400K BTU Heater, Which one??

[Pool&PondSlave]

Hi all,
What a great site, I've been looking for something like this for years. Maybe some of you can help me out here.
I have and 30,000 gal concrete pool in North Jersey that is equipped with a Pentair 400k BTU heater from 1980. I want to replace it with a new enery efficient model. Jandy has a very expensive ($4500+) 350k BTU heater 95 percent efficient. Any comments, recommendations, or experiences with this heater?
Also looking for recommendations if I go the usual route. $1600 to $2000 range. Jandy, Hayward, Pentair, Sta-Rite?

If it means anything I looking to upgrade the pump to a Hayward Eco-Star.
Thanks
PP

 

[Keven]

My first choice would be Sta-Rite, then my second would be Jandy LXI....

 

[Pool&PondSlave]

You are the second person in the business that likes Sta-Rite products. Are they that much better?

 

[bk406]

Equipment preferences are based on a lot of things. Familiarity with the equipment in terms of being comfortable servicing them, how easy or difficult it is to get warrenty work in a particular area of the country, the service guy being a warrenty station, etc. I have 2 builders within 10 miles of me. One prefers a Rheem, one a Hayward. You know why? The Hayward guy is a warrenty station for them, and cant stand the rep for Rheem. The other pool guy who likes Rheem is a warrenty station for Rheem and cant stand the Hayward rep. Seriously, not making it up.
Sometimes the love or hate for equipment comes from what is actaully encountered by the service techs. In an area with a lot of Pentair products, they will work on those more than others, therefore thats what they see broken more often. Therefore, Pentair (or pick your brand) becomes a POS.
In reality, they all pretty much work the same. There's a circuit board, burner, and heat exchanger. The reality is they are all good products, they all have been around for a long time, and IMO cant go worng with any of it. The best advice I have is to see what your pool guy uses and what kind of luck he has had with a particular brand in terms of service and warrenty work.

 

[Davegvg]

Like bk406 says, they are all pretty much the same now and I would lean toward

1. If you own a particular brand of automation system - id stick with that brand.
2. Whoever has the best service guys and closest parts.

My Pentair master temp 400 has been great. I had a little issue when I got it, but it was resolved quickly.
It throws out nuclear level heat from a tiny physical package its like a 3 foot cube - pretty amazing.

Make sure you can handle the gas flow...
Not sure if the old heaters needed as much gas line pressure as the new ones do, I had to do a serious meter upgrade that cost me thousands to get my setup to work, when the old raypak unit worked just fine. This seemed odd to me because 400K is 400K , but seemingly not....

Uncle Dave

 

[Pool&PondSlave]

I'm actually a Hayward guy myself since they are (or were?) manufactured right here in Elizabeth, NJ, and it seemed the most popular in the area. Its funny that when I bought this house with this beautiful pool, (I had a 16x32 vinyl liner in the old place, all hayward equipment also), the original homeowner attempted to redo the piping in the pad himself when he added a Hayward de recovery filter that he attempted to return into the pool (gonna post a picture of the mess he left)

Anyway I was cutting out this mess and figured maybe time to get a little more efficiency out of the heater. BK406 is right, they all do pretty much work the same. For now I'm gonna just clean up the piping, and stick with the original (Which by btw is in beautiful condition except for some rust on the pilot light and has 70% efficiency)

I'm even gonna hold off on the pump till I work out what automation system i'm gonna install.

Right now I'm partial to the small footprint Pentair, and the Sta-Rite. As for the gas issues, I have about a 115' run of 1½" which is in the range both manufactures recommend. The old heater required 6" to 10" wc at the supply, and 5" at the manifold. 325 btu in 227 out.
Later
PPS