What new heater for me?

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ride525

ride525

Gold Supporter
Jun 17, 2010
445
Pleasanton, CA
Lots of pool work going on. Intellicenter being installed. PB mentioned recently suggested he could replace heater with Pentair MasterTemp 400,000 but. My 17,500 gallon pool has somewhat near 435 sq ft surface area. Calculation useing these suggests about 175,000 BTU minimum. Most heating done using solar in summer.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance.
 
The more BTU's a heater has, the faster it will heat the pool.
The same amount of BTU's (energy and cost) will be used to heat the pool water, the higher BTU heater will just do it faster.

The suggested 175k BTU is minimum.
Up to you if you want to wait a day or two or maybe only a few hours for the pool water to heat up.
I'd go with the larger heater, especially with a spa.
 
ride525 said:
Lots of pool work going on. Intellicenter being installed. PB mentioned recently suggested he could replace heater with Pentair MasterTemp 400,000 but. My 17,500 gallon pool has somewhat near 435 sq ft surface area. Calculation useing these suggests about 175,000 BTU minimum. Most heating done using solar in summer.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
I only listened to a customer one time and put the smaller heater that he wanted in. Heard nothing but complaints for about a year that it was too slow to heat the spa, and we only went from a 330K to a 250K because it was about $200.00 less at the time. Get the largest you have a gas supply for, you won't regret it.
 
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While the gas meter upgrade may be free from your gas utility, check the gas pipe size to the pool equipment pad. A larger heater needs a larger gas pipe feed. Gas pipe requirements are in the Installation Manual.
 
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Thank you so much, it's late and I'm headed for bed. Will check more tomorrow, the pipe form meter to pool looks like a 2" exterior steel pipe. Smaller than pipe going into house. Will check more in morning.

Thinking bigger is better. Wife swims very in frequently, but likes the pool at 90 degrees. We use the spa a lot. But much of the time preheat both using solar.
 
I currently have Raypak 334,000, the PB is putting in Pentair MasterTemp 400k. Also, at my request a heater bypass. It will be especially beneficial as we run the pump so much without the heater.

Intellicenter being installed today.

Thanks for your feedback!
 

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ride525 said:
Ok, why this kit. I'm not sure that PB knew of this kit, but he does for sure now. I think he was just going to do the same thing without the kit. Your thoughts please.
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He can do it without the Pentair kit but the kit directions show the correct parts to use and way to setup the valve and actuator. Otherwise the PB will freelance it and you will likely end up with it not working properly, come here to complain, and I will need to explain to you how to fix it.

So let's try to get the PB to do his job correctly the first time.
 
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ajw22 said:
He can do it without the Pentair kit but the kit directions show the correct parts to use and way to setup the valve and actuator. Otherwise the PB will freelance it and you will likely end up with it not working properly, come here to complain, and I will need to explain to you how to fix it.

So let's try to get the PB to do his job correctly the first time.
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Hard to tell this to PB who has been doing this for 25 years. I told him to get the kit. I already told him to get the Heater but he didn't think I was sure. Going to send him text to tell him.
 
ride525 said:
Hard to tell this to PB who has been doing this for 25 years.
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That is the problem. He does things like they way they were done 25 years ago.

Automation and heater bypass and this kit are all too new for him to know about. He probably has not gone to Pentair school in many years.
 
ride525 said:
Question on the pentair_heater_auto_bypass_valve_replacement_ kit: Is is set up so,
1. 100% of water goes to heater?
2. 100% of water goes to bypass? And the pump should use less kwh here, than on #1?

Thanks
Click to expand...

No, if the instructions are followed in bypass about 80% of the water bypasses the heater and 20% lows through the heater.

The bypass let's you lower the RPM to get the same water flow. You need to lower the RPM to get the kwh benefit. I can run my system at 1400 RPM bypassed for the same flow as 1700 RPM flowing through the heater.
 
ride525 said:
I have the instructions and gave them to him. He did his own thing, and I'm pretty sure he will have to redo. He'd did not install the smart valve yet. Do I need to be a stickler on which automatic valve he installs?
Click to expand...

By automatic valve, do you mean the actuator on the diverter valve?

No, any actuator will work fine.

Valve Actuators - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 

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