Best IG nat gas pool heater brand?

[fairplay13]

Hi there,

I am in central Ontario and looking to replace a broken heater. I am wondering what everyone recommends when it comes to IG nat gas pool heaters?
Jandy, Hayward, Raypak?

Thanks everyone!
-Adam

 

[jblizzle]

A quick search of the forum would determine that Raypak gets the best feedback.

 

[ps0303]

Raypak! It is the simplest most straight forward heater with out any extra bells/whistles. Nothing extra to break and cost you more down the road.

 

[budgetplan1]

Raypak! It is the simplest most straight forward heater with out any extra bells/whistles. Nothing extra to break and cost you more down the road.

 

[biggdaddy3456]

Actually it depends if you have a saltwater pool vs. Chlorine. Hayward is better for saltwater...its internal parts are deigned to resist corrosion from saltwater. If chlorine then Raypak is slightly better but not worth paying an extra $200...if you can get the same btus with Raypak for under $200 difference from Hayward, i would say go for it. If its over $200 difference, get Hayward. I have a saltwater pool...my new Hayward is awesome. Fires up and heats the whole pool. And is pretty small in size

 

[jblizzle]

I have never heard this before. They all use copper or cupro-nickle heat exchangers. What proof do you have that Hayward is more resistant?

 

[ps0303]

Actually it depends if you have a saltwater pool vs. Chlorine. Hayward is better for saltwater...its internal parts are deigned to resist corrosion from saltwater. If chlorine then Raypak is slightly better but not worth paying an extra $200...if you can get the same btus with Raypak for under $200 difference from Hayward, i would say go for it. If its over $200 difference, get Hayward. I have a saltwater pool...my new Hayward is awesome. Fires up and heats the whole pool. And is pretty small in size

There is no difference on brand/make for salt vs chlorine. This just simply is false. Yes copper vs cupro-nickle heat exchangers but even with constant poor chemical management you can eat thru cupro-nickle heat exchangers. Takes a little longer but they aren't bullet proof. Also, Hayward is usually the higher priced unit just given the name factor.

As stated above "Raypak! It is the simplest most straight forward heater with out any extra bells/whistles. Nothing extra to break and cost you more down the road." If you have one of the newer Hayward FD units, wait till your Hayward springs a leak in the heat exchanger, very common on the Hayward's due to the extrusion process on the copper, or the display board goes, or the ignitor control board resistor burns up, or when the keypad designates because they aren't protecting it from the elements. All issues I see over and over again on the FD Haywards. I and other techs I know have spoken at length with Hayward reps who seem to agree with all of these being issues yet they have told us that the Hayward engineers don't see problems. So I guess we are just making them up.

Now don't get me wrong, Hayward is a good company and has a very trusted name in the pool business but this FD model heater doesn't live up to the name. Back in the day they had an older FD style heater, IDL2 which also had issues right from the get go and they eventually scrapped it and went back to making a newer version of the ED1 which as the ED2 and that was a solid heater. Raypak had their issues in the early days but they certainly have learned from their mistakes/short comings and now have a very solid unit. I just hope they don't go screwing it up.

OK , rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.