Help with first pool heater start of the season

[stillios]

UPDATE: I think everything is working properly. The condensation/steam output has reduced considerably, and the water is getting warmer. I just wasn't prepared for the amount of steam produced when heating the cold water for the first time!

I opened the pool myself for the first time this year (with TFP help) on Saturday. Now I want to use the heater. It's a Hayward gas heater. It fired up and it sounded good. A little while later it looks like there is smoke pouring off the equipment, so I run outside to check it out, and it is just steam. But it is a LOT of steam, more steam than I have ever seen come from this thing. I don't recall ever seeing much steam, if any, before, even when heating on cold nights. And hot air is blowing hard out of the top vent. It seems like it is attempting to heat the outdoors, not the water. The water coming out of the returns was not warm. Is there some winterization I need to undo to get this to work properly?

It's also possible that the steam is normal and I'm just extra worried because we are doing it ourselves this year! I'm going to go back out and see if the pipe carrying water out of the heater warms up.

 

[ajw22]

How is your pool and heater running?

 

[1poolman1]

UPDATE: I think everything is working properly. The condensation/steam output has reduced considerably, and the water is getting warmer. I just wasn't prepared for the amount of steam produced when heating the cold water for the first time!

I opened the pool myself for the first time this year (with TFP help) on Saturday. Now I want to use the heater. It's a Hayward gas heater. It fired up and it sounded good. A little while later it looks like there is smoke pouring off the equipment, so I run outside to check it out, and it is just steam. But it is a LOT of steam, more steam than I have ever seen come from this thing. I don't recall ever seeing much steam, if any, before, even when heating on cold nights. And hot air is blowing hard out of the top vent. It seems like it is attempting to heat the outdoors, not the water. The water coming out of the returns was not warm. Is there some winterization I need to undo to get this to work properly?

It's also possible that the steam is normal and I'm just extra worried because we are doing it ourselves this year! I'm going to go back out and see if the pipe carrying water out of the heater warms up.

You won't feel very warm water coming from the returns, usually only about 6-10 degrees warmer than the surrounding pool water, which is hard to feel.
The maximum coming in is usually about 15 degrees and that is in a spa that is approaching the higher temperatures for a spa.
Be sure to open the cabinet and see if there is water below the burners (or seeping out if the combustion chamber is sealed). Listen for the "sizzle" of cold water hitting a hot surface.. If you see or hear that, there is a leak in the heat exchanger. Hopefully not.