Pentair MasterTemp 250 Water Leak

[STLpoolBoy]

I'm new to pool maintenance, bought a home last year with a pool and had a company take care of it all year. This year we had a professional open it, but plan on doing everything else ourselves, so I've been conducting a lot of research on here - thank you for the great resource.

Because of a lot of rain, we have had the heater off pretty much since opening the pool two weeks ago. Yesterday when I went to turn the heater on the "service heater" light came on. This morning I tried it again and the same thing occurred, so I took the covers off and saw a code light of AFS. I also noticed a slight dripping of water from the screw holding the air intake onto the blower.

During my start attempts yesterday and early today, it did sound as if the blower was coming on, but after a few hours and multiple tries it doesn't appear as idpf the blower is coming on any longer.

When I attempt to start it, it does sound as if there is a water gurgling sound coming from the blower motor. The leak from the screw is not increasing.

The documentation with the heater says it's four years old. Is it shot or anything I can do to fix it? Any help is appreciated.

 

[ps0303]

Remove one of the bottom bolts on the manifold, circled in red in the image. If water come out, yes you have a leaking heat exchanger and that unit is done for. Some people pay to replace the heat exchanger but it's a big job and a pain.

 

[STLpoolBoy]

If we were on the phone, I would have said, "you mean one of the rusty ones on the bottom?" The answer was pretty clear when I saw the bottom bolts were rusty and none of the others were. So yes water did pour out when I removed the bolt and I assume it's shot.

I have two two more questions at this point.

1) Is this something that happened over time, or could I have done something in the last couple weeks to cause a catastrophic failure? The rusted bolts tell me it happened over time, but I want to be clear. My daughter was under the impression it was working right after the pool was opened a few weeks ago the heater was off the last few weeks because of rain. I've just taken over pool maintenance and would like to know if this was somehow a costly mistake I made.

2) I don't have the funds right now to replace it (probably wait until next year), and the system doesn't have a bypass to take the heater out of the water flow - is this going to be a bigger issue? Will the heater eventually completely rust out and cause a massive leak? The leak right now is a small drip from the air intake.

Thank you for your help.

 

[ps0303]

It was over time that the failure happened. Yes if left like it is, the canister can eventually leak. I would consider cutting the PVC pipes an get some pipe, elbows and glue. Then cut the pvc pipes going to it and loop the pipes together. This way you won't have to worry about any possible leak.