Heater recommendations

[seabird]

hi, i'm want to buy a heater for our pool to help with the shoulder seasons - live in the toronto area. i like the idea of solar, but am thinking it will be slow to heat up and not serve our purpose so am leaning towards gas - would you agree?

are there particular mfgs that should be avoided? raypak, laars, hayward?

in terms of btu's i think i could get away with 100-125k, but am reading that more is better so thinking 200-225k - would you agree? my agp is a 15' round 48" deep

thanks rob

 

[JasonLion]

It all depends on what your "purpose" is. Different heaters have different pros and cons. Which is best depends very much on your situation, which you don't describe in much detail.

 

[seabird]

ok....not sure what more i can tell you in terms of purpose and/or situation. what additional info would help?

 

[Speedo]

I have a 100k btu heater and for my situation it works well, but if I were to need the pool to jump 10 degrees in a few hours I would be out of luck. Mine gives me about 1 degree/hr, having the solar cover on helps quite a bit too, to retain heat.

If you want to heat your pool faster, go for a higher btu heater. Most often I use mine to maintain a temperature or to get a slight increase, maybe 4 or 5 degrees between morning and noon on a cooler day or to keep it above a certain temp overnight.

I would also assume in your case there is the chance of it getting cold enough overnight that a smaller heater might not be able to keep up..?

If a 225k is in your price range, go for it.