New Pool Owner Just Bought a Heat Pump

[TCpoolnoob]

I became a pool owner last July and enjoyed a sparkling clean and cold pool until we shut it down in September. This year, I cut down a 50' Pine that was growing 6 ft from the pool edge and blocked the sun for 4-5 hrs of the day. We now have full sun on the pool for the majority of the day. Even with the tree gone, the whole family agreed that we need a heater!

I like to support local business so my first stop was to our local pool shops. Their prices were high as I expected but frankly, I experienced a pretty high level of "I don't give a s&%^ attitude from both of them. I decided the extra cash, almost $2,000.00 more, wasn't worth it based mainly on their attitudes. If they treat me that way before I buy, how will they treat me after they have my $5,000 for a heat pump? Yep, $5,000.00 for a heat pump installed and plumbed but not wired. Electrical was on me to figure out or hire out.

I chose this unit on Amazon and it is supposed to be delivered on the 5th of May.

http://www.hayward-pool.com/shop/en...ro-in-ground-heat-pump--140-000-btus-hp21404t

2 questions to start off with:

1. Does it make any difference if I install this heat pump in full sun vs full shade?

As you can see from the pic, my plumbing is somewhat haphazard at this point. Their used to be solar panels on the roof and an additional pump. I also have 3 older timers 1 for the pool sweep, 1 for the main pump and 1 for the no longer existing pump for the solar.

2. Can someone post a link to a pic of what they feel is the optimal plumbing for this scenario? Main pump, sand filter, heat pump and polaris pool cleaner.

 

[duraleigh]

The heat pump will not care if iut is sun or shade. I have no pics to help with your setup. Why don't you draw a diagram, post it, and people will comment?

 

[pooldv]

The heat pump needs to be plumbed in after the filter. If you have a SWG then that goes after the heater. And then on to the pool. If you are considering reinstalling solar then the order of plumbing would be filter, solar, heat pump, chlorine, pool. Enjoy your warm pool!

 

[TCpoolnoob]

The heat pump will not care if iut is sun or shade. I have no pics to help with your setup. Why don't you draw a diagram, post it, and people will comment?

Thanks, I was unsure whether it would be helpful or not to have sun on the heat pump. Made sense in my head based on my limited understanding of how a heat pump operates.

I'll give a try on the diagram but I was hoping the pic I posted would be helpful.

In the pic, the first pump is for the polaris pool cleaner, 2nd is main pump for filter, then sand filter, beyond that is where the solar pump was plumbed. I'm planning on capping that off and locating the heat pump there, next to the ladders.


Again, I don't know much about this stuff yet which is why I joined the site. But it looks to me like I have quite a few "t's" and 90' fittings that could slow down the flow?
I also want to make sure the polaris is plumbed correctly. Currently it is joined by a "t" after the filter which seems inefficient as well. Regardless, I'm going to be doing away with the notched 2x4 currently holding the mess up.

I just want to make sure I'm plumbing it the correct way the first time. Hoping to find pics on this site or the web that I can work from.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

The heat pump needs to be plumbed in after the filter. If you have a SWG then that goes after the heater. And then on to the pool. If you are considering reinstalling solar then the order of plumbing would be filter, solar, heat pump, chlorine, pool. Enjoy your warm pool!

Thanks for the reply! At this point, I'm not planning on using solar at all. If the heat pump doesn't get the job done this year, that might be a project for next season.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

https://www.hayward-pool.com/pdf/manuals/HeatPro-Installation-HP2xxxxT-HP2xxxxBT.pdf

I read through this manual which I believe is correct for the unit that will be delivered in a few days. On page 6 under location I found that Hayward provides some direction on where to place the unit.
"The heat pump will perform more efficiently when placed in direct sunlight"

This is a 140,000 btu unit but as a new pool owner, I have concerns.

Specifically, will that unit be enough to get the job done if it isn't in the optimal location?

Having said that, I've decided to put it on the far side of the sand filter in the pic and see how it goes. If I need to move it into full sun, I will have to dig up some rose bushes and re route some irrigation.

Obviously, I'm hoping the unit will perform well in the first spot and I'll never need to move it.

I'll post up some pics before and after once I am finished with installing it.

