Heater Recommendation for Natural Gas

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G

gtty

0
Aug 11, 2012
189
Houston, Tx. (West Houston)
Pool Size
9600
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-3)
Hi All,

We just bought a house with a pool that had the heater removed a few years back. It has a hot tub and we'd like to get a heater for it. Do y'all have a recommendation for a heater unit. It's a weird shaped pool IMO, but hey, it's water.
~9,000 gallons
Surface area ~260 sq ft.

I have added some photos to show what I'm working with.
 

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See that trichlor tablet feeder? That likely destroyed the original heater. Be sure to not use that when you get your new heater.

Also, please update your signature with this new pool when you can.
 
Marty's got a great point about the chlorinator. I've done a lot of research on heaters. Many experts on here have a preference for Raypak. I have huge respect for our experts but I've seen too much corrosion on their rectangular designs with burner assembly that is pretty much exposed to a lot of corrosion. Also the base corrodes badly. I think this could be much worse in southern humid climates that I've lived in so that may be part of why I see this and differ from the experts. Most other brands seem to have a circular firebox with a concentric burner that is much more shielded from weather. To me they all seem the same and they also seem to share many components. I prefer Pentair when I have a choice but I can't really say their heaters are better. I had a Jandy version of this for 8 years in my coastal S. Florida location with no evidence of any corrosion - internal or external. The burner is a concentric vertical perforated single-tube design that is an alloy that had no corrosion at all. All newer heaters use flame sensing safety cut off and it can be a little temperamental due mostly to corrosion in the ground circuit but this is not really that hard to maintain.

One of the main things you can do to get normal life out of any heater is maintain TFP recommended levels for your water chemistry. My neighbor's pool heater installation was identical to mine and done by the same PB but his heater exchanger failed after only 4 years. Only difference was pool maintenance. He used a service that I know had no clue what they were doing. Only one example but I thing there's a lot of science and logic that supports my belief on this.

I hope this is helpful.

Chris
 
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The main reason Raypak is preferred is it is a natural draw firebox. No fan. So no moving parts, less to fail, etc.
 
PS, I switched to SWG after several years of liquid chlorine and recommendations from experts to give it a try. I finally did and I'll never have any other kind of pool. Our experts are always right. My wife loves it and wouldn't let me change even if I wanted to. I wouldn't because swg is so much easier. But if you decide not to do this liquid chlorine is the only alternative in my opinion.

Chris
 
mknauss said:
The main reason Raypak is preferred is it is a natural draw firebox. No fan. So no moving parts, less to fail, etc.
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Makes a lot of sense Marty and this explains a lot... just that in my area nothing ever failed other than the bottom of the housing and exposed burner assembly. They were so disintegrated after 5 years or so that replacements would cost more than a heater. Maybe they could be sprayed off with a hose for maintenance or the unit could be installed with spacers from the slab or maybe even our routine gusher rains that have the unit sitting in pooled water often were much of the reason. But there's something in my local area that made them not hold up well. All the units around me seem to be either Raypak or Jandy so there were a lot of examples of this and seemed to many to be coincidence.

Chris
 

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mknauss said:
Pad should be built up so none of the equipment ever sits in water. They are not designed for that.
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I'm sure that's a part of the issue but Raypaks still seem to fair worse in my area. I think my observation is a local one and shouldn't apply nation wide. I really like the simplicity of the Raypak design that you mentioned. In most cases that should be a huge advantage.
 
I deal with a few Raypaks and they are in either great condition or a rust box. What I've found is that the pad gets poured before any landscaping is done and when the final shrubbery is set in place too close with lots of mulch the pad tends to end up being level with the ground which then means every time there's rain the heater base gets a fresh soaking. Also I've noticed the landscapers have sprinklers that continuously hit the pool pad which is another reason for the heater demise.
 
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wireform said:
I deal with a few Raypaks and they are in either great condition or a rust box. What I've found is that the pad gets poured before any landscaping is done and when the final shrubbery is set in place too close with lots of mulch the pad tends to end up being level with the ground which then means every time there's rain the heater base gets a fresh soaking. Also I've noticed the landscapers have sprinklers that continuously hit the pool pad which is another reason for the heater demise.
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That could very well have been part of the downfall for my area. Almost every pad gets unneeded over spray.
 
After just doing a swap out of a 400kBTU Sta-rite to a 400kBTU Raypak heater, I can see why so many like the Raypak better. Way less noise, it's very hard to hear it running. Of coarse for you will not need one that big for 9000 gallons unless you was looking for the water to get heated quicker. A 250kBTU unit would be cheaper and still do the job.
 
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