Can I "open" my pool on my own -- Pentair Mastertemp Natural Gas Heater

[crek31]

Hi -- I guess I am asking a question before I spend the holiday weekend spinning my wheels too much reading on here or tinkering with the equipment pad -- Here is the first question:

1. I have a big intex we put up and take down, seasonally. Last time we had it up was 2017, at the end of which, we had it professionally "closed" - meaning they did whatever they do with pump, cartridge filter, and heater and we physically remove the pool.

2. This year we put it back up and I "opened" the pump and filter fine. But I am not a diy'er and am a bit scared to try to "open" the heater on my own.

3. QUESTION -- Is it straightforward like starting up the pump for the first time all year and likely something I can do on my own? If that answer is yes, i will give it a whirl. If it is specialized or hard to do, and/or unsafe for someone to just do on their own, or If it seems like something you don't think I can do on my ownn by reading on here, I will post to local NextDoor site to see if any diy'ers can help me (which seems unlikely on the holiday weekend). Nobody in pool service or even HVAC has been able to come out or even put us on the schedule and we are in a cool-down .... need the heater to get much out of the pool this weekend.

 

[Texas Splash]

With a little prep and the right guidance (see below) you CAN open & close your own pool.

Opening your pool- An easy to follow guide

Opening your pool can be stressful. This Pool Start Up guide teaches everything from start-up chemicals, covers, and more for your start up.

www.troublefreepool.com

Closing (Winterizing) Your Above Ground Pool

Closing an above ground pool at season’s end should be a fast and worry-free process. Learn the basics of above ground pool winterization in easy steps.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[crek31]

Thanks. I will try to find a how to on the heater. Everything else is up and going and water is well-balanced, etc.

 

[B.lu]

Hi! This is my second summer with a pool and I opened it on my own, with a lot of help from this site! I didn’t have the propane for the heater until a couple of weeks ago so had to figure out how to work it without the pool builder’s’pool school’.

When I first turned the heater on, I was able to see the led screen and adjust the number for temp but it never really kicked on. A bit of TFP research led me to find that my type of heater has a small toggle switch inside the system (had to remove the back panel) and the factory setting was off. I flipped it to on and it worked great.

 

[B.lu]

Hi! This is my second summer with a pool and I opened it on my own, with a lot of help from this site! I didn’t have the propane for the heater until a couple of weeks ago so had to figure out how to work it without the pool builder’s’pool school’.

When I first turned the heater on, I was able to see the led screen and adjust the number for temp but it never really kicked on. A bit of TFP research led me to find that my type of heater has a small toggle switch inside the system (had to remove the back panel) and the factory setting was off. I flipped it to on and it worked great.

Just fyi, I have a master temp 400 btu heater

 

[crek31]

Thanks, B.lu — i am working on getting brave enough to try it tomorrow morning.

 

[B.lu]

Thanks, B.lu — i am working on getting brave enough to try it tomorrow morning.

Good luck and ask as many questions to TFP as you can think of

 

[crek31]

1. Am I correct that i need to hand-turn the red knob thing in the green circle to “open” by turning it so the wings line up with rather than cross the pipe?

2. I do not see the toggle switch in the picture of the inside of the heater. I suppose it could be behind the instructions hanging down, but I did not mess with that part yet because i thought the toggle would be to the right for some reason. It talks about it being inside a “jacket” but i am not clear on where that is, which I think I need to unfastening the jacket bolts, but I am not clear where that is.

3. It says to clean it well before turning it on …. Is the inside clean enough or who can tell me how to clean it out … I assume not a blower or hose, so just dust it off better … or this bit of gunk okay. No obvious evidence of mice or tons of leaves or anything, so I am hoping this is good enough.

4. After turning the gas on with the knob in the green circle, and finding and putting toggle switch within heater in the right spot, is there anything else I need to do besides being sure all the plumbing pipes are open? Can I turn it on and fire it up at that point?

5. If you hear an explosion tomorrow morning, you will know I was in over my head.

 

[arvil]

That red valve appears to be the gas supply and it's a ball valve. Ball valve knobs indicate that across the pipe, it's closed, and in line with the pipe, it's open.

 

[ajw22]

1. Am I correct that i need to hand-turn the red knob thing in the green circle to “open” by turning it so the wings line up with rather than cross the pipe?

Yes.

