How to Choose a Pool Heater: Gas Heater, Heat Pump or Solar Heater?
During cold seasons like winter, the pools are always icy cold, and most of them are winterized, meaning they are closed throughout winter and fall.
However, people who like swimming and warm baths do not like to spend the winter, and people want to enjoy swimming anytime in any season. With a pool heater, one can enjoy your winters and any cold weather at the spa without having to worry about icy water.
There are 3 main types of spa heaters; gas heaters, heat pumps and solar heaters. Before choosing, you must understand how it works and make sure it's the best option in terms of size, heater convenience, and cost factors.
Gas Heater
Gas heaters are the most common pool heaters you will find. I guess that's because gas heaters are instant and very handy when you need to get your pool or spa ready in no time.
Standard pool gas heaters heat spa water to the desired temperature in 15 minutes, while heat pumps take up to 45 minutes, and solar heaters take longer.
Also, a gas water heater can heat your water in all weathers; hot, cold, or raining, which is not possible with a solar heating system, which may choose you to winterize your pool in the winter.
Gas heaters use natural gas or propane to start a fire in a heat coil exchanger that heats the water on the way to the pool.
Modern gas heaters such as the Hayward Universal H series are adjustable between low, medium and high BTU (British Thermal Units) or user-friendly temperatures.
When choosing a gas water heater, you must pay close attention to the BTU size of the heater: if you want to heat water in a large swimming pool or spa, you need a larger BTU Gas water heater, the bigger your pool, the more you need to have a larger BTU gas heater.
Also, it's important to know that you can use larger BTU gas heaters in smaller spas to increase efficiency. With most gas heaters on the market today ranging between 100,000 BTU and 500,000 BTU, you can choose the size that works best for your pool.
Large 20,000 gallon swimming pools can use gas heaters between 300,000 BTU and 500,00 BTU for faster and instant heating. But it doesn't hurt to use a 400,000 BTU gas heater on a 10,000 gallon pool, in fact it will be more efficient, instant and less expensive to operate.
As mentioned earlier, smaller BTU natural gas pool heaters don't heat larger pool water any faster and only work if you have or want to place a small hot tub and keep it hot all the time (like in winter or when it's cold) days) is the best time.
Disadvantages of Gas Heaters Gas Heaters
Made of different heat exchanger materials; copper, copper nickel and ASME copper. Copper heat exchangers are the most common and affordable gas heat exchangers and are made of copper coils, so when chlorine is added or higher than normal and the pH of the pool water is low, green copper can easily be caused in the spa spot.
Cupro-Nickel and Copper ASME are upgraded pool heaters with improved chemical damage resistance compared to pure copper heat exchangers.
Copper, cupro-nickel or ASME copper: which heat exchanger material is best?
Gas heaters are available in 3 different heat exchanger materials:
1. Copper
Heat Exchangers Copper heat exchangers are the most common heat exchanger material for any swimming pool or spa that is chemically balanced and well maintained.
However, copper heat exchangers have low resistance to chemical damage, and if used for a long time without treating or removing the copper metal accumulated in the pool water, it is easy to oxidize and cause metal stains.
Copper metal stains are green in color and form when chlorine is added to hot spring water or when the pH level drops.
Copper heat exchangers are not suitable for brine pools due to their low resistance to chemical damage: brine pools are known to have problems with high calcium levels that can cause calcium scale on copper heat exchangers to reduce their efficiency.
How to Prevent Copper When Using Copper Heat Exchangers
Contamination To use copper gas heaters without metal contamination issues, you need to measure the copper metal content in your water at least monthly and reduce it by draining and refilling a given portion of your hot spring water when it is high. freshwater.
Alternatively, if draining and refilling your spa water is expensive, you can add a metal remover like ProTeam Metal Magic to remove copper metal through the filter, then backflush and flush the filter to clean it.
You can also use Clorox DE Media + Filter Aid in your separator to filter out copper metal before entering your swimming pool and prevent metal stains when chlorine is added or when pH is low;
2. Copper Nickel
Heat Exchanger The cupro-nickel gas heater is equipped with a heat exchanger made of cupro-nickel, which has a very high resistance to corrosion and contamination caused by high chlorine or low pH and salt water.
A copper nickel gas heater will cost a little more than a basic copper heater, but it's powerful and worth the money.
Copper-nickel gas heaters are highly recommended for saltwater pools as they are highly resistant to chemical and saltwater damage.
Heat Pump
A heat pump is the second pool heater we'll look at because it's very efficient at heating and maintaining the water temperature needed in a hot tub or spa.
Depending on the size of the heat pump, you need to choose the best size heat pump that will heat your small, medium and large thermal water faster.
A heat pump uses electricity, which is why it can efficiently heat and maintain your spa water temperature, and can cost slightly less than other types of pool heaters.
While slower to heat up compared to natural gas heaters, a heat pump is considered cost-effective and convenient when you need to keep hot water in your spa for an extended period of time because it doesn't require a lot of electricity to maintain the water temperature.
One of the great advantages of a top brand heat pump like Leomon Pool Heater is that you can adjust the water temperature level up or down according to the user's preference, so in addition to heating the water, it can also be used as a cooler to lower the water temperature in hot, humid areas and hot springs where the water temperature tends to rise frequently high.
Before buying a heat pump, you need to know the temperature of the water you will be maintaining in your spa and choose the right size heat pump to heat and maintain the water efficiently.
Just like gas heaters, heat pumps with larger heating capacity are best for larger swimming pools and are fast heaters.
To choose the right heat pump for your spa, use the DOE-recommended formula for choosing the right size BTU heat pump:-
Pool area x temperature rise x 12.
Disadvantages of heat pumps:
Heat pumps are not instant pool heaters and are not recommended when you need instant pool heating, especially in cooler areas.
Heat pumps are useful; it is economical to maintain a given water temperature in smaller spas and cooler areas (using less electricity).
Solar Pool Heaters
Swimming pool solar heater systems work by heating water that runs through small pipes in the panels that are good conductors of heat and are heated by the sun.
Solar water heaters are only used in summer, only in the daytime when there is sun, not in winter and cold days.
Installing a solar water heater can be expensive compared to gas and heat pumps, however, since it uses the sun for power, it has minimal running costs and is completely free.
Alternatively, you can use a space solar pool cover to heat the water on sunny days or in summer. These pool covers use heat from the sun to heat your pool water and keep your water warmer for longer by preventing evaporation at night and on colder days.
Solar Pool Heating System
The main disadvantage of solar heaters or solar pool covers is that they are only useful when there is sun and in summer. Solar heaters or pool covers cannot be used in winter or when there is no sun.
