Heater Damage

[smokus]

Hi,

First time poster but have been lurking for a while, very very informative forum.

I live in Canada and have been paying a company to close my pool every season. I just tried to open up my pool and water was pouring out of my Hayward Millivolt natural gas heater.

Upon inspecting the heat exchanger, there are four 1 inch cracks in the copper pipes. ISee attached picture (hope it worked) I Googled frozen copper pipes and every picture looks like the crack I have on the heat exchanger. The cracks flare out indicating a crack fracture due to pressure.

Now of course the pool service company I paid to close the pool to prevent this from happening is claiming it is due to corrosion. PLease let me know if he is full of IT!!!!

Can anyone share a picture of a leaky pool exchanger due to corrosion? I could not find one to show him.

Thanks.

 

[Richard320]

The only one's I'm aware of are here: Maintain your chemicals correctly

 

[ps0303]

I don't have pictures of corrosion leak but split copper like that is from expansion of frozen water most likely. Corrosion would more likely be pin holes in the copper, not a big split like that. Also clearly a sign of bulging as well.

 

[danpik]

Nope. That is a classic sign of water freezing in pipes. Also a classic case of the winterizer realizing he messed up and does not want to bear the cost of replacing the heat exchanger. fortunately, if the cracks are all in places like the one shown, any competent radiator repair shop can solder them up.

Here is a picture of mine when I let my water chemistry get out of hand. Corrosion



Here is a picture of it after I repaired it.



Not the best looking repair, but it has held now for 6 years.

 

[smokus]

Awesome folks, thanks for the quick replies. This gives me some ammo to deal with the pool guy.

Thanks.