Swimming pool heat pump

[justawildchild]

I have the opportunity to purchase a used heat pump for our pool. We have solar heating, but after the wet and rainy season we have had up here in Southern Ontario, Canada, my wife wants to look at an alternative heat source to supplement the solar heating on cloudy/cool days.
The heat pump I am looking at is an 8 yr. old used Titan II Titanium Pool Heat Pump. What I am hoping to do is hear from anyone who uses a heat pump and anyone who is familiar with heat pumps in general and tell me if it is worth my time to purchase it. If I am going to look at it, what things should I look for. It is not currently hooked up a pool so I cannot test it before I get it home.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

 

[silcozot]

Hi Mark,
I have a new pool and a Titan III heat pump here in southern ON.

I think if I was to do again I might go gas or propane. This heat pump is slow with long run times witch would be ok if it was not so LOUD!!

Also this pump may be to small as your pool must be close to 100,000 liters link here for sizing http://www.titanpoolheaters.com/site/index.html

Shaun

 

[tnthudson]

I have an electric heat pump and from what I understand, they are more for maintaining your temperature or slowly raising it, unlike propane, which I gather can raise the temp. more quickly.
However, this year at the beginning of season I kept my solar cover on for a few days at a time and ran the heat pump continuously (maybe daytime highs in the 70's at the beginning of the season), and got the temp up fairly quickly.
However, the best discovery I made this year was putting our main pool pump and our heat pump on a timer, so that the main pump (and heat pump, if the temp. is low) comes on during the day for a few hours, turns off for a few hours, and then comes on at night for a few hours. I leave my heat pump on 86 degrees F, so that even during the summer nights the water temp. stays up. This has worked out well, since my family prefers the 86 degree (or higher) temp., and the heat pump only has to run occasionally.
All in all, I consider it a very worthwhile investment. And the titanium coils means that it should stand up to salt water, if you ever decide to put in a salt water generator. 8) We did, and love it!

 

[PoolOwnerNumber9]

I wouldn't buy an 8 year old pool heat pump. They don't last too long; and I would doubt that it is in good condition.

 

[justawildchild]

Just to let everyone know, I did purchase a heat pump in late June. I had a separate system already in place for my solar heat and tied it to that line.

The night I installed it, we still had not got our new solar cover (and the nights and days in southern Ontario have been unusually cool this year) and the temperature rose 2 degrees. I was very disappointed until later the next day when the temperature was up to 80 deg. After about 36 hours the pool was up to 86 degrees. I realized quickly I did not want to loose this heat and I did not want my pump running constantly, so I got my solar cover and my pool has maintained a consistent 86 - 89 degrees depending on where I set it............except for the time my wife turned it up without telling me and after a day and a half the temp went up to 94 deg.

We have been keeping it a little warmer because the nights are still cool (again unusual) and the kids have never been in so much.
The good news is, we are starting to see some more consistent sunshine during the day and when I have the pump running through the solar panels the heat pump does not come on.

At the end of the day I am very happy with my $800 purchase on a 6 year old heat pump and hope to extend my swimming season. I have to admit, it is cool to see the steam come off the pool during late night swims in the cool air.