another pointless blog

My DIY Campfire Water Heater

How it’s made

It is made out of a 5 gallon bucket, 10 feet of 1/4″ I.D. copper tube, and a couple of threaded connectors for the bucket side. 5 feet of the copper tube is coiled, the bottom of the coil is the “cold side” and is connected to the bottom of the bucket while the top of the coil is connected about mid way up the bucket. It is important to keep the coil vertical. Cover the coil in hot coals and flame.

How it works

The bucket starts out with cold water, with the copper coil set into the fire. As the water in the coil heats, the hot water will want to rise, eventually reaching the bucket where it bubbles back in. As the hot water bubbles back into the bucket, cold water is drawn in from the bottom of the bucket to replace it. Once the system gets going, the water is actually boiling inside the copper and being forcefully expelled out of the hot tube, and sometimes the system backfires and spits some out the bottom.

Overall, it took nearly 2 hours to get that bucket near boiling temperature (sorry no thermometer handy, but it was really cold water), so a larger coil and bigger diameter may help with that… but I have nothing but time when camping so 2 hours is nothing. Plus if you use a black bucket, or insulate the bucket, once you get a bucket of hot water going it would be relatively easy to maintain. Also, it sounds like a giant coffee percolator.

I will try to get better (daytime) pictures and video of this in action, probably after making a few changes. I need to make it more portable, by adding some type of connections on the bucket, as well as a flex section before the bucket to allow for more freedom of movement. If anyone else has any ideas send me a message I’d love to hear them.

*Warning: if you try this, do not ever put a lid on the bucket, this would create a sealed system and could be dangerous.

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