Natural Gas Brand + Warranty.

[Kouri]

First, thanks for all the previous help; now my beautiful little pool needs a heater. We have natural gas and 150BTU seems the right size. Hayward, Jandy, Pentair, Raypak -- how to choose?

Should we go through the 'authorized distributor' or void the warranty by using a licensed gas installer and 'self-insure'? It seems money can be saved on the equipment and installation with the risk of no warranty coverage from the manufacturer.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[ajw22]

Depends on the price difference. If a self install is half the price then chances are you will come out ahead. And if the heater does fail once you are only even.

For a 20% difference I would use an authorized dealer who will be your advocate to the company if you have warranty issues.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Unless it's dead out of the box, I find getting warranty approved service to be a hassle at best and, if it involves any significant amount of money, it's a war of attrition with a little bit of blame-game added for fun.

The heater experts on this forum routinely love Raypak....

 

[Kouri]

Since my neighbor has a Sta-Rite Max-E Therm and nearly identical pool, I've done a little research. They have a 2-yr warranty if installed by a qualified professional such as the plumber we'd use. I will also look into Raypak...
Thanks.

 

[ajw22]

I believe Sta-Rite is a Pentair brand now.

 

[chiefwej]

With pool heaters (like SWG and filters) bigger is better. The largest heater you can both afford and fit into your equipment area is what you want. With a house HVAC you need to “right size” your equipment, but with a pool, a larger heater will get it up to temp quicker, and sometimes can be cheaper to operate.

 

[Kouri]

Yes, Sta-Rite is a Pentair brand. Also,

With pool heaters (like SWG and filters) bigger is better. The largest heater you can both afford and fit into your equipment area is what you want. With a house HVAC you need to “right size” your equipment, but with a pool, a larger heater will get it up to temp quicker, and sometimes can be cheaper to operate.

Chief: Interesting comment. Per the calculations we've seen, 150 would be enough but the smallest Pentair Sta-Rite is 200BTU -- bigger enough in your opinion? We're in FL and wish to extend the seasons -- for example we are now at 70 degrees and would like to get to 80+ before jumping in. During the summer months it'd be off line completely and during the coldest days we wouldn't swim no matter the water temp.

 

[PoolGate]

Running the gas line could be your biggest expense. By and large, BTUs added to the water is BTUs. So whatever you add will increase accordingly. More BTUs should be just about as efficient but heat faster. So monthly run rate should not change due to using a 150k BTU model over say a 250k BTU unit. Larger and more gas may require not only a larger gas line, but also your gas meter may need to be changed out to flow the higher amount. All factors to consider when sizing your heater. I would first check with the gas plumber and see what he says. My meter had to be heavied up to flow 400k BTUs (via a high pressure port) but my gas company does this for no charge.

 

[Kouri]

Update: We had the gas lines installed awhile ago while doing other work and had a drop installed for the heater. I ended up buying a Sta-Rite 200K. The Pentair/Sta-Rite phone rep was very helpful and answered my many questions and provided written docs to confirm along with additional information that could save me money. I purchased from INYO got a great price, an additional small discount with my TFP membership and stock in FL for a quick delivery (I could have chosen the Pentair equivalent but it was in TX and I liked the almost local delivery option). INYO has been easy to deal with so far and I anticipate a successful outcome. I did consider the Ray-Pak but couldn't get any one on the phone and just found them harder to deal with. Hope I made the right decision!

 

[ps0303]

Raypak/Rheem would have been a better choice in my opinion. Gas pool heater repairs/sales/install is all I do. I repair lots of Pentair and Hayward units and they make me good money. The Raypak's are the best hardest working heater with the fewest parts in them to break down the road. Also, for the price difference, a 250/260 would have been a better choice, again just my opinion. The Mastertemp and Max-e-therm are the same unit but just in a different exterior case.

 

[setsailsoon]

Update: We had the gas lines installed awhile ago while doing other work and had a drop installed for the heater. I ended up buying a Sta-Rite 200K. The Pentair/Sta-Rite phone rep was very helpful and answered my many questions and provided written docs to confirm along with additional information that could save me money. I purchased from INYO got a great price, an additional small discount with my TFP membership and stock in FL for a quick delivery (I could have chosen the Pentair equivalent but it was in TX and I liked the almost local delivery option). INYO has been easy to deal with so far and I anticipate a successful outcome. I did consider the Ray-Pak but couldn't get any one on the phone and just found them harder to deal with. Hope I made the right decision!

Kouri,

Great info and please do follow-up with the rest of your experience on this project. I'm glad to see you went larger as you'll appreciate the quicker heat up time. I get 2.5 - 3 deg/hr depending on ambient conditions for the pool. You should get somewhat quicker. I did a similar job installing mine and I'm very happy with it. I did have an issue with connectors failing inside the heater. Solved this by removing them one-at-a-time, cleaning, then spraying with Corrosion Block. No similar problems since and I've had the heater in service 3 years. Have seen similar problems in this area on several other brands... may be humitidy or something? We use the gas heat a good bit Dec-March for top-off to the solar heater. Rest of the year we get plenty of solar and rarely need the gas.

Chris