More heat from your HX

[Johnny]

Seems like a lot of wasted heat/energy radiating from most exhaust HXs. Anyone tried capturing some wasted heat by wrapping copper tubing around the HX as a pre-heater upstream of the HX? Then wrap the package with fiberglass header tape.

A few years ago I wrapped a EXHX with fiberglass header tape and fiberglass+foil over that. Got at least a ten-degree gain, but it was sloooow to cool down. Manufacturer said it wouldn't hurt, but it started leaking after a couple years. Leak could have been unrelated.

ps. Why not wrap the engine exhaust with tubing as a pre-heater for propane or diesel systems? Would save fuel and get better heat.

 

[ACE]

I like the how Steamway dose this. The engine oil is cycled through a copper coil in the waterbox. The engine is kept cooler and the water is preheated.

 

[Shane T]

My PowerClean circulates the by-pass from the unloader back to the mix tank. I put this heat exchanger in between the unloader and mix tank. Made it of 5/8" copper tube wrapped around the unit's muffler. I had one of Cat's temperature relief valve on the discharge side of the exchanger to keep the water in the tank below 180. I'm not currently using it but it worked well.

 

[Larry Cobb]

Johnny;

Anything exhaust parts you insulate with tape and preferably tubing . . .

must be stainless steel.

This is because the higher temperatures will speed up corrosion.

Standard steel will fall apart in months.

Larry

 

[NobleCarpetCleaners]

Well it's really a dam shame so many btu's get waisted in a heat exchanger system. There's always room in the heat exchange world for more efficiency. Having recently blown the critical exchanger on my slide in I'm still glad I've fell back on my Savage propane heater.

A viable option if you want to add to your existing exchanger system would be talk to John at John's Hot Heat Exchanger about a post blower exchanger. He makes it with a generous amount of copper coiling and depending on your machines configuration it might work. Nice thing about a blower exchanger is there's no real need for a bypass system since blower temps don't ever go over 300 degrees. That makes if perfect for pre-heating incoming water.

 

[Ron Werner]

makes sense to me. There is a lot of heat lost in the exhaust and blower. A boiler will cause "x" degrees of temp increase, so doesn't it make sense that if the water going into a boiler was 20-40degrees hotter, the boiler wouldn't need to burn as much to gain the desired temp? Don't need to get the water to 180+ in the exhaust exchanger, but warming the water would improve fuel efficiency.

 

[Becker]

My HM came with a thin exhaust.. It did not last.

Bought a thick SS one from Johns Hot Heat Exchnagers. It is so built I don't think it will ever wear out.

Yes, wrapping helps.

When unwrapped it is cool to look at exhaust at night after running awhile.. Nice red glow.