They charge for cold water with ice but the swimming pool heat pump is inexpensive.
July 2023
Tap water is now over half a dollar. My wife and I took a break from distributing USA made swimming pool heaters and geothermal supplies when we picked up some food from the drive through at Burger King today for lunch. I am grateful that she is just as happy with a sit down expensive dinner or just some take out food that we can eat parked in the car in the shade at a local park. I asked for some water when I picked up my food as it is very hot today as anyone in the Northern Hemisphere is probably experiencing and we have been running a bit dehydrated. They said now it is .55 cents for tap water. Now I know they have a to pay for a plastic cup and straw, but in the interest of the happy customer experience that should be covered. We are paying more for everything on the menu this year and they could have added a couple of cents for that. We even used the app to order saving them the labor and the time of taking the order, collecting the payment and making change. Also we didn’t sit down in the store and cause a mess that they then would have to clean up. (I seem to knock over drinks and drop food lately) We didn’t even give them trash to dispose of. In my company we do everything possible not to nickel and dime our customers. I try to cover extra expenses if possible especially if it isn’t my clients fault. I even feel guilty sometimes when I suggest a winter cover for the heatpump or a chiller for aquaculture as I don’t like to pad the bill. I then did something that maybe someone with too much time on their hands might do. I drove across the street to a McDonald’s restaurant and got a large ice coffee and a large water for .99 cents plus tax. How could I resist. They have a closer business model to mine and seem to care. I don’t really know if they care but the person who took the money and the person who gave me my drinks were both smiling and seemed happy to see me, and I felt good when I drove out. If I feel good then I am better at my business and maybe that will rub off on my next interaction with someone. If your pool is too cold or too hot and you get a swimming pool heater or a geothermal heat pump from me this week then I promise I will cover all the drinking water you can drink and I will smile and will be happy that I have you as a new friend.
Be safe out there and have an amazing swimming summer.
Best,
Marcus
PS We recycled the cups and the vanilla ice coffee was really good. 🙂
PPS In the interest of insider trading and selfish self promotion I probably have McDonalds restaurant stock in an ETF in the retirement account. Come to think of it there is just as much chance I also have Burger King in there too. So ignore this paragraph.
PPPS Burger King just offered me a $5.00 credit today on my next mobile app order. That was kinda cool of them. Thanks BK. I wonder if I can use that to order 9 cups of water?
Harvesting corn from my garden early this year. Wonder how they would have done in a climate controlled green house.
August 2023
Exciting news! My homegrown corn tasted amazing this year – I forgot what real vegetables tasted like. Grown without chemicals or fertilizers, it was twice as tall as commercial fields near me and ready to eat weeks before everyone else’s. As someone who supplies Geothermal Aquaculture and Agriculture heat pumps to farmers, I’d love to hear feedback on how their crops progressed this year in the Northern hemisphere. Some use my heat pumps to heat and cool the air in the green houses and some use my geothermal and air to water heat pumps to heat and cool the water inside the green house for the Aquaculture and Aquaponic pools. Let’s keep working towards sustainable and delicious produce! Now I am also ok if you just want to use my swimming pool heatpump to make the pool the perfect swimming temperature and just buy some store bought corn for the grill and invite me and my family over for an end of summer swimming party. Well I guess I can bring my corn and giant pumpkins to help out too.
Be safe out there. I am thinking of you guys.
Best,
Marcus Miller
President Green Planet Supply
Heat Pump Suppliers
Cell 360 348 7574
Winter is here in the Northern hemisphere and swimming pools and aquaculture fish are too cold.
