Which size of Natural Gas Pool Heater?

[angb]

Hi,

I have a quote for a 16x34 inground pool which includes a 250,000 btu natural gas heater. Is this big enough?

Pool depth is constant at 54" of water.

I live in Ontario, Canada and would be using the heater at the end of May perhaps, June, July, August and September.

I see some people on the forum have roughly the same size of pool but they have 400,000 btu gas heaters.

What do you recommend?

Thank you.

 

[jblizzle]

What you have will work, it will just take ~40% longer to add the same amount of heat.
If you want to add a lot of heat quickly, then a bigger heater would help. But, if you are just maintaining a temperature, then the smaller should be fine.

 

[Chrissykr]

We went with a 400k unit and it was the best decision we could have made. The cost about gave my hubby a heart attack but in the end he agrees it was worth every penny. The biggest headache was the gas line. We get about three degrees an hour when heating the pool and the gas bills have been reasonable with the bigger heater. We live in the south and still kept our heater on pretty much all summer (we like it around 90 degrees)

 

[Yorker]

We had the same debate when we were accepting quotes from PB's. One of the PB's we were seriously considering was insistent that all we needed was 250,000 btu's, but every other PB was quoting 400,000. As I recall the price difference was not huge.

Our pool+spa is lightly under 10,000 gallons. We ended up with the 400,000 an very glad we did. We can heat our spa 26° in 45 minutes and the pool 20° in 4.5 hours. We really like that speed

 

[KDpoolguy]

The 250k btu would work. If you have a pool of that size, esp. if there’s no spa. I know how cold it gets there with family in Hamilton, ON.

As mentioned the running of the appropriate sized gas line to the equipment pad is an important component, even if you go from 266k to 336k (those are Raypak heater sizes that I’m familiar with), pipe size increase is often required. Also take into consideration the source meter requirements to ‘power’ a 400k btu unit. You’re pushing a lot of gas that way.

 

[Chrissykr]

The 250k btu would work. If you have a pool of that size, esp. if there’s no spa. I know how cold it gets there with family in Hamilton, ON.

As mentioned the running of the appropriate sized gas line to the equipment pad is an important component, even if you go from 266k to 336k (those are Raypak heater sizes that I’m familiar with), pipe size increase is often required. Also take into consideration the source meter requirements to ‘power’ a 400k btu unit. You’re pushing a lot of gas that way.

Yes, we had no idea our meter and such would have to be changed. We did not have enough gas coming off our line to even run the heater. The gas company installed a small commercial meter on our line and required two shutoffs on our line for the heater.

 

[SBall]

I went with the 336K BTU Raypak heater. A 3/4" gas line was fine for the 336k, but for the 406K, I think it really required 1". I ran it for about 5 minutes, and with the water about 66 degrees, that warm water coming out the jets felt GOOD. I have not otherwise tried to heat the pool. Didnt really make sense to try to heat it up 20 degrees and then maintain for only a week or two of swimming. Planning to heat it up in April, and maintain it through October.

 

[PoolGate]

Bigger is better!

 

[sktn77a]

We have a 15,000 gal pool in NC. Our 250,000 BTU heater raises the temperature about 1 degree per hour.

 

[angb]

Yes, we had no idea our meter and such would have to be changed. We did not have enough gas coming off our line to even run the heater. The gas company installed a small commercial meter on our line and required two shutoffs on our line for the heater.

I assume the gas company charged you to install a commercial meter and the two shut-offs?

I think we need to have the Pool Builder's gas guy come out and have a look.

 

[PoolGate]

I assume the gas company charged you to install a commercial meter and the two shut-offs?

I think we need to have the Pool Builder's gas guy come out and have a look.

You are in Canada so no clue there but I did not have to pay any of the gas company charges. They added a high pressure port and replaced my entire meter. All I had to pay was the gas guy to run from the meter to the heater and hook it up.