Pump and heater on the same electrical circuit?

[Corsara]

I've mentioned this in another thread, but would like to attract more attention and get opinions.

My pool installation is pretty old, so There's a 20 amp line running from the house to the shed, with two switches (one in the house and one in the shed), powering my 3/4 HP pump (11 amp). I am putting in a Hayward H250FDN heater tomorrow, which has electronic ignition and needs a little power to operate.

I'm planning to have the pump and the heater connected in series, and have an extra cut-off switch for the heater. This way if I ever forget the heater running and I switch off the power from the house, the heater will also completely shut down together with the pump.

PS. It is not cost effective to install a second power circuit for the heater.

Do you anticipate problems?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mas985]

I think you meant that the heater and pump will be wired in parallel on the same breaker/switch which is the way I have mine wired. Depending on the heater, this may actually be necessary since some heaters like mine turn on the exhaust fan when there is no flow rate. So if it was wire separately rather than together, the heater fan would turn on when the pump shuts off.

 

[bk406]

The heater only draws 1 amp at 220VAC, 2 amps at 120VAC. No problem.

 

[JamesW]

I the pump is on a timer, you should use a timer that has a "Fireman's Switch". The Fireman's switch will turn the heater off 15 to 20 minutes before turning the pump off to allow the heater to cool down before the water flow stops.

 

[racket]

I the pump is on a timer, you should use a timer that has a "Fireman's Switch". The Fireman's switch will turn the heater off 15 to 20 minutes before turning the pump off to allow the heater to cool down before the water flow stops.

A "firemans switch" is less important than they used to be. Since they have removed the firebrick from the heaters, they retain less heat, so the fireman's switch is not really required anymore.

 

[Corsara]

Guys, need again some help. This morning they installed the heater and everything, but didn't wire it. The guy said I'll have to wire it myself. Here is a picture below, can somebody tell me how to wire this heater? It's an old installation, what I want is to put the heater in parallel with the pump. What do I need to hook up to what?

 

[Corsara]

Ok, well, I ventured with wiring this as I thought I should, and it seems to be working What I did was to wire the black (hot) wire of the heater to the same place where the hot wire for the pump goes, and same with the white. Of course, I put a little switch before the heater, as well as a GFCI Seems to be working and I'll be swimming tomorrow!!!! HAPPY!

 

[JasonLion]