Winter and Christmas for my Northern hemisphere friends will be here soon, and it’s almost time to close down your pool to get it ready for the next season. My Southern pool buddies can ignore this in Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada, Georgia and To ensure your swimming pool equipment remains in good shape, here are some important steps to take. Remove accessories like the skimmer baskets, cleaners, ladders, steps, etc., from the pool. Clean everything and store them for the winter. Clean the pool and adjust the chemicals. Start by draining the filter pump and pipes that might freeze and then make sure to remove any water from the heater that could freeze and damage the heat exchanger. A wet vacuum or leaf blower helps with that. Put as much equipment inside as you can. Don’t move heat pumps as they are designed to be outside all year if properly drained. Plug lines so they don’t fill with water. Putting some pool grade antifreeze in the lines and equipment is a good idea too. Put your winter chemicals in the pool. Some people depending on location drain some water from the pool until it is below the skimmer and use a winter cover on the pool too. That is for inground pools. There are a few extra steps for above ground pools with hoses. Read your manual or talk to your pool guy or gal to be safe on anything that I said as I am more if a heater / heatpump guy than a pool guy. 🙂 Watch some YouTube videos on pool closing for your area to get up to speed faster too. There are some great local pool techs out there that know what’s best for your climate. Use them if this seems like too much of a pain.
Taking these steps will help you avoid any costly repairs come springtime. Stay ahead of the game and get your pool ready for winter today! I have a lot of my customers waiting for the last minute to close the pool too because they have my cold weather heatpumps In Washington State and Long Island New York last year we had pools at 86 degrees F in late October. Nothing beats a ghoulish tropical swim at Halloween in a cold weather state. If you are really a hardcore swimmer. I have geothermal heat pumps to get you through a winter in a cold weather state. The easiest way to use geothermal on your pool is to have a well that will pump 15 gallons per minute for a 5 ton heat pump. If you can’t do that you can bury HDPE coils and pump antifreeze through the lines. There are lots of YouTube videos on how to lay pipe. For some brands of heat pumps for January deliveries I can have your warranty start next May so you won’t lose any time, will get this years price and can start swimming as soon as the weather gets nice again and you won’t have to stress about finding an electrician or have to wait for a delivery.
PS BTW that is a Raypak / Ruud /Rheem gas heater courtesy of Raypak. That is one of my favorite brands of gas heaters if you absolutely can’t use a heat pump.
I am making up excuses again about refrigeration heat pumps.
I am making up excuses lately instead of dealing with the brutal truth. Also it seems my wife and I are not communicating too well about food issues. I bought a new refrigerator and had it delivered and set up at my house while I was out of town visiting a geothermal heat pump factory to make sure they were doing everything right. That was a month ago. The refrigerator looks very nice and has some great features. It makes ice cubes and dispenses water too. I enjoy pure ice water. It is my favorite refreshing drink. I put the cubes in first and then the filtered water. When I just took water from the dispenser, I noticed that it didn’t seem very cold. My excuse was that probably the fridge doesn’t store water inside to cool it, and it is just passing through, & I am just drinking tap water at the same temperature as the kitchen faucet. Hey I am a refrigeration guy who has repaired 100’s of residential and commercial freezers, refrigerators and walk in coolers, so I should know better. I would take leftover food out to have a snack and my wife would smell it and throw it out before I could eat it. I can’t smell very well anymore. Maybe because I repaired too many ammonia refrigeration systems in 90 year old hockey rinks and dairy factories? Yes, they are still out there. Probably ammonia is better for the ozone than freon, but it is brutal on the nose when they leak. That was the second clue that I missed thinking maybe my wife nose was too sensitive and the food might have a few more days. I don’t drink milk much so I also didn’t know my wife was throwing the milk out after only a few days. She was thinking that my daughter might be leaving it out too long. Finally after being asked to buy milk too many times I saw the light & looked at the thermostat and saw the refrigerator was set close to 50 Fahrenheit. That is a tropical 10 Celsius for my friends outside of the USA. I adjusted it lower and now we enjoy 37F food and drink just like regular people. Reminds me of all the swimming pool and spa heat pump, geothermal, aquaponic, hydroponic and aquaculture service calls that I took where the only problem was the thermostat was set wrong or the heat pump was turned off. I hated telling people that news as then they feel stupid and that isn’t a good feeling as you write a bill for your labor. Now I know firsthand what that feeling is. Then I thought maybe I am slipping a bit in my middle kinda young old age? No that couldn’t be possible. I just installed a really quiet inverter variable btu condenser on my 18 year old Rheem Ruud heatpump split system. I squeezed into a nook in the crawl space next to where the air handler and a-coil was jammed with no room for my 182 pounds and changed the expansion valve and metering piston on the indoor coil so I could use 410A freon and stop using 2005’s Freon 22. That worked out pretty well so I must still have some diagnostic skills. My electric bill dropped too so I am happy.
