New Hayward pool heater advice

[bfollowell]

I started my system today and, once the water hit my ten year-old Hayward H150 pool heater, something decided to blow and water was pouring out of the heat exchanger like pouring out of a boot. From all outward appearances, this heater looked to be in rough shape and I was concerned with it from the start. I'd already tried taking some of the screws out to get a look inside the unit and most of the ones I'd tried were completed rust fused to the outer housing. They came right out and pulled a big piece of rusted housing off with them, each leaving about a 1" square hole where the screws should be. The bolts that run around the heat exchanger near the inlet/outlet connections were all a mass of crumbling rustcicles. Needless to say, this heater has sat out for most of ten cold Indiana winters with nary a cover or any other sort of protection over it. I'm really surprised that it's lasted as long as it has.

I'm planning to order a new Hayward H150FDP heater tomorrow. It's from the Universal H-Series low NOx line and should set me back about $1275 shipped. I wanted to ask if anyone has had any experience with this unit of any of its larger cousins.

Also, for future reference, I'd like to know what many of you do to winterize your pool heaters, both inside and out. I want to avoid the pitfalls and neglect the previous owners put this unit through. Between new liner, filter, multi-port valve, chlorinator and now heater, basically, I have a whole new pool and I want to do whatever I can to keep everything in tip top shop for as long as I possibly can.

Thanks for any advice any of you might be able to provide this pool newbie.

Sincerely,
- Byron Followell

 

[mart242]

I've got it's 250k btu big brother.. but haven't fired it yet (it was installed along with my pool just before winter). That's the series my pool builder installs and he does ~50 or so pool a year so I guess they're ok. Not the best but not Crud either.