Pool Heater

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jaindesi

jaindesi

Gold Supporter
May 15, 2019
125
Bridgewater, NJ
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
We have a pool heater that came with the house. We have never used or tested it since I moved here in Dec 2018. Today I try to switch it on and nothing happens. The display is blank. I checked the breaker, switch on the heater and gas valve. everything is on. There is no separate breaker for the Pool heater. Only one for Pool. (probably controls the pump/filter/Heater). What can I do to troubleshoot? See the attache dpics
 

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I suggest you call out an electrician to check the connection if you don't feel comfortable around electric. Someone will need to trace the wires to the pool electrical box and see what is going on. Was it tested before you purchased the house? It is possible the previous owner disconnected it for some reason.
 
The heater was made in January of 2008.

So, it's about 12 years old. You're going to have to verify the power at the heater and then work back through the switch etc.

Make sure that the On/Off button is in the ON position.
 
PoolGate said:
I suggest you call out an electrician to check the connection if you don't feel comfortable around electric. Someone will need to trace the wires to the pool electrical box and see what is going on. Was it tested before you purchased the house? It is possible the previous owner disconnected it for some reason.
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I do have an electric tester. Something like this Electric tester. I can see if there is a current coming to the unit.

borjis said:
Looks like it needs to be disassembled & cleaned.
I wouldn't be surprised if it needs to be replaced.
Rheem owns Raypak & makes great heaters. I'd get another one if this one is done.
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Yes, It's a mess inside. I never did any work on it since I never used it.

JamesW said:
The heater was made in January of 2008.

So, it's about 12 years old. You're going to have to verify the power at the heater and then work back through the switch etc.

Make sure that the On/Off button is in the ON position.
Click to expand...

Yes. I did keep it on the ON position to see if there was a delay in turning on. When you work back through the switch, are you talking about the switch that's on the side of the heater?
 
It looks like the switch provides power to the heater. You need to test to see if voltage is getting inside the heater where the power connects to the heater. If no, you need to check to see if voltage is getting to the switch etc.
 
Make sure the power is cut to the heater first. Then simply connect the cut wires back together using wire nuts. Maybe you'll get lucky and the heater still works.
 
Those wires are all chewed up and that step-down transformer looks like it’s in bad shape. I’d pull everything out of there, clean it up and replace the transformer. There’s likely a part number for it on the Rheem/Raypak website or, if you can find out the technical specs on the transformer, you can probably get a similar one from Digi-Key or another electrical supplier.

Rats & mice love to make winter nests inside pool heaters so you might start to think about cleaning up your equipment pad and making the area around the heater less friendly to wild life.

I use the Goodnature A24 rat trap to kill ground squirrels and packrats. It works very well and uses CO2 cartridges to drive it. Very effective at killing vermin. You might consider installing one near your equipment or, at the very least, sealing up your heater to keep the vermin out.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Those wires are all chewed up and that step-down transformer looks like it’s in bad shape. I’d pull everything out of there, clean it up and replace the transformer. There’s likely a part number for it on the Rheem/Raypak website or, if you can find out the technical specs on the transformer, you can probably get a similar one from Digi-Key or another electrical supplier.

Rats & mice love to make winter nests inside pool heaters so you might start to think about cleaning up your equipment pad and making the area around the heater less friendly to wild life.

I use the Goodnature A24 rat trap to kill ground squirrels and packrats. It works very well and uses CO2 cartridges to drive it. Very effective at killing vermin. You might consider installing one near your equipment or, at the very least, sealing up your heater to keep the vermin out.
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I was going to say. The transformer looks bad as well. Wires coming from it are chewed up. Can't use the pool now.
 

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I agree, I wouldn’t try too hard to save it. Even if you get the unit powered, there’s probably other issues with it as rats will get into lots of different places. The firebox and flame tray probably needs some serious cleaning up as well. A pool tech could easily get you for several hundred dollars worth of maintenance and still only get it running for the rest of this season. I’d definitely start saving up money for a new heater next year. Figure $4k for a budget.
 
jaindesi said:
4K for the heater. I have seen similar product for around $2500/$2700. Labor shouldn't be same as the product. Just need plumbing electric and gas connection.
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You’d be surprised to see what quotes you get.

Yes, you can certainly find online pricing for those heaters around $2,800 .... that’s just the cost of the heater you would pay for if you did it all yourself. If you want a pro to install it (and get the manufacturers warranty), then they are going to charge you what they sell the heater for (always more than online pricing) plus labor & materials. They’ll tack $1000 on easily for that. You can certainly buy the unit yourself and then see if you can contract a separate plumber and/or electrician to do the hookup’s but they’ll definitely charge a pretty penny for it especially since they’re not selling you anything but they’re time and expertise. Being in NJ, I’m not sure what your local trades do, but in some areas of the country, a general plumber is not licensed to service gas equipment unless they have additional licensing to do so. And, of course, you always pay extra for that “expertise” ....
 
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Maybe I should look into an all rounder/Handyman (non licensed) person. I don't think the heater company will ask me for a license number when I need I do any warranty claim. Let's see what pool tech does on Mo day or whenever he can come. They are charging $125/hr. If I can save this heater get at least 2-3 season then worth it.
 
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You might get lucky with a good pool tech.
The pool co I use is honest and only marked up the heater $ 200. Total heater swap out was $ 3,450

They did my liner too and fought with the liner mfgr when they were saying my liner couldn't be made.
 
So the guy came by today and able to fire up the unit after fixing the wiring and changing the transformer. The only issue is the display is not working so I will have to change out the board behind the display. For this model, the Display is attached to the board. Would anyone know how to do a reset on the unit so all the temp are set to out of the box settings? Chepest price I saw for the board is $224 plus tax/shipping. Tech charged me $245 to get it running.
 
jaindesi said:
Chepest price I saw for the board is $224 plus tax/shipping. Tech charged me $245 to get it running.
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This is the problem with working on old heaters in bad condition; you begin throwing money at it in big chunks ($200 to $500 a pop) with no end in sight.

By time you realize that the heater is scrap metal, you have dropped $500.00 to $1,000.00 into it which could have been spent on a new heater.

In any case, it’s always a judgment call. Sometimes you win, sometime you don’t.
 
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jaindesi said:
So the guy came by today and able to fire up the unit after fixing the wiring and changing the transformer. The only issue is the display is not working so I will have to change out the board behind the display. For this model, the Display is attached to the board. Would anyone know how to do a reset on the unit so all the temp are set to out of the box settings? Chepest price I saw for the board is $224 plus tax/shipping. Tech charged me $245 to get it running.
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Glad you got it running.

Welcome to the world of heater spare parts. Everything is $50 here, $200 there, etc, etc. You might look on Craig’s List to see if there are any similar heaters for sale at a cheap price and then scavenge one for parts. Otherwise, as @JamesW said, you could easily throw a lot of money down that rabbit hole ...
 

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