Keep an eye on symptoms. They are your friend. 🙂
Best,
Marcus Miller Cell 360 348 7574
Pool heat pumps and Geothermal will make you more comfortable to save the world.
I am not a rocket scientist or a theoretical physicist. I have done many blog posts over the years though. They are fun to write and I feel that I am being useful giving information that might help people if they are interested in the products that I love. The idea was to promote my swimming pool heat pump and geothermal business. I have had some e-mails that suggest that I shouldn’t stick only to heat pumps and I should mention current world news or make my opinions known about subjects I know little about. I agree there is a lot of tragic events happening now: wars, political unrest, economic problems, inflation, disease, conflict, etc. I can only imagine that at this years thanksgiving dinner opinions might turn into to fights. I watch the news. My head isn’t in the sand. I don’t have any solutions. I don’t have a masters degree in international relations or political science. I am not a climate scientist, medical researcher, economist, oceanologist, sanitary engineer, religious leader or a therapist of any kind. I am a HVAC mechanic that learned everything he could about that industry and I am not going to talk about stuff that I don’t truly understand. My calling is to to make you more comfortable with warm pool water and a comfortable home in all kinds of weather. If I do that, maybe you are then better able to recharge, relax and then change the world with your skills and on the way show a little love to those who need it. That is one thing I am sure I know. We need a lot more of that these days.
Hope you have a nurturing wonderful family filled Thanksgiving and Christmas. Give your crazy cousin the benefit of the doubt when he makes an outrageous observation. He is as stressed as the rest of us and probably is doing the best he can.
Love,
Marcus
Your pool heater should be made in the USA. Well maybe Canada too if you live in the Northeast.
I am getting quite a few people telling me they are going to buy a Chinese pool heat pump because they are are a couple of hundred dollars cheaper then a USA or Canadian brand of swimming pool heat pump. Many people don’t even know that they are buying a Chinese or other countries products as the manufacturers or distributors make it almost impossible to tell where the heat pump is made. Even if you call them or e-mail them a few try to hide the origin of their heater. With all the uncertainty in the world with trade issues, tariffs and political conflicts it is safest to go with a North American pool heat pump. With most of the USA manufacturers I can call the head engineer or even the owner of the factory to help out a customer if they need me. I know how long a company has been in business and also what their customer service is like. People buy a heat pump from me because I know what is going on in the industry and they know that I will be there for them for years to offer help and advice if they need anything. When you buy a foreign heat pump you are going to be on your own. An exception to that rule is that Hayward and Raypak are using Chinese heat pumps for their smaller pools and they will stand behind them. Even Jandy, Built Right and Zodiac Pool products are not USA owned anymore. Lots of transition in the industry. Hayward is not a privately owned company anymore as they are now a public corporation answering to stock holders. How are you supposed to know that? Pool heat pump reviews are worthless if they are over 2 years old. Everything has changed. You need someone in the trade to help you get the best reliable swimming pool heat pump at the most competitive price with the highest efficiency, a long warranty from a company that is doing everything right with the highest chance of their still being in business in 10 or 15 years. Do you want to buy a heat pump from a company that also makes pool toys and umbrellas or do you want to own a heat pump from a factory that only lives and breaths heat pumps with engineers staying up late at night thinking of ways to make them as reliable as possible? I have been also hearing customers say that they can’t find enough reviews on some brands of heat pumps so they don’t want to take a chance. I heard that on a brand that has been around for over 25 years last week. Folks, this industry isn’t Amazon with 1000 reviews on a product. Sometimes not finding bad reviews is a good thing. If you are not finding enough recent reviews on the product to satisfy you then I suggest the old standby BBB for the company. Yelp and Google reviews can’t hurt either. Even if you have the greatest pool heater in the world and the company doesn’t care about you then you can do better. If you have questions about a brand or company please send me a text or e-mail and I will tell you my opinion. Oh, and a shout out to all my friends on Long Island, New York where you have the utility PSEG. Right now they have a rebate program of up to $1,000.00 back on a swimming pool heat pump. That is as good as it gets in the heat pump world and it is an amazing program. I know what models qualify if you have any questions.
