Crazy to buy a used heat pump?--Update and question about my Aquacomfort Heat Pump

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Re: Crazy to buy a used heat pump?

Anything over 8ish years old should be off the list. I would take an HVAC guy with you and have him check it out. There are three things that are 1000+ to replace. The compressor, expansion valve and reversing valve. For some reason many folks do not service their pool heat pumps. Pool heat pumps are the same as home heat pumps and AC units, they need annual service to keep them in good shape.

I went with a smaller heat pump that was around 1500 bucks and I installed it. The Hayward HP50HA. It is 50k btu and only requires a 20a circuit. It has been great last fall and this spring.
 
Re: Crazy to buy a used heat pump?

Thanks for the info.

I was assuming I would need something 100k BTU or more since I'm in a colder climate. I will do some more research to see if that is necessary.

I will also need to look into getting a new multi or variable speed pump.

I wish there was a marketplace here for used stuff...
 
Re: Crazy to buy a used heat pump?

We do allow selling in the coffee bar but there are typically many items for sale.

With heaters and pools bigger just heats faster. It costs the same amount of energy to heat a pool from temp X to temp Y no matter the heater size. A 50k btu heater will use the same amount of energy as a 100k btu heater to heat the pool. The difference is that the 100k btu heater will heat it up twice as fast. So, with a smaller heat pump you just need to turn it on earlier.

My heat pump adds 1 degree in about 3-1/2 hours. A solar cover helps tremendously to reduce overnight heat loss to evaporation. If you don't have one yet get that first. Just an 8 IL cheap cover, clear or blue, is fine.

A Pentair Superflo 1-1/2hp VS pump, 342001, is a great pump depending on your pool set up.

Add your pool info to your sig so we can help you better, more here, Pool School - Read This BEFORE You Post
 
Re: Crazy to buy a used heat pump?

At our old house we had an AquaCal Heat pump. I was really happy with the performance and the cost of operation compared to gas. But, during this time understand that our electric was real time pricing, updated per the hour. This can be risky, but it can pay off too. There were times during the evening that rates were under $.02 per kWh...it wasn't uncommon to have negative rates either. You take advantage of these scenarios if it warm and humid enough. But, my point is be sure you have decent electricity rates if you're going with a heat pump.

We actually did buy ours used off of Craigslist and got lucky with a good unit. It's certainly a risk. Myself, having had a 100k+BTU heat pump on a 10,500 gallon pool...I would not go smaller.

Dan
 
Re: Crazy to buy a used heat pump?

I wanted to update this thread with my actual results...

I started searching again for a used heat pump right around labor days since that's when most people in NE close their pools. I got lucky and found a nearly brand new Aquacomfort ACT-1100 Heat Pump for a great price. (It was manufactured late 2016 and installed in June. Per the previous owner, it was only turned on a few times but her kids still didn't have interest in the pool so she was shutting it down.)

My brother helped me install the heater and my pool temp went from 64 to 83 degrees in less than 3 days. This was with evening temps dipping into the 40s and day time highs in the low to mid 70s.

I do have one question about operating the heat pump.

Right now, I have it turned to Pool / On / temp = 83. I have my water pump on a timer to run from 10am - 5pm. Should the heat pump normally turn on and off on its own when it has water flowing to it and the water temp is below the set temp?

I ask because a few times I will go check and the water pump will be running, but the heat pump will show "HP-3 - Low flow". I then hit the select/ok button, and it turns on immediately and works fine.

It seems that sometimes it turns it self off when it doesn't detect water flow, but sometimes doesn't know to turn back on once the pump turns on.

Any thoughts? Is there a different way I should have it set up / programmed?
 
Congrats on a sweet deal!

My heat pump has a built in timer that I set to run inside the pump runtime window. Weird that it runs sometimes and doesn't sometimes. Sorry, i dont know why.
 
It has a cycle delay timer. The heat pump will wait like 10 min after it has a low flow/ shut off event before the heater will restart.

The second likely issue is that the flow sensor on the heater is based on pressure not actual flow. You might have a sticky pressure sensor or you aren't providing enough pressure for that switch to close reliably. Mine turns the heater on at around 4psi I need to maintain a minimum pressure of about 5psi so that the pressure switch doesn't flutter. I ran into issues when I swapped my 3/4" return eyeball out for a 1" eyeball. There wasn't enough backpressure on the heater flow switch. I had to increase my filter pressure to 10 psi for the heater to work with a 1" eyeball. With my pool and pump that was wayyyy too much flow so I put the 3/4" eyeball back in and everything works perfectly.

There is no timer on the heat pump itself. I leave mine set to "on" and enter a desired water temperature setpoint which for me is generally around 87. The heater shuts off by itself if there is no flow or the incoming water is warmer than 87.
 

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I have the same model heat pump as he just got his is just the next highest btu output. The control system on the heat pump is very basic. It's meant to be left on and cycle on and off when the pump turns on and off.
 
CJadamec said:
I have the same model heat pump as he just got his is just the next highest btu output. The control system on the heat pump is very basic. It's meant to be left on and cycle on and off when the pump turns on and off.
Click to expand...

That was my understanding... I have to manually hit the hand / select button to clear the low flow error and then it kicks on and runs all day until the pump shuts off in the evening. I'll do some more research and investigating to see what might be causing it.
 
Just fixed my Hayward HP50TA that was going into a failure mode ("HP" flashing on the display, instead of "Flo" to indicate the flow had stopped) when the pool pump shut off. I had to turn on the pool pump and manually cycle the power to the heat pump to get it come back on. I took off the access panel and found the pressure switch, turned out it was adjustable. Turned the adjustment all the way in the "Higher PSI" direction (marked on the switch) and now it works as it should, shuts off immediately when the pool pump stops, flashes "Flo" on the display until the pump comes back on, then turns itself back on and starts heating again. Maybe your unit has a similar adjustment.
 
Just wanted to provide another update to say how awesome this heater is.

I opened the pool last Friday morning April 27 and switched on the pump and heater.
Water temp was 46 degrees 10:30 am. High temp Friday was 62, low was 42.
Water temp crept up to 52 degrees by 10:00 pm. Ran heater overnight and it was 57 degrees Saturday morning (overnight air temp low was 48 degrees). By 4:00 pm Saturday it was 63 degrees and a few crazy kids went swimming. I put on the solar cover Saturday night.

From Saturday to Tuesday I had it running during the day time hours only, daytime max air temp was 70/48/50/65. Water temp was 70 degrees Tuesday evening but it got warm overnight so I kept the heater running. Wednesday high was 88 and by 4:00 pm the pool was 83 degrees so we went swimming after dinner.

Leveled out at 86 degrees today.

So in 5 days with really only one warm day, pool temp went from 46 to 86!
 
Nice to be swimming May 2 in the Northeast isn't it?
Aquacomfort makes a pretty nice heat pump. Quiet too isn't it.

We went in last night for the first time as well. I haven't seen anyone else in the neighborhood even with their with her covers off.
 
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