posted 5 years ago
There are some challenges with the "water in a coil around the chimney" part. Lots of people have tried that to preheat maple sap when boiling syrup and it's really tricky to get the flow right. Too fast and you hardly heat the water at all, too slow and it boils to steam, spits hot water and the bubbles won't let the water through. Then, on top of that, it's dependent upon the heat of the chimney. So the flow rate ends up never being right.
But if you're pumping water through it and not trying to warm the water appreciably, then it's doable. Just keep the flow high enough that it never gets close to boiling and you'd be fine.
Good luck!