Flooded heater - safe to try and turn on or no?

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heckofagator

Bronze Supporter
Oct 6, 2021
164
Tampa, FL
Pool Size
14000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
As previously mentioned, some of our pool equipment was under water for a period of time for Hurricane Helene.

I have not tried to turn on the propane heater again since this happened as someone said it might be dangerous. I'm not exactly sure where I heard that but I think we're either getting to the point where I'd like to either replace this thing or try to turn it on and see if it works. It was older anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work. However, if we could get another year out of it.....

I'm just not sure who told me it might be unsafe to try and turn on a flooded propane heater and whether that's any different than any other piece of electrical equipment.
 
What manufacturer and model heater do you have?
 
Give it a try and see if it lights. There are enough safeties in it.

Know where the gas shutoff valve is in case of a problem.
 
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pretty sure the water level made it up to cover 75% of the AC, which mean the heater was likely totally submerged. Looking thru my pics from that night but I remember the water level relative to the AC for sure.
 
Swamp makes a good point and even if the heater starts it is not safe to rely on if the gas valve got water in it and began corroding.
 
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Thanks again.

Although the Hayward seemed to integrate fine with the Intellicenter, I was thinking of just going with the Pentair. This seems to be the MasterTemp series for propane and they appear to have 250 and 300 BTU models.

Since we are only heating the spa, I guess higher BTU will just do it faster? I think I'm OK with the 15 min or so the last one took.

Is there any thing else I should be considering beyind the similar sized MasterTemp?
 
A 250K or 300K MasterTemp will work fine for you.

Install an automated heater bypass for the heater - Pentair MasterTemp Heaters - Further Reading


Pentair_MasterTemp_Connected_Heater_Bypass.jpg
 
When we re-did the equipment 3 years ago (minus the heater and air blower), the plumber did put in a heater bypass, although it is manual/handle. I remember not really understanding how it worked and asking why we didn't have an intellivalve on this bypass, thinking I'd have to come move this valve when we wanted to use the spa. Pool company said its not necessary to have that on an intellivalve as you just leave it going thru the heater all the time and only close off the bypass when you need to work on the heater. That was a good enough answer for me at the time so I didn't push it. I'm not sure if they didn't want to install another intellivalve or what or really thought its not necessary.

FYI, handle is off of the bypass valve as I have to move it over to an Intellivalve which died (2nd in 2+ years)

20250422_150940.jpg
 
heckofagator said:
When we re-did the equipment 3 years ago (minus the heater and air blower), the plumber did put in a heater bypass, although it is manual/handle. I remember not really understanding how it worked and asking why we didn't have an intellivalve on this bypass, thinking I'd have to come move this valve when we wanted to use the spa. Pool company said its not necessary to have that on an intellivalve as you just leave it going thru the heater all the time and only close off the bypass when you need to work on the heater. That was a good enough answer for me at the time so I didn't push it. I'm not sure if they didn't want to install another intellivalve or what or really thought its not necessary.

FYI, handle is off of the bypass valve as I have to move it over to an Intellivalve which died (2nd in 2+ years)

View attachment 639868
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Your Pool Company is clueless about the benefits in running lower pump speeds when the heat is off and heater is bypassed and letting the IntelliCenter manage it. That is what you spent money on automation then the Pool Company tells you to ignore it.

My bypass let's me run 300 - 400 RPM slower when the heater is off.
 
well, maybe I'm confused. I do have a pool mode which doesn't run the heater and runs at 1600rpm and then spa mode which turns on the heater, moves the in and return intellivalves to spa only and turns up the pump to 3000k rpm or whatever.

But the spa bypass valve doesn't move. does it need to? Or should it?
 
I see your pump is elevated on a step.

Consider elevating your new heater to protect it from the next flood.
 
heckofagator said:
well, maybe I'm confused. I do have a pool mode which doesn't run the heater and runs at 1600rpm and then spa mode which turns on the heater, moves the in and return intellivalves to spa only and turns up the pump to 3000k rpm or whatever.

But the spa bypass valve doesn't move. does it need to? Or should it?
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Your water is still flowing through the heater when in POOL mode.

With the automated bypass you can probably run around 1200 RPM in POOL mode.
 
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ajw22 said:
I see your pump is elevated on a step.

Consider elevating your new heater to protect it from the next flood.
Click to expand...
yes, 100%. Going to add a few concrete blocks underneath the new one. our area floods with heavy rain and high tide, so gotta be careful.

We actually originally had 2 pumps when we bought the house, so that's why we have 2 steps for the pumps. Although the pool company figured out we only needed 1 pump (after they installed 2) so they left us with an empty step. Yeah, this install could have gone better.....
 
ajw22 said:
Your water is still flowing through the heater when in POOL mode.

With the automated bypass you can probably run around 1200 RPM in POOL mode.
Click to expand...
yes, makes sense. I guess the heater is causing some drag/resistance that doesn't necessarily need to be there in POOL mode.

Is there any limit to the number of intellivalves an Intellicenter can support? I want to almost say they said it was 2, which I already had, but again, maybe they just didn't want to mess with a 3rd for whatever reason.
 
heckofagator said:
Is there any limit to the number of intellivalves an Intellicenter can support? I want to almost say they said it was 2, which I already had, but again, maybe they just didn't want to mess with a 3rd for whatever reason.
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Standard is 4 actuators - RETURN, SUCTION, plus two you can assign to any circuit.

You can add a valve expansion board to control a few more actuators.
 

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