gas pool heaters

Nothing beats a pool heater for adding comfort to early morning lap sessions, after-dark swims, or to extend your swim season long into the winter. Integrating the most advanced features — from superior hydraulic design, to technologically-innovative control systems.  Swimming Pool Controls specializes in Gas heaters, natural or propane, and we can help you select the right Gas pool heater or electric pool heater for your pool.  

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benefits of pool heaters

Gas pool heater

The way a gas pool heater works is similar to a household furnace. A burner tray is ignited below an air space which heats up a series of copper-finned tubes. Your pool water is pumped through these copper tubes, which give up the heat to the water as it passes through.

To power a natural gas heater you have to run an underground gas line from the meter on your house (or a propane gas tank) over to the pool heater. The size of the gas line has to be sized correctly or the heater will not work properly. In order to determine the correct size gas line, measure the distance from the heater to gas meter. The further the distance, the larger the gas line that is required for the pool heater. There is also a secondary regulator that is installed just outside the pool heater, where the gas pipe enters. 

Gas pool heaters are the quickest way to heat your swimming pool, gas pool heaters heat the pool faster than pool heat pumps. You can raise the temp of a pool 1-3 degrees per hour, depending on it’s size, where heat pumps may only raise the temperature 1-3° per day! If this is a weekend home or you just plan on swimming on the weekends, or if you have an attached spa, and want to increase the temperature quickly- Go Gas.

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Gas consumption is steady with a gas pool heater, but several factors affect gas usage. Temperature rise that you are trying to achieve, the outside air temperature, wind speed and whether or not you cover the pool – all affect the amount of fuel burned. Gas pool heaters will cost you about 2.5gal of gas per hour used at what ever your cost per gal is.

During the “shoulder months”, when you may be raising the temperature 15 degrees or more, you will have the highest cost. During more seasonal months, you may add only 5 degrees to the water, which will reduce the cost of gas pool heating. 

If you are planning to install the gas pool heater indoors, the heat pump, which emits no noxious gases, is the safer alternative. If installed inside, even in a small shed, pool heat pumps and gas pool heaters both require proper venting to the outside for the exhaust, for safety and for proper operation.

Electric pool heater

An electric pool heater works in reverse of a central air conditioning unit. The way it operates is that it transfers heat from the outside air to your swimming pool water.  Warm air is drawn over the evaporator coil by the fan; water runs through the heat exchanger and comes back into your pool through your inlet.

To power an electric pool heater, you will need to install a dedicated 220v electrical circuit, on a 40 -60 amp circuitbreaker. If you currently have a 100 amp outdoor sub-panel breaker box at your equipment pad, you may have enough room to simply pop-in one of these large breakers. Open the sub-panel, look for the amperage rating, and then add up the amps of the existing breakers. Look for the amp draw of each breaker; printed numbers on each breaker switch.

Faq

If you don’t have the required amperage available at the equipment pad, you’ll need to have an electrician run a new underground line from the main house breaker box. This is usually priced per foot. If your pool equipment is located within 25 feet of the main breaker box, it should be under $500. Longer runs will increase the cost to run new a new power line to your pool heat pump.

The cost to purchase an electric pool heater is more expensive for the initial purchase. Electric consumption is steady with an electric pool heater, but heat loss is affected by several factors. Covering the pool can save up to 50% of heating costs. High winds, cool nights and higher water temperatures will also increase heat pump operating cost. Generally, all things being equal, electric pool heaters are about as expensive to operate compared to a gas pool heaters. 

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