 

[pooldv]

Good info, thanks for posting that. I'm thinking that sun or not will not make that big of a difference.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

Ok, I just installed the heat pump myself. Took me around 4 hours including a trip to the local hardware store to buy fittings to re plumb the mess I had. I also had to install a new breaker, run new electrical lines and bond the heat pump and two pump motors. Not super proud of my time but happy everything seems to be running smoothly with no leaks or electrical issues.
Heat pump is humming along, shooting cold air out the top and pumping warmer water into the pool. I got it up and going at 3:45 and it's been about an hour. Still no change on the temp reading of the unit. It's reading 67 degrees but the floating thermometer is reading 72, up from 70 at startup.

I bought the 140,000 btu Hayward and have a 32,000 -35,000 gallon pool. Glad I didn't go for the 110,000 btu model.

No worries at this point but I'm hoping to wake up to 80 plus degrees in the morning.

Here's a few pics:

 

[TCpoolnoob]

Looks like I hit the pic limit already on this forum?
Here's a success pic.

 

[pooldv]

Nice work! Congrats. I'm a little jealous.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

Hmm it was windy and mid 60's today. Only gained 1 degree since start up today. Hoping to see an increase in heat by the morning.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

Well, I guess I should have checked the weather report before posting my expectations of the heat pump. I walked out to check the temp just now and found it in defrost mode and then it returned to heat mode with a reading of 67 degrees. That's a 1 degree drop overnight with no cover. I thought it felt a little chilly so I checked my phone and saw it is 35 f outside right now! I know this unit won't work below 50 f from reading the manual.

The good news is we are supposed to get to the 80's all week with lows in the upper 40's to low 50's.

I'll track the heat pump's progress today and post up the results this evening.

 

[pooldv]

Whoa! 35 will keep the HP busy!

 

[TCpoolnoob]

Whoa! 35 will keep the HP busy!

I'm glad you posted that cause I've been wondering why most everybody else that have similar sized pools are in the 20-25,000 gallon range. I was going off what the former owner and a pool store employee gave me for a guestimate capacity in the pool. One said 32,000 the other 34,000 or so.

I just walked out there and measured the pool using this tool.
http://www.pentairpool.com/support/calculators/pool-volume-calc/poolcalc.htm

I come up with 23,490 gallons for my pool using this calculator which is more in line with what I'm seeing in others signature lines.

Provided that is an accurate calculation of my pool, I'm pretty disappointed in the lack of performance of this heat pump.

Once it warmed up this morning around 10am, the heat pump read 68 degrees F. Just checked it now at 11:20 and it is still 68 degrees F.

I was hoping for a 1 degree increase per hour but I'm not seeing that yet.

 

[pooldv]

PoolMath also has a pool volume calculator down toward the bottom.

I don't have any experience with a heat pump. But, when our solar panels first start heating up in spring it seems to take a little while to start heating up the water. I think it takes a little time to heat up the gunite and the pool mass. The good news is that once things start to warm up it seems to hold the heat and help keep the temp up on cooler days.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

I'm hoping so. The heat pump only made it to 73 around 5pm. It seemed to be gaining 1 degree every hour and a half. I let it run until 7pm and it was still at 73. Our local temps drop pretty quickly this time of year so I guess it may have been to cold to heat?

I'm hoping it will at least make 80 degrees tomorrow. If it doesn't make it, I'm either going to reinstall it in another location with full sun or just send it back to the manufacturer.

I expected it to take some time to heat up but not this long.

Am I expecting too much out of a heat pump?

 

[pooldv]

Yes, I think so. It isn't going to heat as fast with air temps below 70. And not running at night effectively cuts your heating time in half. I see lots of threads discussing that it takes several days to heat up a pool. I'd give it a few weeks to get to know how it works.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

I had the pump and heat pump off last night. Pool went from 73 down to 68 with no cover.

Started today at 68 around 9am and it made it all the way to 78 today.

I put the solar cover on and left the heat pump running tonight. Tomorrow I'm hoping to find it at least 78 in the morning and we can make our run to 85 tomorrow.

Interesting variance in temp reporting. Heat pump is generally showing about 4 degrees colder than the floating thermometer.

Of course heat rises but I was surprised to see such a difference between the two.

 

[pooldv]

That sounds like some good progress. We had the same thing, the solartouch was 3 degrees lower than the floater. I doubt the floaters are all that precise.

 

[TCpoolnoob]

Good news, the heat pump was still reading 78 this morning at 9am although it got down to the low 40's last night. I just checked it at noon and its reading 81 at the heat pump.
I set the target temp at 86 because my wife is cold blooded and I'm hopeful that it will reach that easily today.