Hot Water Heater For Dredge?

[sjmpainter]

Went to the claim at Canyon Creek last week to see how things look. I was surprised to see some creek open.

Being I have a bad case of spring fever I have decided on spring dredging this year so thanks for the post.

Anyone know where to get a water heater for the dredge? Not looking to set up a heated wet suit just want a bucket of hot water to warm the hands in.

[Bear]

What I am going to use is a tankless hot water heater because I want it on demand, not constant.

A few years ago north of Fairbanks during some dredging in May I saw a lady who would keep a pot of water heated on the side of the creek with a one burner stove. When she got cold she would make sure it wasn't to hot and then pour it right into her suit.  She was pretty tough.  

[sjmpainter]

Keep me up to date on the" on demand" idea. I've looked at that but not sure that is the way I want to go.

Sure would have liked to see that gal dumping a pot of hot water down the suit - bet that was a site

Getting the new dredge ready to go. I added boat plugs to the floats and replaced the stock carpet with deep v matting and miners moss.

Oh a little paint too!!!!

[Steve Herschbach]

I have seen people keep a burner and pot with water ready to heat up. Here is my best solution. I tapped the pump for a water supply. I removed the protective cover from the muffler, and wrapped the muffler as tight as I could with copper tubing, then wrapped it with as much aluminum foil as would fit under the muffler cover. The put cover back on, though this part could be skipped depending on the design and if there were enough room or not. The tubing and aluminum is protection enough against burns.

There is a pet cock adjustment right after the tap on the pump. The slower the water flow, the warmer the water. I simply put a hose on it and into a five gallon bucket on the floats and let it run. Man, it was nice. I kept the drysuit gloves and hood in there before donning, sheer heaven donning warm! Or as you noted, just sticking cold hands in that water has a remarkable effect on making me feel warmer. The water could be dumped in my panning tub at the end of the day for panning cons in warm water. This does not really give you enough warm water flow to run a warm suit operation - you need a custom exhaust muffler manifold that puts the tubing inside the the muffler instead of on the outside to get enough heat exchage for more flow. But this is a very low cost and easy way to get a continuous supply of warm water for all the purposes described.

Remember on all my posts to click photos to enlarge.

I have also just toted a large thermos of hot water along. Does not get simpler than that for at least dumping in gloves and hood.

[sjmpainter]

I could live with that set up. Looking at my exhaust on my GX 200, it must have been a trick to pack that tube in the exhaust shroud?

Any reason you are not using the factory side port?

This is a good picture it shows the sluice adjustment for the older dredge. Wish my dredge had that, sliding the box on the rail dose not work well!

[Bear]

I will post some pictures when I finish the water system.

Make sure you pull that tray out a little to allow fines the drop into the undercurrent box.  Here is a pic of how far I pull mine out for my creek that I usually work.  I also added some additional moss.