pool heating

Gordy · February 2007

Abandon ship on the PEX spiral. Remember we argued on how much pex it would have taken.....and you were right. Sorry Mike I'll listen to you from now on :-).

Bottom line is as everyone says not enough area for the BTUS needed. If you want to heat a pool get a pool heater that is designed for it think large flow. 100,000 btu POOL heater will give ya 1/2* per hour rise in temp for a 13,000 gal pool.

Hmmm Hot Rod a Munchkin boiler heating a pool for years....got to be a HX on that no, or the chlorides issue for SS HX failures on another thread here kinda goes out the window.

Gordy

Mark_7 · February 2007

pool heating

I'm looking for the suggestion on the suject of using the Munchkin hot water maker for a pool heater.Anyother imput.

alb · February 2007

pool heater

try using a heat exchanger like a traingle tube maxi flo to isolate the poll water from the boiler and system. treat it like another heating zone. this may take longer to heat the pool, but it will work, and last longer then a traditional pool heater. performance will depend on btu's from heater and pool demand.

Mike Thomas_2 · February 2007

Get a Pool Heater

We do radiant and sell and install pools and pool equipment. You would be better off with a regular pool heater. They are designed for pool water, and you will get a lot more heater (btu) for your money. Get the biggest heater you can afford and matches you pool pump/flow rate. When you try to heat 20-30,000 gallons of water or more it's like trying to move a freight train.

Ed_26 · February 2007

pool heat

Solar??

gary bettcher · February 2007

question

How would tubing in the pool floor and walls work for heating the water just like radiant heat. Has it ever been tried.

Maine Doug_52 · February 2007

My pool in FL

had something like 6 or more burners in the propane heater. At Christmas we used to heat the water to at least 85 for the few days everyone was home. This pool also had six 4x10 solar panels on a southern facing roof.
It took 2 full days to bring the water up to temp and we called for propane mid-holiday.
The AC was air to water and used the pool water so in the summer the solar panels radiated excess heat at night and in the winter added heat for the heat pump. Since the pool pump was 2HP and all the plumbing was 2", the heater had to be sized to not restrict that flow.

The spa took about an hour in the winter to heat up from 50 to 102. Good thing the propane was metered because it took a ton of BTU's to heat all that pool water. The solar really helped in this case.

Mike E_2 · February 2007

How big is the pool, and what size munchkin. It kind of depends on how you want to use the pool. Do you plan on keeping the temperature steady, or will you let it cool down for periods, and then want to heat it up? With the high amount of BTU's needed for the pool, it is desirable to have a high efficiency appliance - especially if it is planned on being used alot. But at some point, the high cost for the larger mod/cons might make it cost prohibitive.
A 400,00 BTU Teledyne Laars heater is 1/3 the cost of a 399 Munchkin. I just did some quick calculations and it would take 6,810 hours of run time to make up the difference in purchase price of the munchkin. Using the heater 5 hrs a day for 5 months a year - that's 9 years. Now if you plan on using the heater more than that, the payback will come sooner. The other thing working in the favor of the Teledyne Laars pool heaters is that gas (at least in my area) is cheaper in the summer. During the winter it's about 1.25/therm, in the summer it's about 1.00/therm

I have a pool that holds 17,500 gal. My dad had a Teledyne Laars heater from 1966 on it. It was originally propane, but when natural gas was run to the neighborhood, he drilled out the orifices and converted it to natural gas. It was replaced summer of 2005 with a new Teledyne Laars with digital temperature controls. The old one still works, but I built a wood hot tub, and needed the dual temperature controls of the new ones. I'm not expecting the new one to give me 40 years of service because they are built alot cheaper now (go figure) and I'm sure the control board will fry itself at some point.

Anyways, the heaters were 175,000 BTU input @ 80% = 140000 BTU in the water. It takes 1 hour to raise the temperature 1 degree. I should have gone up a size on the new one to get faster response since I only warm up the pool when I want to use it during the warmer weeks in summer (which we do occasionally get in SE Wisconsin). You probably want to size the heater to get a 2 degree/hour rise.

So on a pool that will need alot of heat, a muchkin will make sense, but on a pool that is only somewhat occasionally used, a pool heater makes more sense.

Also, solar panels are a great addition to any pool. They are pretty cheap to buy, and provide free heat when the sun is shining.

Michael

hr · February 2007

I tried a radiant floor pool system

last year.

Just not enough surface area (heat flux) to get the job done. Consider trying to deliver 150- 200,000 BTU with just 800- 1000 or so square feet of emitter. Even running well above what the concrete should see (140 F) it didn't come close to warming the water.

Pool walls would be a tough go as far as keeping the tube in place during the pour, etc.

I've heard the owner of HTP has had a Munchkin tied directly to his pool for years. I believe they are built of the same stainless as the pool heat exchangers.

I'd bet you could find a used or scratch and dent Munchkin to try out for less $$ than a new pool boiler

hot rod

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Mike T., Swampeast MO · February 2007

I remember that Hot Rod. You posted a photo or two. System was at the customer request and you did your best to fulfill, right?

Didn't seem to me that there would be enough surface area and nearly impossible to get any decent delta-t between the walls/floor of the pool and the water in the pool. Even with good insulation behind/underneath the pool walls/floor a decent amount of heat might have found the "easy" route to the ground itself.

Also remember a post and personal correspondence with someone who wanted to heat an above ground pool with a spiral of tube underneath. Don't know if he did it or if it worked, but haven't seen any report of success...

pool heating

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