New Construction - Heater Help

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Drabert

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Mar 7, 2015
12
Patterson, CA
Good Afternoon TFP!

My family (wife, 4 yr old, 2 yr old) are finally getting started on the long awaited project of building an in-ground pool *YEA!!

Now that we are taking this dream serious, a number of options are coming out of the woodworks that i never thought about before. Thankfully there are sites like this one that can hopefully help answer my questions.

1. To heat or not to heat? I live in the central valley in California, so the temperature is pretty mild most of the time. Today's high is going to be 75 degrees with the 80s expected next week (hello global warming). I was looking into getting solar heaters, but since the front of my house faces south and i do not want the panels on the street side of my roof, i would have to put the panels on the north facing roof. So now i am stuck with the dilemma of going with less than efficient solar panels, a gas heater, or nothing at all. I am leaning towards nothing at all, but with two young children, i would like them to be able to enjoy the pool as much as possible. So what do i do? :) would it take a long time for a gas heater to warm up my pool? would solar panels on the north side of the roof still be efficient enough? Or have the kids suck it up and swim in a cooler pool? :) Pool is approximately 13,000 Gallons

2. I am planning on using the Pentair IntelliChlor and if i do not get a heater, the Pentair IntelliChem. I am already getting the IntelliTouch System so i can interface the pool with my Crestron System. Does that sound like a good plan? I really do not want to be measuring chemicals everyday and would like to keep the pool as safe for my children as possible.

3. Sand filter or Cartridge filter? The pool builder gave me the choice, but forgot to go over the difference :)

Thank you very much for any help!

Eric
 
Welcome to TFP!

Do you want to extend the pool season, heat just for nice weekends in the spring/fall, maintain a higher than normal water temperature during the main season, etc? Heating gets expensive if you do very much of it. We only heat for the occasional nice weekend in the spring/fall. Solar will be less expensive than anything else for constant heat, but isn't going to be able to do beautiful weekend heating at all well.

We don't recommend getting the IntelliChem, or any other ORP based chemistry automation system. ORP based control adds cost and complexity, more things to maintain and more things that can break. Simple percentage based SWG control is just as good in an outdoor pool and much more reliable. No kind of automation will eliminate daily pool chores, though they don't need to take very much time at all.

Both kinds of filter are good. Sand uses more water, is slower to clean up algae, but is by far the least amount of work.
 
WOW!

Quick response and nailed all three of my questions. Thank you very much Jason. I guess we will go with the gas heater since the thought of "beautiful weekend heating" sounds like exactly what we had in mind.

Is there anything else that i should be thinking of adding to my pool systems? Currently the builder has spec'd out the following

Pentair Intelliflo pump
Pentair Intellichlor
Pentair Sand or Cartridge filter (still not sure which to get)
thepoolcleaner 2 wheel suction cleaner

The pool will have Wetedge Satin Matrix.

Thanks

Eric
 
That all sounds good. I do recommend getting a large filter, larger than most builders tend to default to at least. Larger filters can go longer between cleanings/backwashing and just slightly improve system efficiency.
 
I LOVE my sand filter. I had a cartridge one last time. It worked great BUT was a lot more work for me than the sand one is.

Heater+kids=more fun time in the pool while they are younger.

I am sure you have thought of this but the Mom in me has to ask-----------fencing and safety features on the doors and gates for the kids?????

We would love to see some pictures of your yard and pool!

Have you ordered your test kit yet? I ordered mine before I ordered my pool LOL I wanted to make sure I really could do it. It is very easy to do.

Kim
 
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