Hayward H250 Heater Leaking

[jonmar]

My three year old Hayward Heater is slowly leaking from the bottom, on the side opposite the controls. If you look underneath it seems to come from right around where one of the legs meets the corner. It isn't gushing water or anything, but a steady drip making the concrete bad wet.

Any ideas? Thanks

P.S. I've noticed that the leak stops when the heater is running.

 

[LisaM]

having just took mine apart yesterday i can tell you there is only 1 place that water goes into and out of this thing... the heat exchanger. if its leaking you have a bad heat exchanger.

 

[jonmar]

having just took mine apart yesterday i can tell you there is only 1 place that water goes into and out of this thing... the heat exchanger. if its leaking you have a bad heat exchanger.

Curiously, there has not been a drop of water leak since I ran the heater when I originally posted my question. What I did notice when taking the back panel off was that the hole in the corner goes into the plastic foot that the heater sits on. It was full of water, and that is where the water was coming from. How it filled up I have no idea. I drained it with a syringe but only thought to test that water for CL after discarding it. In any case, it has dripped a drop since, but I am going to check that plastic foot to see if it has filled back up.

 

[jonmar]

It has rained quite a bit in the last few days, but none today. I went out and beneath the heater on the plumbing side was soaked. I took off the back panel and sure enough the leg was full of water again and I drained it and tested it: No CL. It is leaching into that hole from beneath the silvery metal panel. When it rains, the water that enters the heater from the vents on top, where does it drain? I noticed my heater is no longer level. The concrete slab it sits on has settled a bit in three years and the wet area is on the side water would naturally flow to. Any ideas?

 

[Bvenable]

Re: Hayward H250FDN Heater Leaking

My pool guy took a look at the leaking heater and said 90% of the time is due to pitting from chemical imbalance? Proving it's not a chemical imbalance, short of documenting water tests everytime. My intergrated circuit board ($250) also failed last august. So I have an $800 repair bill for a two year old $1500 heater! Is it worth trying to repair a heat exchanger?

 

[danpik]

Re: Hayward H250FDN Heater Leaking

My intergrated circuit board ($250) also failed last august. So I have an $800 repair bill for a two year old $1500 heater!

Pull the board out and use a magnifying lense to look at all of the solder connections. Look carefully as you are looking for a cracked solder joint. This does happen from timr to time when the wave soldering machine is not set up properly at the factory. 3 years ago that was the problem with mine. I was ready to drop $400 on a new one when the electrical engineer I work with asked to look at it first. His thinking was he may be able to locate and replace the defective part. When he started looking at it he found the cracked connection. I warmed up the soldering iron and one quick touch later it was working just fine.

Is it worth trying to repair a heat exchanger?

If you can get the heat exchanger out, take it to a radiator repair shop and have them look at it. They may be able to do something with it.

I soldered up a leak on mine last year with no dificulty

 

[LisaM]

I just replaced the heat exchanger on this same heater. The part was $715 including tax and shipping. For me it was worth it because I didnt have the money to replace the whole heater and it was pretty easy to do. I guess its all relative as to what you consider worth it.