Cold water out of returns with heater on???

[Brick81]

Good day,

This may be a silly question but I turned on our heater for the first time today (water was 60) and it seems to be all ok. Ignited, steam coming out of the top, condensation at the bottom. It’s been running for approx. 2 hours now and when I put my hand in front of the returns, feels like just cold water being pumped out. I texted our pool company and they said just give it time. I could just be being paranoid that something is wrong.

Is this normal??? Don’t remember it being like that when we had our pool guy start it all up last year (then again, they went through everything so quickly, didn’t even get a chance to ask questions).

Please and thanks

 

[Brick81]

Ok, so ran heater for 8 hours yesterday got temp from 58 to 66 however not sure if that was actually the heater or just the nice weather we were having (was approx 75 outside). It went down to 63 overnight (turned heater off) and just started heater again, still feels like cold water coming out of the returns. I remember it being a lot warmer coming out of the returns last year. At least this time when I started it I didn't see any condensation underneath the heater. Still wait it out I guess???? On a side note, when I put my hand on the inlet to the heater it feels like their is a lot more flow then that on the outlet.

 

[JamesW]

With a lot of flow, the temperature rise might not be enough to feel.

What is the pump speed?

 

[Brick81]

Ahhh, that could be.... Got it set so minimum speed for the heat to come on is at 2400 rpm (70% on my vs pump) sometimes I bump it up to 2700 rpm... It is going up so think I'll consider this a non issue gone up to 68 (from 63) in the past 2 hours...

 

[Donldson]

To raise the temperature of your pool 5 degrees requires 750,000 BTU of energy. Sunlight during those two hours would provide less than 1/4th of that.

Your heater is most definitely working.

 

[grichard]

I built my pool last season, so this was my first time opening it "cold". If it's any comfort to you, I had exactly the same doubt that you did. It's just a combination of high flows through the heater and unusually cold water entering the heater.