New to gas heating...question

[borjis]

I had solar panels at my old house/pool.

Gas heating where I live now, The heater internal components look clean/newish. I'm planning on taking off the service
cover and inspecting, cleaning any spiderwebs etc before firing it up for my first time this weekend.

My question is this, when the heater is running, if I needed to turn my pump off (pump gets power and is switched on / timer, from heater control panel)
manually, does the heater then turn off the flames and run the pump for a few minutes to keep water from boiling in the heat exchanger, similar to how
a gas furnace for a house keeps blowing for awhile?

Right now if I manually turn the pump off from the control panel, it turns off instantly. (I have never turned the gas on)

I've never worked with gas pool or spa heating so forgive if this is a dumb / obvious question.

 

[Patrick_B]

Not that I know of, but it's best practice to always turn the heater off first, and run the pump for a short to cool the XH, and prevent water from "cooking off" and depositing the minerals dissolved in it.

 

[borjis]

The only way I could see to turn the heating off while its running, would be to turn the gas valve box off while it's running, is that what is typically done?

I'm planning on only running the heat when I'm home from noon to 5 pm on saturdays & sundays.

That was the schedule I used for solar heating on my last pool and it kept the water at 82 degrees with a cover on at night over the summer.

 

[Richard320]

No, it doesn't run the pump after the heater stops. The heater will shut off if the pump stops, but it doesn't cool things down. So kill the heater yourself a few minutes before you stop the pump.

If your pump is connected to an Intermatic timer, you can install a fireman switch to shut the heater off before the pump stops, just in case you manually turned the thing on and forgot to shut it off. Fireman Switch

 

[borjis]

Ok thanks Richard.

There was an old broken intermatic but the last homeowner bypassed that so the heater acts as the timer.

It works, but unfortunately only has a single on off time where the intermatic could be multiples...oh well I can deal with that.

So when I'm done heating for the day I'll just turn the gas knob mechanism in the heater to the off position and keep the pump
running for 10 minutes before powering down then.

 

[ps0303]

Don't shut the gas off. The heater has an on/off option, use it.

 

[borjis]

It does? I've looked at all the menu options as well as the manual and only see temperature control.

no "heat off" in the menu.

I have 2 gas valves, one on the pipe and one in the heater with the knob/control box with wires.

You're the resident heater guy though, any idea what I'd be looking for?


Or do I just turn the temp down all the way till it shuts off?
That would present a problem since the minimum programmable temp is 70 and definitely
don't want it running in the off months....I keep the pool open year round.

I run it daily from 5:30-8:30 (pump only) and don't want the heat
running except on weekends when I'm there.


UPDATE:

Ok I just noticed for the first time there is an off. In the settings for POOL or SPA mode
if I go one more there is an OFF. Missed that earlier.

Is it a good idea to leave the both gas valves on over the longterm of winter when I'm not
using the heater at all though?


Also just found this:
"The pump can be turned off manually at any time by pressing the PUMP key. If the heater is running
when the pump is turned off, the pump will go into 'COOL DOWN ' mode and continue to run for 5
minutes. If the heater was running within the last 5 minutes, the pump will continue to run for the time
remaining to complete a 5 minute cool down."


Guess I should have been more thorough in the reading. But at least I asked before just doing it

 

[ps0303]

No harm to leave the gas on. I wouldn't be turning the gas on and off unless you are not going to be home like if you live there only part time.

As for the pump setting, that will only work if the unit is wired as such and has the module in it to control the pump. Not many folks buy and have that module installed when they have this heater. I think over the period of 5 years I have seen two maybe three of these modules on this unit. However I'm in Fl and you're in another part of the country so maybe it was more common there.

 

[borjis]

Thanks Paul

I'll leave the gas on and follow the instruction manual to the T for turning the heating on or off during swim season.

This unit does indeed have the pump control module which was confusing to say the least when I moved in, as there was
an intermatic timer at the wall I thought the pump was using.

On a closer look it had been disconnected for some time / broken.

Then discovered the pump was all powered/controlled by the heater which seemed odd at first.

 

[borjis]

Turned on the heater saturday following the instructions, it fired up immediately and did a good job.

Got the water from 60 to 72.

I went over to the pump room when the timer was set to turn off and at 8pm it did turn off
the heat and kept the pump running another 5 minutes. It indicated a cool down mode on the panel.

neat!