Pentair Heat Pump Question

[hookem]

So I was hoping someone on here could give me their opinion on my situation. As the weather is getting warmer here in Texas, I decided to turn on my Pentair heat pump for my inground pool. The pump does its initial warmup and then I hear the pump kick on, except no warm water is coming out of the jets. Since my heater is still under warranty, I had Pentair send out someone to take a look. Unfortunately I was not home when they came to look at it. All they did was turn on the unit, wait for the pump to kick on and then tell me that there is nothing wrong with it and that I might need to pay for them to come out since my unit was actually functioning. I spoke to the tech manager and I told him that there is still no warm water coming out of the jets. He told me that I would not be able to feel the difference in the water temperature when the heater was running. I told him that was incorrect as all last year when we ran the heater, people would stand in front of the jets to feel the warm water coming out. He then said that something was wrong with my unit last year as that should not happen and that this year my heater is running normally. I am no expert here, but I do not understand how a heater can heat the pool without putting water in the pool that is warmer than the temperature of the pool. The mgr then told me to wait until the weather warms up some more and then check the heater again. Pool water temperature was 70 and outside air around 75 yesterday and I could still not feel warm water coming out. Sorry for the long post, but just very frustrated and I guess confused.

 

[JasonLion]

Depending on your setup, the water coming out of the heater should only be less than one to perhaps five degrees (at most) warmer than the pool water. That temperature difference isn't always obvious, and will be significantly smaller when the air temperature is low compared to higher air temperatures.

 

[swimcmp]

I have been selling the Pentair heat and cool heat pumps since they were introduced. The only time I have ever felt a differece with a heat pump is when it was on cool. The heat side isn't going to warm alot you will have minimal difference in the return water temp. If you ere runing a variable or two speed pump you coul have a moe noticable differnce.

 

[hookem]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I did a quick test of the temperature of the water coming out of one of the water fall. I put it in the tube itself where the water comes out. It was 68 degrees without the heater on and 70 degrees with the heater on. Is that normal? I don't understand why last spring it was very noticeable the difference in temperature and now I can not tell at all. The Pentair tech support people told me this morning that it could be up to 8 degrees different.

 

[JasonLion]

The temperature difference depends on a lot of factors. Colder water gains more heat, warmer air temperature means more heat gain, lower flow rates mean more heat gain.

But perception of the heat difference depends on even more factors. For example temperatures nearer body temperature are easier to distinguish from each other.

 

[hookem]

Thanks Jason. I had a good discussion regarding all of those factors with the local service rep and I am starting to get a better understanding of exactly how heat pumps work vs other heaters. I think a big issue is the colder than normal winter we had here in central Texas. My pool temperature is most likely colder than it was the same time last year. We are going to do another test once the pool water warms up some and we have air temperatures consistently reaching around 80 during the day.

 

[Loudonno]

Run it for 24 hrs and see if you have a temp rise.you can also measure the air temp coming out of the heat pump vs ambient air temp (it should be colder)