2. I do not see the toggle switch in the picture of the inside of the heater. I suppose it could be behind the instructions hanging down, but I did not mess with that part yet because i thought the toggle would be to the right for some reason. It talks about it being inside a “jacket” but i am not clear on where that is, which I think I need to unfastening the jacket bolts, but I am not clear where that is.

I am not sure what toggle switch you are referring to.

There is a ON/OFF slide switch that controls power to the gas valve. Find where the gas pipe comes into the heater and it is just inside.

3. It says to clean it well before turning it on …. Is the inside clean enough or who can tell me how to clean it out … I assume not a blower or hose, so just dust it off better … or this bit of gunk okay. No obvious evidence of mice or tons of leaves or anything, so I am hoping this is good enough.

Dust it off and it looks ok.

4. After turning the gas on with the knob in the green circle, and finding and putting toggle switch within heater in the right spot, is there anything else I need to do besides being sure all the plumbing pipes are open? Can I turn it on and fire it up at that point?

This is the Winterization procedure in the manual....



Check that drain cocks are closed.

Check if the Water Pressure switch was removed and replace.

It does not look like your air inlet grate was covered but check it.

If you do anything wrong the safety systems will prevent the heater from starting up. It will not explode on you no matter how hard you try to get 4th of July fireworks out of it.

 

[crek31]

ajw22 -- thanks so much for all of that, especially letting me know an explosion is not likely. Yay!! I will try to get it going tomorrow morning if it is not raining. I kept thinking that they usually left me a little bag of goodies, some from pump and some from heater. I have no idea where the 2017 bag of goodies is ... so it is possible the Water Pressure switch will not be there. I have used multiple pool boys over the years, all services, all flakey, and I am not sure all did the same thing, so maybe I will be lucky and the last guy did not remove that switch. Thanks again for your help!!

 

[B.lu]

Morning. If you used your heater in the past, my guess is the switch is already on. In the picture of your equipment, the right wall of your heater, facing the filter and opposite to side with the brown control box, is the side that I found my toggle switch. From the look of your equipment pics, it looks like maybe you opened the side with the brown box controller. It looks like it might be cumbersome to access the side I’m talking about, with the filter there. When I took that pane off, the switch was at the bottom right hand side (close to your house wall). The toggle was tiny, like one inch in length. I recommend trying to start everything without opening the panel, presuming it is already on. If all else fails though, and doesn’t kick in, I would check it. I used my heater for the first time ever when I had to do it

 

[crek31]

b.lu -- thanks. i think you are right that I took off the wrong panel. I had not realized there was more than one. It is raining now but when it clears off I will do what you suggested and see what happens when I just try to use it per normal. I am hoping they did not remove the water pressure switch ajw22 spoke of, because if they did, I will need to source one because I have not been able to find the bag of goodies the last pool boy left for us and have zero recall of what was in it (I know the drain plugs were but I already bought new of those for pump x2 and heater x1 Thanks again for the tips and I hope you have a great holiday weekend!

 

[crek31]

Rain, rain, go away. My friends at TFP made me brave and now I want to go try this!!

 

[crek31]

Crud. Turned it on and immediatley got "service heater" light. Back to reading. Ugh.

 

[crek31]

Opened up the panel opposite the one I had previously. Found the on/off switch for gas to unit (as i understand it) — it was on “on“ position, so that is not the issue.

No clue on water pressure switch. Where would i find that? Here is inside the unit where the on/off switch is. … should the water pressure thing be in this photo? Is it there, or does this show it is missing and I need get a new one?

 

[crek31]

Can’t figure out how to delete that prior post —- ignore for now. gonna dig a bit on my own and post back when i really need you

 

[crek31]

Ignore my Last two posts above — here is what I should have posted:

1. Gas switch inside pool heater unit is “on” (and was to begin with, I changed nothing there)
2. water pressure switch is in place and purple wires are attached (and was to begin with, I changed nothing there)
3. Gas line appears open from house
4. turned unit on and immediately got “service heater” light and it has not attempted to fire up at all. When it first came on r13 came into the display area but quickly faded.


Any ideas of what I can do next? Servicing heater does not appear to be an option this year (long out of warranty and our pool service techs in this area are very few in number and schedules are full. Tried for two weeks for HVAC and got same story.

 

[crek31]

This is what I have. Service Heater light on. No attempt of firing or blower as far as I know.

 

[crek31]

Better photos. One with light on and one with power off to hopefully be able to read the labels better. I do see that the LED11 just means the service heater light is on. So it is the other one I am trying to figure out.