New to me Raypak Rp2100 millivolt. What's first?

[4knights]

I renctly purchased a used RP2100 millivolt heater from a man than used it 2 seasons then family illness caused them to remove pool. Heater sat in his garage for a couple years, now it's mine. Any advice of where to start? What to check? I know I need to purchase the drain plug(missing) and PVC connectors as well as the nat to propane conversion kit. So while I'm waiting on parts should I do?

What size propane tank do I need?

 

[ps0303]

Tank size depends on how often you plan to use it. Just remember, that with a milivolt system you are burning fuel even when you don't have the heater on heating the water.

 

[4knights]

Would love to open the pool this weekend but temps are still down to 37 at night and highs anywhere from 55 to 80. So it would get lots of use.

What do you think about simply removing the burner and burning wood instead?
Any concerns?

I only paid $100 for the heater. No natural gas in the neighborhood. I've got about 40 cords of wood stacked but no fireplace anymore(pellet stove now)

 

[JasonLion]

Converting a gas heater to wood is very problematic. You would have to build a fire box essentially from scratch, and even then the heat exchanger would really need to be redesigned as the thermal characteristics are fairly different between wood and gas. You would also effectively lose the thermostat, as there is no obvious equivalent to an electronic gas solenoid for wood. In principal you could build a wood heater, but it wouldn't share any components with your gas heater.

In general we don't recommend using wood heat for a swimming pool, as a pool can easily use a cord of wood a day or more, which means lots and lots of work tending the wood supply.

 

[ps0303]

Well the only thing you can do at this point is hook it up, find a suitable temporary tank, and see if the thing even works. If you are really good, you could at the very least find a temporary tank and hook it in and see if the unit at least will light the pilot and generate the voltage needed to operate. You could at least run thru the basics. Then hooking it up into plumbing and see if it really works.

 

[danpik]

What Paul suggested is the only thing you can do right now. It might fire on propane with the nat. gas setup. A 20# cylinder might last about 1.5-2 hours on it. Don't run the burner without water flow to keep the heat exchanger cool

 

[4knights]

What Paul suggested is the only thing you can do right now. It might fire on propane with the nat. gas setup. A 20# cylinder might last about 1.5-2 hours on it. Don't run the burner without water flow to keep the heat exchanger cool

I have a couple extra 20# tanks for the grill so I can use those to try it. I'm amazed at how pricey the drain plug and the PVC slip connectors are.

 

[Pool Clown]

Well the only thing you can do at this point is hook it up, find a suitable temporary tank, and see if the thing even works. If you are really good, you could at the very least find a temporary tank and hook it in and see if the unit at least will light the pilot and generate the voltage needed to operate. You could at least run thru the basics. Then hooking it up into plumbing and see if it really works.

+1

If the heater works, give the propane guy a call and have him bring out a tank, and fill it of course!