You may not think much about what goes into making your pool a hot spot. It is the pool itself, but the part of the euqipment that really makes it comfortable to swim is the heater!
The pump brings the water from the pool to the filter, and then through the heater to warm up and put back into the pool.
Heaters tend to need just a bit of maintenance through the pool season, including keeping the filter cleaned and backwashed. A common call here in the office is “help, my heater won’t start” and our first question is always, when is the last time that you backwashed? Heaters have a pressure switch that registers the amount of water flow. If the flow is too low, the heater sends a signal that says don’t start.
Other common issues with pool heaters are insects and rodents nesting in the heater over the winter. This can cause blocked tubing, pilot assemblies on the older heater models, and nests in wiring which means a mess, and probably wires that have been nibbled on too.
If you have an older pool heater and need a new one you will likely find out that the manufacturers have eliminated heaters with standing pilot lights. The new heaters (by mandate) have to be energy efficient, which means electronic ignition, push button thermostat/temperature controls, and more efficient operation. For this reason you will also find that the new heaters require the gas line be a certain size, so we are seeing new heaters going down a size to be compatible with the gas line size that has been previously installed.
Here’s a quick video explaining the push button operation of a new Pentair Mastertemp Heater that our service tech Mark installed for one of our customers:
