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Just wanted to give a quick update that my tankless water heater setup is still working great. This has been the ideal inexpensive, convenient, and effective, setup for our Intex pool. Unfortunately, this will be the last year for our current pool, as rust has severely damaged most of the...

I'm also curious if this mod has stood the test of time! Can you give us an update?

I'd be the last guy to ask about code. For me it's simply the risk/reward associated with the added complexity of 2 heaters and the fact that the new heater puts out 250% of the energy of the old one.

LOL, I think I've got my gas line maxed out with the one.

No cutting necessary! Even included the manual!

Thought I'd update that the heater fired right up this year, but I decided to swap it out for a bigger one. I found a new Rheem RTG-64XLN 150k BTU heater locally for $100 and had to buy it. The prospect of heating the water 2+ degrees per hour was too tempting.

It worked flawlessly the first 2 years. I'll know if it's still good in about a month or so.

I simply drilled out the existing orifices a little bigger.

I'm curious if there are any CHEAP WiFi-enabled chlorine/pH monitoring solutions you guys have come across or implemented. I'm using Sonoff smart switches to completely automate my pump, heater and chlorinator and give me WiFi control over them. This was a super cheap solution (under $30 for all...

Thanks, MacGyver! With a nickname like that, I'm sure we'd get along! Keep on thinking outside the box! Do you have your heater up and running yet?

Like many of you, I have been hunkered down for the past several weeks, working from home with a clear view of a pool with an ugly tarp on it. I finally caved in this weekend and opened it up. I know, way too early, but this was my first opening. The previous 2 years we just installed a bigger...

Yes, most of the time.

1 CCF (therm) of natural gas costs me around $.40, and 1 kWh of electricity is $.11.

Yes, it costs $.25/hour (gas and electricity combined) and achieves a .7 degree/hour rise in my 8,000-gallon pool.

I gave a lot of thought to that setup, but could not source a heat exchanger cheaply enough to make it feasible for me. Additionally, part of this experiment is a torture test of the water heater since so many people assume that pool water will destroy its heat exchanger in short order. And I...

It looks like today is going to be the last day of swimming for us this year. The forecast is calling for much cooler weather over the next 10 days. And even though this week has been hot, the shorter days and cooler nights have kept the water temperature under 80 degrees. I scheduled the heater...

We haven't used the pool all that much this past month, but we fired up the heater last weekend for some night swimming. It's still working great.

Thanks for the response. Monitoring the iron level makes perfect sense. There have been no rust spots on the liner anywhere that I've seen.

Thought I'd post a little update. Obviously the heater hasn't been used too much these past couple months, but it's still working great when we need it. It ends up getting used mostly when we night swim. I like the water to be around 86 degrees during the day, but while swimming at night we get...

OK, I've got some more data to share. The past 2 days were similar. Both were mostly sunny. Tuesday had a high of 84 and Wednesday a high of 89. On Tuesday, my pool temp started at 77 and ended at 86 with 5 hours of heater run time. On Wednesday, the pool temp started at 81 and ended at 86 with...

I shot a video of my setup tonight if anyone's interested:

$80 - heater $40 - gas pipe and fittings $30 - pump $15 - vent stack and cap $14 - timer outlet $12 - wifi thermostat and temperature probe $10 - pvc pipe and fittings That puts me at just about $200 exactly. There could be a few random things I forgot, but that's pretty much it.

Thanks for the info! I'll have to look into that. I tried to keep the heater off today to get a baseline, but I knew I wanted to swim in the evening and caved. I watched the temp from 8:00 AM till noon and it stayed steady at 77 degrees. That's when I turned on the heater. The water was 86...

I'm not getting Arizona sun up here ;). I've mentioned earlier that the sun is contributing, but as far as it being the main contributor? I don't think so. The energy I'm putting into the water is enough to raise it a little more than 2/3 of a degree an hour, or 5-1/2 degrees in 8 hours. That...

We used the pool for the first time in a little while yesterday. It has been rainy and cooler around here. I turned the heater on at 9:00 AM when the water temp was 77 degrees and by 5:00 PM it was 86 degrees. I continue to be pleased by the performance of this setup. And having the ability to...

Thanks! I plan on posting the good and the bad of this project and how it fares in the long run. I wouldn't want to leave anyone hanging!

Yeah, heater life is still the big question mark here. If it makes it through a swimming season, I think I'm good. This heater is small and under $100, so replacing it is not a big deal when the time comes, as long as that time doesn't come too quickly.

I hear you! Lots of rain over here too.

Thought I'd post a little update on the setup. Things are still going... swimmingly. See what I did there? We had the water at 85 degrees this weekend for a party of 15 cousins and the pool survived! The last thing I had in mind to add to my heater setup was some kind of WiFi control. I finally...

Ha! I like your contingency plan! And while I agree that my vent pipe is not sufficient, I revealed that picture after all the flaming and there's nothing else inherently dangerous about what I've done. All appliances fail at some point. The crazy thing is that this heater is designed to be...