Have a great season and as Steve Austin says: I hope to see you down the road.
Best,
Marcus Miller President
The Omertà or (The code of silence)
If you are a service person in people’s homes you must observe The Omertà.
(The code of silence)
I did HVAC and pool heat pump service for 20 years and I am sure that I have been in at least 5000 homes and 100’s of businesses in that time. It is a privilege and honor to earn the trust to enter other people’s worlds. Many times I have been alone repairing air-conditioning or refrigerators because the customer needed to work. That trust I took seriously. I did work for a few big factories. The employees would ask if I could help them at their home. I saw many alternative lifestyles that the employees didn’t feel comfortable anyone knowing about at work. I always kept my mouth shut. I found sexy things in freezers while I was repairing them that mom and dad didn’t want the kids to see. Guess they were too short to reach. Don’t hide your money in the air conditioning closet please. Saw that a couple of times too. I was fixing a heat pump at a night club at 8 am on a weekday and I got off the roof to get something from my truck and when I got back to my ladder 2 big goons were ruffing up an all night customer. The guy was thrown into my ladder and moved it. The two goons looked at me horrified and stopped their fight and both started apologizing and trying to reposition my ladder. I remember the exact words of one of them; “Mr. Miller we are sincerely sorry if we did anything to interrupt your work day. Please accept our apologies.” 2 hours later the customer was drinking in the cool air from the repaired AC like nothing had happened. I didn’t say anything. I saw people drunk in the morning who called in sick to work. Saw married couples fighting about all kinds of private subjects in the same room as me while I worked. I helped contractors who were afraid to work in their own neighborhoods at night. I visited many famous people who didn’t want anyone to know where they lived. I fixed the air conditioning in a home that was going to host one of the most famous singers in the world at the time that night. Didn’t tell anyone. Well, maybe only my Mom. There were answering machines broadcasting private messages next to where I was installing a thermostat. Personal videos playing on big TVs that were not meant for strangers. Mortuaries with stuff going on not for the faint of heart. Famous Hollywood, Football, Tennis and Hockey players who liked their privacy too. swimming pool parties with bathing suits optional and 100′ yacht parties with their own special kind of decadence. Your job is to be a hero and make people comfortable and solve their problems. Never do or say anything to make customers uncomfortable or cause stress in their lives. We all have enough of that.
Be safe out there.
Best,
Marcus
P.S. It goes without saying that if I saw anybody being abused who needed help or any type of animal cruelty, I would talk as fast as an auctioneer who got paid by the word to anyone who would listen.
P.P.S. I know whether young men or young woman keep cleaner homes. 🙂
I don’t need your &$@?!%* resume.
