Online Purchase of Ray Pak Pool Heaters

[RickN]

I wanted to warn fellow pool/spa owners of the dangers in purchasing ANY Ray Pak products online. Bottom line is once you purchase you are on your own. Factory defect? Too bad. They will not even respond to your emails and their phone number is not published. Just read their "internet purchase policy" section of their own website. After reading that I found that Ray Pak sells heaters online themselves through Amazon! What hypocrites!

I purchased a model 266A millivolt heater in Feb. 2010 to replace another Ray Pak millivolt heater that was over 30 years old. I figured why mess with something that works. Right? Well four years in this 266A blows a hole through one of the water tubes right under the fins that are pressed onto the tubes. What a piece of junk! And now they want almost $600 for just the part? I will braze it myself first!

This is a millivolt heater. One gas line and two water lines to complete installation outdoors. There are no "special instructions" as Ray Pak claims to install this heater.

Do yourself a favor and buy another brand!

 

[jblizzle]

Interesting as we hear nothing but good things about Raypak and most the people in the industry on the forum seem to recommend them above all others due to design and ease of repair if needed.

Much of the pool industry has gone to much shorter warranties on DIY installs, so not sure another brand would be any better in that regard. I mean after 4 years ANY of the manufactures would be out of warranty I think.

 

[ps0303]

I wanted to warn fellow pool/spa owners of the dangers in purchasing ANY Ray Pak products online. Bottom line is once you purchase you are on your own. Factory defect? Too bad. They will not even respond to your emails and their phone number is not published. Just read their "internet purchase policy" section of their own website. After reading that I found that Ray Pak sells heaters online themselves through Amazon! What hypocrites!

I purchased a model 266A millivolt heater in Feb. 2010 to replace another Ray Pak millivolt heater that was over 30 years old. I figured why mess with something that works. Right? Well four years in this 266A blows a hole through one of the water tubes right under the fins that are pressed onto the tubes. What a piece of junk! And now they want almost $600 for just the part? I will braze it myself first!

This is a millivolt heater. One gas line and two water lines to complete installation outdoors. There are no "special instructions" as RayPak claims to install this heater.

Do yourself a favor and buy another brand!

I have been dealing with Raypak/Rheem for well over 8 years and have yet to find a factory defect in their products. I install hundreds of these units every year and never have I had an issue unless it was thru the fault of the homeowner. These issues would be due to poor water management that lead to holes in the heat exchanger.

Had your issue been within the first year of the warranty they probably would have worked with you on a replacement. However, you are three years out of the warranty period and it's well within their rights to not warranty the unit. Maybe had it been 14 months, you could have squeaked by but not three years. That ridiculous to think they would honor something at this time period.

I will continue to standby Raypak units as they are far better than the other units on the market.