year and wish I had it back as we have a large group of Podocnemis unifilis and I'd like to put one on their pond rather than bring them in as I did this week.

We run multiple pools of each heater. Each pool has a pump and it's all connected with pvc that has a series of valves that open one pond while closing another. I used to just pull the pump from one pond to another but now we just use multiple pumps. Once we heat one pond to a decent temp we switch the ponds using the same heater.

I also hate winter every once in awhile I wonder why I do this in the winter. It's cold, wet, and stressful. But then spring comes and I see the animals on the banks and I forget all about the winter.

I will get out to your place at some point, you need to get back over here. We have done some major expansion in the last 2 months. How many porosus do you have?


CD
heater website


-----
CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

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