Make Your Fireplace More Efficient! DIY Heat Exchanger

Check out my website for other awesome content! jasonoid.com/
A normal fireplace loses 90% of it's heat through the chimney and installing a new more efficient fireplace can cost thousands of dollars. Using a little scrap metal I had laying around I decided to build myself a fireplace heat ex-changer. Does it work?! Is it worth the time spent building it? I would say YES!
Amazon Parts List:
3 Inch Aluminum Duct:
amzn.to/2S586r0
PWM Voltage Controller:
amzn.to/2LlFoj4
12 Volt Inline Blower:
amzn.to/2S49Uk6
125amp Flux Core Welder:
amzn.to/2BlMZcS
Auto Dimming Welding Helmet:
amzn.to/2S2jiVb
Aluminum ducting was connected to heat exchanger and blower with metal ducting tape.
amzn.to/2BqIVb5
Steel originally purchased from local Metal Mart:
-8 feet of 3" x 3" Steel tubing
-8 feet of 1/2" x 1/2" steel tubing
The following Amazon links are affiliate links that when used throw a small commission to me. Your purchases help me keep content coming on my channel, thank you for your support!
Jasonoid assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. Due to factors beyond the control of Jasonoid, no information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user.

[@Jasonoid]

Check out my website for other awesome content! jasonoid.com/

[@schwinnbiking]

The biggest efficiency is having a sealed burn chamber with dedicated air intake from outside so u don't burn heated air from inside your house..then add heat exchanger around chimney

[@Peter_Enis]

The biggest loss is the chimney......the second (or even first) biggest is usually the air from the house/room wich is heated being sucked into the fire to keep the fire going. The fire sucks cold air into the room out of cracks and leaks in the house. If you can get cold outside air to provide oxygen for the fire (a direct short isolated pipe) you keep the heated air in the room/house.

[@kelinsoliz2516]

So my question is if I have a vent to get air from outside the house to the fire place....... will it suck the cooler air from outside more? Or the inside air? Or is it equal......I do metal fabricating for a living and I really want to build something similar. But I'm up for any other ideas

[@Jasonoid]

The most efficient design would be something that pulls air fresh air in from the outside through a dedicated vent. Normal fireplaces draw air in from window and door cracks and it cools down the house. This was an attempt to help fight off the drafts haha.

[@toddtaylor4802]

I just keep the closest window cracked. So it doesn't pull air from the gas furnace. Is it efficient I don't know but it make me feel better and I'm always have fresh air in the bedroom

[@Peter_Enis]

Well...every solution has advantages and disadvanteges...... sucking in cold air from the outside makes it a great cold-bridge when the fire is not on...the stove "cooles" the room because it's connected to colder outside air. Think valve (as Jasonoid very smartly mentions) and isolation on the intake part if needed. If the room is already hotter than the outside, cold air wants to get in because it's dencer. So I would guess because of physics supporting the system the fireplace sucks (and gets pushed) cold air to burn. But if the intake has a lot of resistance (long distance, small pipe, angles etc) the fire will use the "easiest" air it can get.....from the room you want to heat. Ofcourse, in time, as an underpressure starts to form in the room because of air leaving through the chimney this long intake works a bit better. Making the most efficiënt system would suggest a short intake directly to the outside air with a valve for when the fire is not in use, and a long (perhaps partially horizontal) chimney running trough te space you want to heat so the hot air has time to heat the room? When using a long (partially) horizontal chimney in a room an air-quality sensor might be smart..... But I'm no expert!

[@Gazzasthe1]

So to me the obvious thing would be to have a inlet coming down your chimney from top to bottom thus the air coming in once fire is running would be preheated to you cold run a damper in it !!!

[@Moparmaga-1]

Great idea. I'll be copying that. The 100 year old 2 story house I own doesn't like getting warm past the living room.

[@larrymason7371]

Best design I've seen on KZbin so far. Thanks for sharing!

[@victorhausauer3018]

Really like the idea! One thing, if you did want to spend a little bit of money, you could hook your fan up to a thermostat and have it regulated. Especially if you had larger blower tube as you described.

[@dustindavidson849]

This is exactly what I needed man, thank you very much, great job!

[@Jasonoid]

Glad I could help, it's an easy build, even with the cheapest welder out there.

[@ruckuswethepeep4384]

Great job,bigger tunes would definitely move more heat. thanks for the great design 👍

[@kevinkibler2181]

Great concept. I will try it.

[@earlrussell1026]

Knowing that heat rises you could angle the pipes that let air into the room from the fireplace and it will create a suction on the intake side so you do not need the fan once they heat up enough.

[@Jasonoid]

It's still not enough air flow without a fan, the fan makes a huge difference.

