Is this a freeze damage?

[csmarc]

Hello pool experts,

Few weeks ago my Hayward pool heater started to leak, maybe one drop every 2 to 5 seconds. My home warrantee includes the pool equipment so I called them. After two attempts to fix it, they denied the claim saying that the damage was caused due to freeze.
I live at Houston area and we did had one hard freeze event this winter, where the temperature was around mid 20s for about 6 to 8 hours. I remember to hear the pool pump running during the night as it automatically turn it on in case of air temperature drops bellow 35F.

That is why I thought hard to believe that this was freeze damage. The two attached pictures show the copper tube on my heater and they do look swollen, but I am not sure if its supposed to be like this or it was really due to the freeze like warrantee company claims. The water is leaking into the wet are, where the pipe goes in the heater.

Any comments?

I appreciated you help

 

[mas985]

Welcome to the forum. Heat exchangers are more vulnerable to freeze damage and given the one pipe looks more swollen that the others, that could have been the cause. But if water was running during this period, it should not have frozen unless there was another blockage there or perhaps the water was diverted around the heater.

Plus, if the minimum temperature was only 25F it would take more than 8 hrs to freeze solid unless exposed directly to the night sky. So I don't think that particular event caused the problem. It could have been another event with the previous owner and it took a while for the leak to start. There is no way to prove it.

Does the warranty company allow for arbitration? Could be an option because they cannot prove the damage did not occur before you took ownership. Especially if the inspector did not take apart the heater to look for that damage. Now if they had pictures to prove it did not occur earlier, then you would be out of luck.

 

[atttech-2]

If you can't get them to cover it A good HVAC tech might be able to fix it. I am constantly amazed at the tight spaces our maintenance guys are able to get into to fix refrigerant leaks.

 

[csmarc]

Thank you for your responses guys, this is a great forum, I used it a lot an this is the first time I actually submitted a thread.
I cant say for sure that the swollen happened before or during this winter, I own the house for two years and the heater is abbot 5 or 6 years old.
But I don't think that tech took it apart to exterminate in details, this pictures come from them.
I called the warranty company and I have the option to request another pool company to have a look on it, I will do it and be there at this time (the previous tech did 3 attempts to fix my leak before call it freeze damage).

I will let you know the outcome

 

[csmarc]

Just an update.
I called the warrant company and I said that I did not agreed with the outcome, they said that I could asked for a second option, and they will send another pool company.
The second technician show me that even as the pipes were swallow, the water was not leaking from there, but it was leaking from corrosion (what is covered), so they replaced the heating element.

 

[Patrick_B]

Nice! Glad they got it sorted for you.