Gas Pool Heaters

Things to Know When Buying a Heater

Pool Size

Finding the right gas pool heater for your system starts with determining the right BTU size. It’s important that you.

• Step 1: Calculate your Surface Area (Pool Length x Pool Width)
• Step 2: Divide your Surface Area by 3 (Surface area / 3)
• Step 3: Account for whether you’ll use a solar cover to help retain heat during the cold months.

Most manufacturers and pool technicians suggest oversizing your pool heater to ensure your pool reaches your desired temperatures, even on the chilliest days. For example, if your calculation shows you can use a 250,000 BTU heater, go to the 300,000 BTU model.

Gas Type 

Pool heaters are fueled using either natural gas (NG) or propane (LP); natural gas pool heaters are the more common due to their popularity and NG’s wide availability. Propane heaters’ main drawback is installing a 100-gallon or more propane tank on site to fuel the heater.

Contact your local utility company to confirm that your area has natural gas service.

Copper or Heavy Duty Heat Exchanger

The metal manifold through which the water is pumped to be heated by the burners is called the heat exchanger. The heater’s heat exchanger can be made of either copper, cupro-nickel, or niTek (Raypak heaters only.)

Copper heat exchangers are the most efficient at transferring heat but are also the most fragile. Heaters with copper heat exchangers should only be installed on pools using liquid or tablet-stabilized chlorine.

Cupro-nickel heat exchangers are the classic heavy-duty heat exchangers; they can be installed on traditional chlorine or saltwater pools. The heat transfer efficiency of cupro-nickel is slightly less than that of copper.

The new NiTek heat exchanger technology from Raypak is said to be 300% more erosion resistant than copper and 200% more erosion resistant than cupro-nickel models. Nitek’s thermal efficiency matches that of copper and is 2% more than that of cupro-nickel.

Emissions 

Low emissions or Low-NOx heaters are designed to reduce the heater’s nitrogen-oxide exhaust output, making them a more environmentally friendly option. California is one state that requires all new heaters installation to be a Lo-Nox type.

Some heater models like the Hayward Universal H-Series come standard in a LowNox design. Other brands, like Raypak, offer a special 207A-407A RP2100 model.

Elevation

Gas pool heaters require constant oxygen supply to ensure clean burning combustion for maximum efficiency. At elevations of 2000 ft above sea level and higher, poo atmospheric pool heaters become starved for oxygen which can cause misfires or excess soot.

Forced draft heaters like the Hayward Universal H-Series and Pentair MasterTemp use internal blowers to feed oxygen into the combustion chamber. The Universal H-Series and MasterTemp can be installed in elevations up to 10,000 and 9,000 feet; Raypak’s high elevation RP2100 models are still atmospheric, non-forced draft.

Residential

Most of the heaters we carry are residential pool heaters; these models have polymer headers and do not need to be ASME certified. Commercial, or ASME pool heaters, are ASME certified, meaning the parts and design have been to be ASME compliant. The high ASME standard ensures the heater can maintain efficiency, reliability, and durability while enduring high temperatures and higher water flow rates. For example, ASME heaters are designed with metal headers, which are more durable than residential polymer headers.

For More Information - Differences in Swimming Pool Heaters

Helpful Content - How to Size a Gas Pool Heater