Can't find pilot light on new Hayward H250- help!

[Lrooth]

I had a new HAYWARD H250 Installed last summer. This is my first time lighting the pilot. In the directions it says "find" the pilot at the end of the metal tubing. I laid down with my cheek smashed against the cement and I can't see anything up above the metal piping! I went thru the processes of lighting, but How do I "see" if my pilot is lit? Do I need to go buy one of those dentist mirrors?

What dumb design if Hayward put it up where you can't see it!

Thank you! It's 44 degrees in Pennsylvania today, but will be 85 on Sunday and Monday. How many days will it take for 40,000 gallons to go from 68 to 80 if I get the heater going?

P.s. With the BBB method I got my pool from black to crystal in two weeks!!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[BoDarville]

I have one of those "dentist mirrors" that I often use for servicing my garage and other gas space heaters, so getting one is not a bad idea. It comes in handy. They probably placed the pilot where they did to shield it from the wind to avoid nuisance outages.

As for how long it will take to heat your 40K gallon pool 12°F using that heater, I would figure somewhere between 20 and 30 hours depending on wind, ambient air & ground temperatures length of plumbing run, and how much sun is hitting the pool. I also estimated the efficiency of the heater at 80% which is fairly common among pool heaters. Although the heater burns 250K BTU/hr, not all of that heat goes towards heating the water. Some of it is vented to the atmosphere.

I'm attaching a spreadsheet I built that estimates how long it takes to heat a given volume of water to a target temperature as well as the cost to run. The spreadsheet contains a multiplier to account for some of the factors I mentioned above. Although this multiplier defaults to 1.5, you can change it. Lowering it reduces the estimated time to heat the pool while increasing it (increasing the "conservative-ness" of the estimate) results in a longer heating time. IOW, if the outdoor temperature is higher than the target temperature of the water and you have a good deal of sun hitting the pool, you can lower the multiplier from the default of 1.5. I would not set the multiplier lower than 1, however.

 

[Lrooth]

Thank you! The heat information is very valuable. I personally love math brains. From what you said, I should have warmer water by picnic time on Sunday as long as I get my new pilot lit!

I'm going to try again. Is there any danger in just trying to fire it up to judge whether the pilot is lit? Or, do I need to verify that the pilot is lit for safety reasons.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[BoDarville]

It would definitely be best to make sure the pilot is lit before firing up the heater. In fact, I would think that if you were to try to fire up the heater, and the pilot wasn't lit, that the controls would prevent you from doing so - not to mention that the internal gas valve that supplies gas to the burner would not open and therefore would not supply gas to the burner. That's how modern millivolt gas space heaters work - the control knob on the ones I have will not go past pilot if the pilot is not lit.

The main purpose of the pilot in a millivolt heater is to supply a small electrical current to the burner valve so that it would open and allow gas to the burner. If the pilot were to go out while the heater is running, the burner valve would shut off automatically within seconds to prevent a buildup of unburned raw gas.

 

[Lrooth]

Thank you for the information on the Millivolt setup and fail safes. Very good to understand. I feel safer in my DYI situation.

I did find a you-tube video that covered how to "see" if the pilot is lit. There is a small hole on the left of the far left burner. You can see the pilot flame through that small hole! This information is not in their manual!!!! The manual states: "before you begin, find the pilot by following the silver metal piping to the pilot. The actual pilot mechanism is behind a large mental plate that would need to be removed in order to find it. The little hole works, so I am now able to fire it up with confidence because I can see the flame.

The Hayward H250 fired up very easily. 40,000 gallon pool increased 10 degrees in 20 hours in spite of the outside temperature dropping to 40 last night. I had the solar cover on, too.

Thanks for your help!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[BoDarville]

You're welcome

Owners manuals these days leave a bit to be desired. I often wonder if anyone ever proofreads them.