[@hussssshie]

It would inevitably create a barrier for smoke and ash to go into the room. It has to be either flat, or angled in a way that forces the smoke to go up. I would go for around 7-15°. The more angle you can put on it, the more restrictive it could be before becoming a safety hazard. Also, it will have higher surface area and thermal mass

[@slagletoby]

Don’t need a fan if it’s designed correctly with a minimum of 2” pipe or square stock steel, or rectangle box channel steel, heat rises. The air should pull from the bottom and push out the top. It’s not a bad idea to paint the raw steel with Cerakote ceramic paint to ovoid rust.

[@426superbee4]

That will work to 👍 My budget was around 100 dollar, and i got under that. pipe, elbows, line and blower was under that > The stainless steel pipe will never rot out! I was wanting to put 4" pipe but that was to big, and you could see it > THIS WAY its not seen. What i like to do later on is? make a big long metal box from one end of the fireplace to the other end. 3" wide for the heat to run threw, The holes all up and down the front behind the glass doors. and out into the room. where it want interfere with the glass doors. I think i will just run some more pipe like that, with holes all down the face of it.. Its to cold to work on it now 🥶

[@pbpyro5546]

Do you have a diagram on how you wired the fan and controller with the 12v battery

[@gt9537]

Great video.

[@sfish2684]

This is pretty cool. Looks like my weber grill... kinda. Only four degrees? This is a cool project

[@Jasonoid]

You could probably cook on it LOL

[@carloszheng38]

Good job 👍👍

[@426superbee4]

I'am using 3" ss stove pipe going to hang it over the fire place grate, where it want block or interfere with the damper> Any fire will heat up the stove pipe fast and with a air blower blowing threw the pipe > out into the room 🔥🔥 That the only way i know how to get more heat out of your fireplace > A insert sux. cost to much. If this don't work i'am tearing down and putting a cast iron stove there!

[@hiflowhiflow]

Straight brilliant !!!!!

[@1ggssxxrr]

not bad at all You should look into a sand battery ...

[@patpaluch9842]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. Just one note, at the end of the video you said that now you have a way to jest upbyour house in case of power outage. How are you going to run the fan if there is no electricity? Can it be powered by a car battery or something portable?

[@Jasonoid]

its a 12v fan, you can power it off any 12 battery. Check out my recent LiFePO4 battery build on my channel. It would run a fan and a 12v fridge for days!

[@hankandrox]

Great video! I was just looking at buying a pre made one but the cost is ridiculous! Thanks for the how to

[@Jasonoid]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jongreenepwns]

I notice that this is a 4 year old video. With that being said, if you want increased speed of air coming out of the pipes, you wouldn't want a larger diameter. You would want a smaller diameter due to the Venturi effect. Since you most likely have washers lying around, you could just weld washers with a small opening diameter to the ends of these pipes and immediately get increased velocity of your existing contraption.

[@nevada8462]

Wicked amazing! Thanks

[@ruckuswethepeep4384]

Great job

[@jamiek1714]

Brilliant.

[@Jasonoid]

Thanks!

[@oelvanian]

Hello @jasonnoid, i have a pretty similar system (Equatair) but i want to build a new one more efficient. Could you plz tell me what kind of steel tube do you use? is it a particular steel that resist to high pressure / temp? Tks a lot in advance

[@wilfb1300]

I have the same question

[@Jasonoid]

The thicker the better, I don't know the sizing of the tubing since I don't have this unit anymore.

[@MrAvros]

Bravo! Great idea.. how did you manage to join the iron with the round metal pipe? :)

[@dennisblock2223]

I think it's f****** too f****** cool when people go out of his way to help other people with any problem they have in their house and they do it pretty much free of charge. But I think most people would agree on not mentioning on every little detail like the measurements cuz most people will have a different type of fireplace point out the main idea and the main objective and the important parts of the video. Annoying me everybody's reading and disagreeing lol. Continue on!

[@ProphetessQueen]

You didn't explain the fan make & installation

[@Jasonoid]

All parts are listed in the description, it's simple. Thanks for watching,

[@butch2811]

Hopefully you're still responding to comments on this video but I'm wanting to build something like this soon. How did you connect the ventilation tube to the square end of the pipe? Is the tube flexible enough to just shove into the 3 inch end and work ok?

[@Jasonoid]

Hey Butch, if I was going to make this better I would add more tubes over the fire for more heating surface area and air flow, I felt it was a bit restrictive. I connected that flexible tube to the metal base using metal hvac tape, super durable stuff

[@butch2811]

@@Jasonoid sweet thanks for the info. I was thinking aluminum foil at first but didn't know how it would stay sealed up. Thanks again!

[@RotttyzRbest]

Inspired.

[@ivanlopes9470]

good. smart

[@dadsgonenuts]

Hey bud thanks for the video I was wondering if exhaust tubing would work what do you think ?

[@Jasonoid]

Yeah, exhaust tubing should give you good airflow without restricting it. My tubing on this was a bit small so airflow was pretty slow coming out.

