Hayward heater engulfed in flames

[Jld679]

Hi all I am completely new to this. Last year we purchased a home that had an inground pool with a Hayward heater filter and pump.mthe previous owners said the heater was acting funny and they would pay to have it repaired. Long story short the pool guy said it needed replaced. But he was friends with that old owners. He replaced the pressure switch and it would still every now and then shut off. Well I had it on In the Am Sunday turned it off Sunday afternoon. Monday night I go and check the pool and water is crazy low, walk around to the pump and heater and it is engulfed in flames. My husband at this point is furious he said it was electrical and it wasn't repaired properly the pool guy said it got struck by lighting. Has anyone dealt with this, Hayward H series I want to say 100 or 200 series can't tell it's so badly burnt.
What steps should I take should I replace everything?

 

[OldPoolMan]

Here is my take on this, based on my experience. You mentioned the pressure switch was fixed. Just for your education, if a pressure switch is broken, stuck, or adjusted incorrectly, then your pool heater can continue to fire even after the pump has shut off. The possible result can be a fire. I not saying whether that is what happened in your case or not because I don't know your pool setup.

 

[danpik]

Without a picture of the unit and by your description, it sounds like the unit is toast. As was mentioned it could have been a meltdown if the pump was turned off and the safeties did not shut the heater down. Another possibility, and I see this quite often up in the more northern states, is the heat exchanger was sooted up and not allowing the unit to run properly. Of course by your description of what you say happened, all of the safety switches would have been disabled for it to get that bad. Any flame rollout from the fire box should have tripped a safety switch and shut the unit down.

As far as replacing things, without a picture of the unit, I would hazard a guess that the whole unit should be replaced. You may end up spending more on replacement parts that a new unit would cost.

 

[wjr75]

Wow you are lucky the house didn't catch on fire. I put a smoke/fire alarm on the side wall where our pool equipment and heater reside.

 

[ps0303]

Wow what a problem. Pictures of the unit please. So a year or so ago the pressure switch was replaced and the unit has been used since then and before this fire? Was there a storm and possible lightening like the guy said? I would wonder if you can use your insurance to file a claim and get it replaced.


Make sure whoever does the replacement has all the proper licenses needed for this type of work.