Old House New Owner

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f30er

Active member
Jan 22, 2022
41
Buford, GA
Just wanted to say Hi!
We bought our house a couple months ago and it came with a salt water pool! The previous owner had a cover on it to keep the leaves out and I haven't yet opened it up to take a look. I did buy the Taylor K-2006 for once it warms up a little and I can take off the cover.
Only question I have is, I had the pool inspected and the pool heater is just a big pile of rust. The inspector freaked a little when he saw the condition it was in. He recommended the Jandy jxi400 and said they have a few in stock and can get it installed ASAP but I see on here everyone recommends Raypak. I tried looking at Raypak's site and couldn't find any AD's near me. Should I keep looking or is the Jandy ok? I live just north of Atlanta.
 
Welcome to TFP.

What brand and model heater is the pile of rust? If you don’t know then post a picture of it.

Raypak gas heaters have a natural draft design and simple controls which make then inexpensive to repair. Pentair, Hayward, and Jandy gas heaters have a forced draft design which requires a blower motor and complex electronics. Those all become expensive parts to replace.

However some people find that the Raypak heaters start getting internal corrosion faster due to their open natural draft design then the more closed forced draft heaters.

I would say that we see equal amounts problems with Raypak, Pentair, Jandy, and Hayward gas heaters. No one is demonstrably better then the other.

The sizes of the Jandy and Raypak heaters are very different so check if that is an issue for you.
 
That is an older model Raypak heater. You can see RAYPAK half worn off on the upper left of the panel. Yours no doubt rusted out just the way many Raypak do.

Can you open up the side panels and show us what the interior lower burner section looks like?

@swamprat69 can also have a look.
 
Definitely in very poor shape. Would not trust the integrity of the extremely rusted gas manifold and also burner support/mounting brackets etc. . Cannot tell much more without seeing internally into the combustion chamber. I see that Raypak is being criticized as being more prone to corrosion problems but don't believe that is really the case. Most problems like this are caused by lack of service/maintenance turning an initially small or minor problem into a much bigger problem. Although pool heaters do not get as much use as main residential home heaters (where yearly service/maintenance is recommended/needed to maintain integrity), this intermittent use leaves them more open to problems caused by disruptions to either natural gas flow, gas/air mixture flow or the flow of combustion byproducts through the heater (caused by spider webs and debris since the majority of pool heaters are located outside). This makes it very hard to figure out a reliable service/maintenance schedule needed for a specific pool heater as it would be dependent on heater location and local environment, with some needing yearly service/maintenance and others able to skip some years. You cannot go wrong with yearly service/maintenance, but it must be done by a COMPETENT service technician who is capable of spotting these small problems before they become larger problems. Then you also run into the problem of many capable HVAC companies refusing to work on pool heaters (from both lack of knowledge and ready access to needed repair parts through HVAC suppliers) leaving you with service technicians who regularly work on pool heaters, but may not be as capable/competent as needed. Sounds like a conundrum to me!
 
swamprat69 said:
Definitely in very poor shape. Would not trust the integrity of the extremely rusted gas manifold and also burner support/mounting brackets etc. . Cannot tell much more without seeing internally into the combustion chamber. I see that Raypak is being criticized as being more prone to corrosion problems but don't believe that is really the case. Most problems like this are caused by lack of service/maintenance turning an initially small or minor problem into a much bigger problem. Although pool heaters do not get as much use as main residential home heaters (where yearly service/maintenance is recommended/needed to maintain integrity), this intermittent use leaves them more open to problems caused by disruptions to either natural gas flow, gas/air mixture flow or the flow of combustion byproducts through the heater (caused by spider webs and debris since the majority of pool heaters are located outside). This makes it very hard to figure out a reliable service/maintenance schedule needed for a specific pool heater as it would be dependent on heater location and local environment, with some needing yearly service/maintenance and others able to skip some years. You cannot go wrong with yearly service/maintenance, but it must be done by a COMPETENT service technician who is capable of spotting these small problems before they become larger problems. Then you also run into the problem of many capable HVAC companies refusing to work on pool heaters (from both lack of knowledge and ready access to needed repair parts through HVAC suppliers) leaving you with service technicians who regularly work on pool heaters, but may not be as capable/competent as needed. Sounds like a conundrum to me!
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Thanks for the insight and I'm definitely not even thinking about trying to turn it on. Hopefully I can get it replaced in the next couple weeks!
 
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