[@runner3033]

I like that idea conceptually - round tubing + mandrel bends alone make a big difference in flow - but I don't know that the 12v fan pushes enough air for it to make a big difference. I like the idea of the using the tube to keep weight/cost manageable (if you don't just have iron laying around). Edit: just checked, blower is 130CFM, which is slightly higher than a PC cooling fan so going nuts on tubing isn't worth much, unless you want to upgrade the blower itself. ;) Other advantage of using exhaust tubing also is it will start working a bit sooner (putting out warm air) as it has less thermal mass (which of course means it cools faster when the fire dies out)

[@ohyeahthatsright3155]

Would larger exhaust pipes restrict the chimney? Excellent job and explanation.

[@Jasonoid]

I haven't had an issue with airflow up the chimney and I don't think thicker piper would cause an issue. Thicker pipes would put more heated air into the room, you could space them out more if needed. I just wasn't happy with the amount of air coming out so I would definitely change the size.

[@wyattrumley1654]

Did you ever try it with bigger tubing? What size are you thinking?

[@Jasonoid]

I didn't get around to doing the bigger tubing but if I was going to make a change it would be at least 1 inch diameter tubing. Thanks for watching!

[@JourneyWithUs13]

❤❤

[@GoForGold256]

Does this draft the smoke and gases into the living space?

[@Jasonoid]

No smoke smells or carbon monoxide, put an alarm right in front of the fireplace. All was safe. It pulls air from the room, heats it, and puts it back into the room.

[@thehugcard]

where do you get the blower at

[@Jasonoid]

Parts are all listed in the video description. Got it from Amazon

[@louonboard]

Excellent! Thank you! Can you comment on the make/model/capacity of the fan?

[@Jasonoid]

All the parts I used are in the description of the video. Thanks for watching!

[@louonboard]

Oooops! My bad! :o) Your invention is brilliant!

[@Jasonoid]

@@louonboard If I made a 2.0 version of this device I would add bigger diameter tubing for higher airflow / less restriction. I would also make the pipes longer to push the heat further into the room.

[@cindye2047]

Did you make the blower/fan?

[@Jasonoid]

Purchased it off ebay, it's a boat engine blower fan.

[@armstronglance]

Are you using an electric welder?

[@Jasonoid]

It was similar to a harbor freight Flux welder I borrowed, I have since purchased a harbor freight flux 125 and it does great! I have a trailer restoration video I put out recently that I used the harbor freight welder for the entire thing, it did great!

[@armstronglance]

@@Jasonoid thanks for the quick reply. I’ve soldered a zillion joints (wires, PWB’s,etc) , but haven’t welded yet.

[@erbinandrade4340]

How much would you charge to build one ?

[@Jasonoid]

Took me like 6 hours of fabrication and about $90 in materials. With a cheap harbor freight welder and grinder / cutoff wheel you could do it too!

[@jessepoopoo]

Make me one please. $$. I don’t know how to weld

[@edvardstark7142]

How did you connect the voltage controller to the blower and what power source did you use?

[@Jasonoid]

12 volt power brick, I just wiring the pwm motor controller to the positive and negative leads.

[@edvardstark7142]

Thanks for the quick reply! Do you Have a recommendation for a power brick or just a 12V cheap car battery?

[@Jasonoid]

@@edvardstark7142 12 volt 1 or 2 amp wall power supply would be best, then you don't have to worry about charging the battery.

[@MrNathanPlatt]

@@Jasonoid came here to ask this - when you say power brick you mean you used a generic laptop charger? Also you say 12v x 1 or 2 amps but your 12v blower is rated for 2.5 amps so that means that you're underpowering your fan a bit right? (This will be my first time playing with pwms and wiring and so on, learning as I go). Great build man, I'm using a couple of your ideas in my project.

[@Jasonoid]

@@MrNathanPlatt laptop power supplies put out about 8 amps and 19 volts, little too high. On amazon or ebay look up a 5 amp 12 volt power adapter, you'll have lots to chose from.

[@blunt750]

Do it make the house smell like smoke?

[@Jasonoid]

No, it takes air from the room, then spits it out in the room warmer.

[@wyattrumley1654]

Even the first couple times you used this is didn’t smell? I made one and it smelt like metal the first couple times. Seems to be getting better

[@Jasonoid]

@@wyattrumley1654 yeah, that's the metal burning off oil, completely normal.

[@xristosgiannakis764]

I have some questions about another patent. Any email so. I can contact thanks

[@joshywashy4039]

A guy welded vehicle echsust pipes

[@ironnads7975]

What is echsust?

[@Anthonybrother]

@@ironnads7975 rammstein

[@drewt.3885]

Could you make me one and I will send $$ I could get my demotions to you... I would pay you for your time... Just think about it I live in Iowa.. Let me know!

[@Jasonoid]

The shipping alone would be over a hundred dollars. Thanks for being interested in the project but I don't think it's too possible

[@drewt.3885]

@@Jasonoid thanks for the response. I understand figured I check.

[@pattygonzales9605]

wood burners stink up the air

[@Jasonoid]

That's a true statement. If your only emergency source of heat is wood, than it's what you gotta use.

[@parasitelivesmatter5878]

Technically, wood is just concentrated solar energy.