Rusty water when pump restarts

[wayner]

This morning I turned on my pool after having it shut off for about 12 hours. When it started up rusty water came shooting out of the jets when it started. Why would this be? I have a salt water pool and a Raypak NatGas heater. Would this have been rust from the heat exchanger in the heater? Is this something to worry about? Any way to avoid this, other than running 24x7?

 

[homegameroom]

Your signature states that you have a Jandy Lite2 heater. I *had* the same one - it would occasionally clog a spa jet or 2 with solid little clumps of rusty metal and/or the water would come out "rusty" after it sat a while and was turned on. I think the headers were cast iron and it made a mess when it got old.

I bought a RayPak heater (with cupro-nickel heat exchanger) a couple of years ago and couldn't be happier.

 

[homegameroom]

(I think the new heater was not much more expensive than buying new headers and exchangers for the old heater)

 

[wayner]

I have to update my sig as I replaced the Jandy Lite2 with the Raypak heater last season. (One thing that I don't understand is why all heaters don't control your pump the way that the Lite2 did, but that is a different issue!)

 

[homegameroom]

Well, in that case, I'm not sure. I hope someone smarter than I am can chime in and help you.

 

[ajw22]

How old is your pool?

You sure you have no old iron pipes underground?

 

[wayner]

I had the pool put in when I moved into my house about 13-14 years ago. All pipes are PVC. The reason I am guessing the heater is the culprit is that I didn't notice this in the past - the heater is fairly new and I don't have proper automation right now so the pump runs 24x7 most of the time unless I manually flip the circuit breaker.

 

[ajw22]

What model Raypak heater did you install?

 

[wayner]

My model is the Raypak R266A.
edit - Updated my sig to show the model number of the heater.

 

[ajw22]

Post pics of your equipment pad.

I would open the unions to the heater water in and out after your pool has been idle for a while and see if you get rusty water out from either.