Two Heaters Separate Controls in AquaLink RS?

[Bfisher79]

Trying to get my facts straight with our pool automation setup and PB is being less than helpful. Prior to their crew coming out this past Friday for punchlist items (none of which involved the heaters), we were able to control our propane heater for the spa and our electric heater for the pool separately with the main "Spa Heat" and "Pool Heat" options within the main Aqualink app interface and set temperatures for each separately. We realized once they left that they screwed something up as now both options only trigger the propane heater, and the only way to turn on the electric heater is via the "Heat Pump" option (which from what I can see is for solar heaters), which does not give us the ability to set a target temp to automatically turn the pool heater on or off. Their response has been that it's an Aqualink limitation and that this is the only way that we can control the two heaters, which is total Crud since they were working independently before. My guess is when they were adding in actuators/switches for our water features they miswired or misnamed something and either they don't know, or they do and don't care to get it fixed. Either that or when the added in the controls for our water features they removed the heater from the system because there wasn't enough space, something that was never mentioned as a limitation during our discussions.

We are going to be pushing them to fix it (among resolving other numerous issues) but am I completely off base in thinking this separation of heaters and temperature controls would be a perfectly normal setup within the app/system? From what I can see, it's an AquaLink RS PureLink system with an RS6 controller and we have one pump and two separate heaters as far as equipment.

 

[ajw22]

Is your "electric heater" a Heat Pump?

What model "electric heater"?

Post pics of your equipment pad so we can see how the two heaters are plumbed.

 

[ajw22]

The Aqualink temperature control should cycle whichever heaters are active as per point 5....

 

[Bfisher79]

Is your "electric heater" a Heat Pump?

What model "electric heater"?

Post pics of your equipment pad so we can see how the two heaters are plumbed.

Electric heater I guess is a heat pump/exchanger - AquaCal Tropical T135 Heat Pump 132k BTU. Gas one is Jandy JXi 400k BTU. Plumbing from what I can see has water going into electric first, then electric out goes to gas in, then gas out wraps back around equipment to pool return and spa return junction area.

 

[ajw22]

Is your AquaCal connected using the SMART Controller RS-485 connection?

SMART Controllers

 

[Bfisher79]

The Aqualink temperature control should cycle whichever heaters are active as per point 5....

View attachment 481765

The Aqualink temperature control should cycle whichever heaters are active as per point 5....

View attachment 481765

Honestly if the issue was just naming at this point (“Solar” or “heat pump” instead of “pool heat”) it’d be one thing, but we don’t even have that option (see screenshot). They told us now the only way to turn on our electric heat is via the web interface and selecting “heat pump”.

We aren’t on the best terms with our builder at this point and I can’t trust that what they’re telling me is accurate, particularly since it was previously working with the separate “pool heat” and “spa heat” toggles.

 

[Bfisher79]

Is your AquaCal connected using the SMART Controller RS-485 connection?

SMART Controllers

Honestly I don’t know, we haven’t opened up the panel yet to look at the wiring and setup that they did.

 

[ajw22]

I think your problem may be in your IAqualink Setup but I never had one to get into it. Maybe @PoolGate can help.

Do the Spa Heater and Pool Heater sliders work?

 

[Bfisher79]

I think your problem may be in your IAqualink Setup but I never had one to get into it. Maybe @PoolGate can help.

Do the Spa Heater and Pool Heater sliders work?

They worked previously (whether set by the electrician or the propane company rep I’m not sure) with the pool one turning on only the electric and the spa turning on only the gas, but now both trigger only the propane. PB is telling us this is how it always worked and that it can’t control the two separately, which we’ve called bull on.

 

[ajw22]

They worked previously (whether set by the electrician or the propane company rep I’m not sure) with the pool one turning on only the electric and the spa turning on only the gas, but now both trigger only the propane. PB is telling us this is how it always worked and that it can’t control the two separately, which we’ve called bull on.

My guess they need to remap the Device Setup in iAqualink so Spa Heater controls the Solar Valve the HP is now connected to.

 

[NCMike]

I also have a heat pump and gas heater. Take the cover off your pool panel with the buttons on it and take a picture. That will show us how your gas heater and heat pump are connected. Assuming the physical wiring is correct, the only thing I can think of is to make sure that DIP switch S2, bit 1, is switched to on so the heat pump priority is turned on.(the location of this is shown on the sticker inside your panel) This is what tells the system to use the heat pump instead of the gas heater for the pool. Also, go into your web interface and select system setup. Then check to see if the heat pump priority option is on there as well.

 

[PoolGate]

I am not sure I have seen this configuration either. Usually the system sees multiple heaters in priority order and not one used for one function and another used for another. Is it possible that before one of your heaters was not set up to be controlled via automation but instead used its own internal temp gauge? Then, when you activated a feature like the spa, the heater got flow and turned on. Meaning Aqualink wasn't really controlling it.

 

[ajw22]

I see two heaters plumbed in series with one pump. The HP heating the water before it goes through the gas heater.

I do not see the heaters physically dedicated to the pool and spa.

You can use either heater or both to heat the pool or spa.

On the Aqualink you choose which body of water you are filtering and heating and should be able to enable which heaters are active. You have one temperature set point on the Aqualink for it to heat that body of water.

 

[NCMike]

Since I have basically the same setup as @Bfisher79 , I did some poking around in my heaters and aqualink panel this morning. My gas heater is connected by the 2 wire method as referenced in the manual to the green terminal bar posts 1 and 2. My heat pump is connected by RS485. When I am in the iAquaLink app, I have the same options as Bfisher79 posted above. When I have Filter Pump "on", the Pool Heater option turns on the gas heater. When Filter Pump is "on" and I select Spa Heat, it shows a standby message. I assume its waiting for Spa Mode to be selected. When Spa mode is selected, then the Spa Heater turns on the gas heater. If Spa Mode is selected and I choose the Pool Heater, it shows the standyby message again.

To get the heat pump to work. I have to go into the web interface and select "Other Devices On/Off" at the bottom of the screen. From there I select Heat Pump to enable it. With the Heat pump enabled from there, the heat pump turns on and off automatically based on the Pool Temperature set point on the main iAqualink App interface. If I set the pool temp to 50, the heat pump turns off, if I set the pool temp to 90, the heat pump turns on and my pump speed increases.

So, my heat pump is always "ON". It is controlled by the Pool Temp set point only on the app. The Pool Heater button in the app turns on the gas heat as well if I want to run both at the same time. Spa mode appears to work the same way. Heat pump is on and trying to help heat the spa up based on the Spa temperature selected. I can turn on the Spa Heater also the heat it up faster.

With all that said, I am not sure what the "Heat Pump Priority" button does in the web interface.

 

[drepich]

I am going through this exact setup problem also, and it works exactly as described by NCmike except one problem. The aqualink will turn off the heat pump when slide the spa heat button on, and it's enabled in the web as described. So both heaters will never run together, it selects one or the other. How do I fix that other than manually going to the gas heater and taking it out of standby and cranking the temperature up?

Tried everything even the reps were here and left without it working right.