If you're, looking for a cheap energy efficient way to heat, your pool, making your own solar pool heater is a great option. Not only can you use the power of the sun to heat your water, but the whole project will likely cost you less than a hundred dollars. So here's a step-by-step walk through on how to put together your own diy, solar pool, heater, let's dive in real quick before we continue. If you want more help taking care of your pool, be sure to grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimuniversity.com cheat sheet.

It's totally free and will help keep your pool clean and clear all season long. First, how does a diy solar pool heater work? The design of a homemade solar heater is actually pretty simple. Cold water is pulled from your pool by a sump pump. The water then enters a coil of black tubing.

That's warmed by the sun, then that heated water returns back to your pool. For this setup, you'll need a sunny spot off the ground. To set up your solar, heater and you'll need a few supplies that should cost you less than a hundred dollars. All right ready to build here are the supplies.

You'll need for your diy solar pool heater one at least 200 feet of half inch black irrigation hose. This polyurethane hose can be bought either online or at your local hardware store. So it's worth shopping around for a good price. Just make sure it's black, since it needs to absorb the heat of the sun, now keep in mind that you'll need more than 200 feet.

If you have a larger pool, your hose length should equal at least 50 of the square footage of your pool surface. So, for example, if your pool is 16 feet by 32 feet, that's a surface area of 512 square feet and that means you'll need at least 256 feet of irrigation hose two, a submersible pump. The easiest option to get water flowing through your irrigation hose is with a sump pump. Hopefully, you'll already have one as a pool owner.

If not, this might be the priciest supply on the list and could set you back about fifty dollars. Three, an irrigation hose connector for your pump. These are made specifically to connect half inch, irrigation hoses to faucets and pumps, four, a plywood board and wood pieces to frame it. This is the wooden tray where your irrigation hose will sit.

It will also keep your hose off the cold ground and allow you to angle it towards the sun. The size of your plywood will depend on how much hose you're using, but a 4x4 sheet of plywood is big enough for about 200 feet of hose. You'll also want wood to stabilize and frame your sheet of plywood. Also, an extra piece of wood is helpful to hold down your coiled hose and to secure the wood you'll need either wood glue or a drill and nails here are a few optional supplies to help your solar pool heater work, even better black paint, black plastic or Black roofing felt, painting the wooden tray black or covering it with a black tarp or black roofing felt, will add more heat to your solar heater setup.

If you use plastic or roof felt, you might need a staple gun to attach this to your wood, clear plastic. Tarp, covering the entire tray with a clear tarp will trap in more heat. It's like turning your setup into a mini oven. Black pex tubing instead of irrigation, hose pex tubing, is usually a lot more expensive than black irrigation hose, but irrigation tubing can wear down from heat and pool chemicals after a few years.

So if you want to invest in something a little bit more long, lasting use, pex, coil, a shutoff valve or ball valve, a simple shut off attachment at the end of your hose will help control the flow of water, and you can turn it off if it Gets too hot a solar, blanket or solar cover a solar blanket, helps, stop evaporation and heat loss at night without a solar cover. You'll lose any temperature you've gained during the day. So it's critical to keeping that heat in your pool. Okay, so you've got your supplies and now here's how to put together your diy solar pool heater one set up your wooden tray.

The goal is to keep your irrigation hose mounted on something above the ground that can angle towards the sun. A flat sheet of plywood can work totally fine on its own, but framing it by adding wood to the sides will help make it more sturdy, two line your wooden tray with black fabric, black felt or black paint. If you want to increase the amount of heat you capture, you'll want to line your tray with something black at this point, but this is optional and might not be necessary, especially if you have a smaller pool. Three coil up your irrigation hose on your wooden tray start coiling, your irrigation hose on your wooden tray.

Your hose should lie flat on the wood, almost like a record on a turntable you'll want to wrap the hose as tight as you can, so you can fit as many loops as possible placing a 2x4 on top of the hose as you coil. It can be helpful to brace the hose. It can also be helpful to have a second person hold things down, be sure to have the ends of your hose on different sides of your wooden tray. One of these ends is your inlet, where cold water is pumped in and the other is the outlet where hot water leaves they shouldn't enter and exit.

At the same point, in your pool water, four wrap your solar heater in a clear tarp. If you want to wrap your solar heater, now is the time to do that. But again, this is an optional step. You may want to test your heater first and then add the clear tarp afterwards.

Five add your hose attachments. Attach your irrigation hose connector. To the end of the hose that will be going into your pool, this is to connect your sump pump, also attach your shutoff valve or ball valve to the opposite. End of your hose, if you're, using one six set up your solar heater and attach your sump pump place, your wooden tray near your pool off the ground and in the sun, then attach your sump pump to the irrigation hose connector submerge, the pump in the water And turn on your sump pump be sure your hose outlet is in the pool to return the hot water.

Now, if you're, having trouble getting the water to warm up here are a few troubleshooting tips. One keep your sump pump and the returning hot water on the opposite sides of the pool make sure that your pump is pulling in cold water and is far away from the hose that's adding in the hot water. This will increase the efficiency of your solar heater and place your pump as low as possible in the pool since colder water tends to be at the bottom. Two increase your pump speed, the faster your flow rate, the more heat you'll transfer to your pool water.

You might not notice a bigger temperature difference, but you'll actually increase your heat. Energy transfer aim for a two to five degree: difference between the water coming out of your pool and the heated water going back into your pool. A continued, slow temperature rise means you have an efficient heater three mount the coils off the ground and maximize the heat from the sun. You don't want the cold ground to cool off your tubing, so make sure it's mounted slightly off the ground and, like we mentioned before, you can also line the tray with black plastic or cover your coils in a clear tarp for more sun absorption and insulation.

And that's it if you need more help with pool maintenance, grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimuniversity.com cheat sheet, and if you found this video helpful leave a comment hit that like button and subscribe for more pool maintenance tutorials throughout the season. That's it thanks again and happy swimming.