Warm water! Hooray!!!!

[Macboy]

Well. After waiting far, far too long for the gas fitter to put on his “schedule fitter” hat and get to us we have a warm, toasty swimming pool to enjoy for the last two weeks of our “summer”.

Question for you. Is it better to maintain the temperature or to turn the thermostat down when the pool is not in use and bring the temp back up a few hours before the next use? Maybe turn it down to a less warm maintenance temp instead of just off? And for the record we’re splurging on the gas bill - the pool is at 93 degrees

Afterall....we haven’t been able to comfortably use the pool for the past six weeks! We want to enjoy every last minute

 

[jblizzle]

With a gas heater, I think you are better off letting the temp drop and warm it back up when you are want to use it (requires planning ahead).
I certainly hope you are also using a cover when the pool is not in use.

 

[Richard320]

Let it drop but not all the way. Heat transfer increases as the temperature difference increases, so a 93 pool will lose heat faster than one at 83. The reason you don't turn it off all the way is because it might take two days to warm it up again and by then you'll be tired of waiting.

 

[Macboy]

Definitely using the solar cover yes. I had thought about digging out the other cover as well - should I? Our ladder isn't really "removable"....it's built into the deck around the pool so using that other cover is a bit hindered. We think we're only going to keep the pool open for another 10 days or so.

I dropped it to 75 for tonight. I'll check in the morning how far down it went and then bring it back up and see how long that takes. When it was ice cold (42 deg F) it came up about 2-3 degrees an hour. I started the heater at about 8:30pm and by 7:30 AM it was at 90. Not sure how long it'd been there but it's certainly faster than 2-3 degrees an hour. Maybe once it's on the warmer side of the spectrum the heater can impact the temperature faster? The water coming out of the return when the heat kicked in was considerably warm. Almost hot I'd say.

Three hours in the pool today for the kids (and dad) so I already know this will certainly be worth it in the long run. Our $200 pool sure did rack up quite a tab this summer....that's for sure!

 

[Macboy]

I should ask....I'm petrified of the heater freezing up and destroying itself if I switch it or the pump "off" overnight. Does anyone know what safe overnight temperatures I might be okay with switching the pump and heater off completely? At the very least I feel as long as I keep the water circulating the exchange won't freeze up. Within reason I know. Cold cold nights I'll leave them both running.

 

[Macboy]

Rather than start over I thought I'd bring this thread to the top. We're now open for this season and unlike last season are going to be "normal" about how we heat the pool. Were going to try around 84 degrees and see how we find that for comfort.

The question (above) now has changed a bit and it's in terms of temp maintenance.

Our heater has a flow sensor that will not allow the heater to fire up unless the pump is running although I feel this is perhaps a fail safe, not a function. That said, if I leave the heater "on" and set to 84 and have the pump set to run every X hours (I need to refresh my memory on how the timer function works on our pump), can I assume that the heater will kick in when the pump does and heat for whatever time the pump is running for - whether it reaches temp or not - and then will shut off when the pump stops the flow? Then, when pool use is known I can plan ahead and just "top up" the temperature? Is there a better/more proper way to maintain temperature or should I not be concerning myself about it to begin with? It takes around an hour to get roughly 10 degrees increase (maybe more like eight degree increase).

 

[pooldv]

Yes, it is fine to use your pump timer and heater flow switch (it is actually a pressure sensor) to control your pool heating times. Your theory is correct. Pump turns on, heater heats to temp and cycles on and off from there to maintain temp.

 

[Richard320]

Rather than start over I thought I'd bring this thread to the top. We're now open for this season and unlike last season are going to be "normal" about how we heat the pool. Were going to try around 84 degrees and see how we find that for comfort.

The question (above) now has changed a bit and it's in terms of temp maintenance.

Our heater has a flow sensor that will not allow the heater to fire up unless the pump is running although I feel this is perhaps a fail safe, not a function. That said, if I leave the heater "on" and set to 84 and have the pump set to run every X hours (I need to refresh my memory on how the timer function works on our pump), can I assume that the heater will kick in when the pump does and heat for whatever time the pump is running for - whether it reaches temp or not - and then will shut off when the pump stops the flow? Then, when pool use is known I can plan ahead and just "top up" the temperature? Is there a better/more proper way to maintain temperature or should I not be concerning myself about it to begin with? It takes around an hour to get roughly 10 degrees increase (maybe more like eight degree increase).

If you have an intermatic timer, you can also get a fireman switch for it that connects with the remote terminals on your heater. About 15 minutes before your pump timer shuts off, it'll kill the heater, allowing it time to cool down before the flow stops. Just google "Intermatic Fireman" and you'll get lots of info.