One more issue.....

[cherylandco]

Edited to say: Looks like I put this in the wrong forum. Sorry!!

As stated before, my husband doesn't like to swim and doesn't like the pool. Part because a) he's tight - it costs money to have a pool! lol b) He can't swim and c) he's cold blooded and water has to be nearing 90 seems like for him to want to be in it. (the kids and I will swim at 70 sometimes though).

My mom also LOVES to swim, but is also cold blooded, so while she wants to swim all the time, she can't.

So, we talked about getting a heater for our pool. In the summer, the kids and I are in the pool constantly, so if dh wants to spend time with us, we need to figure out a way for him to get in.

Someone near here has a Hayward 100,000 BTU H100LD heater for sale. First, would that even do anything to heat my pool (21x41x54? - about 23k gallons). Second, they claim that it can use either natural gas or LP - but according to the Hayward website, the LP is one model number while the natural gas is another. We are in the country, so need the LP for sure. Third, what would all be involved? I would probably just get another LP tank from the gas company - a smaller one than the one we already have and mount it by the pool so we don't have a ton of expenses involved with piping. We also do not have a solar cover. We just use Solar Sun Rings. We'd probably have to get a cover to hold that heat in - but that would require a whole crank/reel system because of the size of our pool. Am I correct in thinking that?

What else would we need to think about?!
Thanks yet AGAIN!!!

 

[JasonLion]

In general it isn't a good idea to get a used heater, unless you get a really good price, because it is impossible to tell what kind of condition the heat exchanger is in.

A 100K heater will certainly do something, probably enough to keep the pool around 90 during the middle of the summer, but you will need to leave it running many hours a day, which also means running the main pump that long as well. It will also cost quite a lot. A swimming pool needs more heat than your entire house, and will use really dramatic amounts of gas. If anything you will need a tank several times as large as your existing tank.

You don't need to get a crank/reel system, though they certainly are nice. Covers can be bunched up and piled somewhere, though a reel is much nicer.

 

[JohnT]

LP has about 92,000BTU per gallon, so your heater will burn about 1 gallon per hour. Raising one pound of water one degree takes one BTU. At 23,000 gallons, your pool contains about 192,000 pounds of water. That heater will require about two hours of run time to raise the water temperature one degree. That's assuming no heat loss.

I'm just a little south of your latitude, and I have my 21,000 gallon pool right below 90 degrees with a relatively small solar heat system and the solar cover off the pool. Normally don't have any problem staying close to that all summer, just putting the cover on when it cools off or gets cloudy.

Very much worth considering if you have shade-free space to install them. I have a little over $1200 in my system, and operation is basically free since you have to run the pump anyway.

 

[duraleigh]

Double ditto what John said. Get solar if you get anything!