Make A Wood-Fired Laundry Water Heater

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NO FUEL WASTE

We've used the heater for a year now, and our washday system goes something like this: We start scrubbing when the water gets hot enough. As soon as we draw off any liquid, we replace it immediately with more river water (and stoke the fire, if necessary). By the time we need more hot water for washing, what's in the tub is always right back up to laundry temperature or even higher.

I call the heater "energy efficient" because it runs well on "junk" fuels that would otherwise go to waste. I can't bring myself to use real firewood for doing laundry, so I burn driftwood that's too sandy to saw, branches, chips, bark, paper, cardboard, lumber scraps, and the like. (Long branches and willow stems are especially handy, since they can be slid into the fire a little at a time and don't have to be cut up.)

ADDITIONAL USES

After we finish the wash, I often stew dog food over the same fire. This involves removing the washtub from the shell and replacing it with an older container, which we use only for this purpose. I can then boil up several dozen fish at once . . . enough to feed our huskies for five or six days.

I've also used the heater to brew up large vats of hot dye to tint my fish nets . . . and, occasionally, built a fire in it to turn spoiled fish into a soupy fertilizer for the garden. Perhaps you'll find additional uses, around your place, for what I sincerely believe is the world's easiest-to-make wood-fired water heater.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ole Wik is a longtime expert on using wood fuel efficiently. His very readable publication, Wood Stoves: How to Make and Use Them is available from many bookstores or from Mother's Bookshelf (P.O. Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28791) for $5.95 plus 950 shipping and handling.

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