Gas supply line issues for pool heater

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Just had a call with the gas company. Turns out my home is set up as a high pressure (2 psi) system as ChristopherDB guessed. So this explains why I have regulators on every branch and why I'm getting sufficient flow even though the supply lines are undersized. The gas company assured me that even though its a 425 meter, the system could handle delivery of over 900 BTU/hour which should be enough for my needs. The supply installation near the pad could still stand to be cleaned up, but it doesn't look to be the root cause of my intermittent heater issues.

I ordered a manometer so I can check the pressure at the output of the gas valve, perhaps that needs some tweaking.
 
cptkirk said:
Below is a picture of the supply near the heater. It is 1" coming out of the ground into the regulator. Then immediately after the regulator there is a reducer, then the 3/4" flex, which leads into an elbow then hard pipe into the gas valve.
View attachment 329824
Click to expand...
That flex line looks a bit squirrely to me...
 
I would run the meter clock test again but time how long it takes to make 10 revolutions instead of 1 (then divide by 10...). This will help average out any testing error. Sounds like you're pretty close, though.

I'll be interested to see what the manometer test shows. Make sure you test before the unit starts and after it's at full fire to see if/how much of a pressure drop there is.
 
MITBeta said:
I would run the meter clock test again but time how long it takes to make 10 revolutions instead of 1 (then divide by 10...). This will help average out any testing error. Sounds like you're pretty close, though.

I'll be interested to see what the manometer test shows. Make sure you test before the unit starts and after it's at full fire to see if/how much of a pressure drop there is.
Click to expand...

In addition, if you can turn on every gas appliance in the house full bore I would do a meter test with that too.
 
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cptkirk said:
What am I gaining from this test? Although I may not have stated it here, I know that the heater sometimes fails to light even when it's the only thing running.
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It would tell you if you have enough gas supply for all of your appliances.
 
Here are the results:
  • All appliances except pool heater: 167 CFPH
  • All appliances and pool heater: 545 CFPH
  • Pool heater alone: 378 CFPH
These were independent measurements, looks like the pool heater consumption is the same whether other appliance are running or not.
 
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cptkirk said:
Here are the results:
  • All appliances except pool heater: 167 CFPH
  • All appliances and pool heater: 545 CFPH
  • Pool heater alone: 378 CFPH
These were independent measurements, looks like the pool heater consumption is the same whether other appliance are running or not.
Click to expand...

This is good news it means your service can supply all of your appliances at the same time. Gas starvation is an issue with CO problems.
 

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