Propane Heater Tips and Tricks

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Car54

Active member
May 19, 2020
36
Tampa
Hi all - love this forum!

We have a 20k gal pool with a propane heater. The pool also has a spa spill over. The spa heats up in about 30 minutes which is great but heating the pool is rather expensive. Looking for tips to heat the pool the best way.

Here are some things I've toyed with:

Diverter Valve in boost mode (this makes a huge difference and is great for "pre-heating")
Setting the pool to spa mode, but manually switching to the pool drain which allows the spa to catch a lot of heat. Allow's people a place to get warmed up
Heating the spa to 95°, then dumping the water into the pool and repeating.
Added liquid solar cover to the pool

Any other things that you can recommend to get the pool from about 79° to 88° for the weekends?
 
HI and welcome!! The rain we just had may lower the temp again..sigh............

I am not sure of the best way to heat it but to keep the heat in you should be using a proper cover. The liquid stuff does not work very well at all if there is the slightest move from wind or a leaf falling in the pool it messes up. Of course a proper cover is a pain to get on and off but.........it might be worth it from the warmer water!
 
Only a real pool cover makes a difference in how quickly the pool warms up.

All the rest are just playing mind games. It takes getting BTUs into the water which the heater does at a fixed rate. Turn on the heater and wait for enough BTUs.

How many BTUs is your heater?
 
Real thermal dynamics are all BTUs are the same.

400k heater will raise your 20K pool by 1.92 degrees an hour best case. Want to see the math?
 
54, Allen is spot on as usual. Free heat isn’t a thing and if it was, nobody would have heaters, or furnaces. The best anybody can do with their pool is to use a solar cover to reduce evaporation which is where 70% of your heat loss comes from. You said it’s not an option so anything else will just be things that make you feel better but don’t really work.
 
Car54 said:
Would it be better to heat the spa in a closed loop, then dump it into the pool?
Click to expand...

Makes no difference. It is the same BTUs going into the pool. Just through an intermediary where you create some losses.
 

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Boost mode is simply 100% SWG output for 24 hours. It’s a longer time ‘on’ than 60%, But on is on. If the heater can handle on (it can), how long doesn’t matter.

the battle about boost mode will rage on forever though. For most units it depletes lifespan at a cost of about 8 cents per hour. Some of us want to squeeze every minute of life out of the unit, Some of us never want to have lug jugs and appreciate that it’s cheaper and easier to ‘press the button’.
 
You paid for the chlorine in the cell do you might as well use it. Trying to “save” the cell is false economy.
 
Hi guys, sorry for the confusion. The boost mode I referred to is marked on the Hayward valve, which really just bypasses the filter. So my real question is any harm in running bypassed for eight hours or so to get max heat?
 
Millions of filters are off for 8 hours or more at a time. As long as you do run it for however long you need also, it’s fine.
 
Car54 said:
Hi guys, sorry for the confusion. The boost mode I referred to is marked on the Hayward valve, which really just bypasses the filter. So my real question is any harm in running bypassed for eight hours or so to get max heat?
Click to expand...

Show me a picture of this boost valve. The heater is after the filter. Taking the filter offline does not change the amount of BTUs into the water.

Mind games again.
 
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