I don’t need your &$@?!%* resume. That is what a potential customer wrote to me this week while I was trying to help him. He had written to me asking for a delivered price of some swimming pool heat pump equipment listed on my website. To get him the most competitive shipping quote, I wrote back asking if he needed a commercial or residential delivery with a liftgate truck and another question to make sure this would be suitable for his application. I always do that because if someone gets something that isn’t proper for their project, then nobody is going to be happy. I then said that I once worked in his area so that I was familiar with his conditions and weather. Soon I received an e-mail back from him with a one line response saying that he only wanted a price and not my resume. So because he said that I didn’t give him either and now unfortunately everyone loses. Funny in way too as his LinkedIn profile was attached to the e-mail with all his business information. It was actually someone that would have been a good business contact for me as I need his type of services. Needless to say he is now the last person I would reach out to if I needed that type of service. I don’t know if something negative is in the air this week more than normal, but I then I followed up with someone who had asked for my free advice to help them plan their large geothermal heat pump project. I innocently sent them a text asking how the project was going? I was doing my job following up and caring about people who have reached out to me for advice. Then, I got back a text saying, “Stop texting me.” Now I have a pretty thick skin and have seen much worse in my time on the web, but this week’s hostility surprised me a bit. Half of my business is educating people for free about swimming pool, aquaculture and geothermal heat pumps. Most people disappear because they never do the project, it is not in the budget, their circumstances change or they pay much more and buy locally. That is fine with me. Tom Hopkins taught me years ago that if you make one sale in ten calls, then each phone call was one step closer to the ten. Hey, it can’t hurt to be polite though. I buy lots of stuff too. If you seem nice, have a good reputation and are knowledgeable about your product then I am an easy sale. Especially If you have your profile on LinkedIn, then it is in your best interest to be nice. If you engage me and I am trying to help you then maybe just say thanks for the information and then disappear. We are all in this together and at the end of the day experiencing a little courtesy makes it all worthwhile.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
Keep the Koi Fish warm in California, Canada and the rest of the world.
This is a photo that one of my aquaculture buddies took of his Koi pond at a high elevation in Northern California. He is using one of my cold weather heat pumps to keep the fish warm all year so that they keep active, eating and healthy. He doesn’t want the little guys to just drop to the deepest point in the pond with their fins shivering waiting for spring for the water to warm up. Potential customers in California love to ask me for references in the Golden State of happy customers who are using my aquaculture and swimming pool heat pumps. I sometimes give the phone number of a few home owners with pool heaters and even my Koi buddy with an Agricultural heat pump to show an extreme example of a heat pump working in cold weather. It hasn’t seemed to impress potential buyers much though. They want someone in their neighborhood most of the time. I then show the math comparing the cost of propane, natural gas, oil to electricity to document the cost saving of using a heat pump; plus the added bonus that a heat pump can also cool the water too. Sometimes that helps. Home owners with photo voltaic (PV) panels who generate their own free electricity make it a no brainer to use an Aquaculture or swimming pool heat pump. Twenty plus California communities have banned new gas installations, so the state is slowly moving in the direction of heat pumps both Geothermal and air to water. I have never had anyone from California disappointed that they received a swimming pool heat pump from me. I want people to have comfortable water maintained at the lowest cost with the most reliable efficient equipment with the longest warranty. My friends with ponds of pet fish find caring for and watching them relaxing. If the fish hide because they are cold then that doesn’t benefit anyone. My pool heater customers relax by swimming or soaking in warm water. If it costs too much to heat or cool the water then they don’t use it enough. If I can help the country de-stress a bit then I have done my job.
Keep warm or cool out there. Whatever makes you happy.
Best,
Marcus
Swimming pool heat pump pool contractor who is a hero.
Some swimming pool contractors are heroes. One of my pool buddies that installs my swimming pool heat pumps was asked to resurface a pool that after 20 + years looked really bad. He hired a subcontractor that he had used for years to do the cement work. They drained the pool to condition and then resurface the walls. The drain was plugged while they worked. Then before the job was completed, they didn’t visit the site for a few days, and didn’t open the main drain. It rained very hard during that time and the water table rose under the pool and popped it out of the ground, destroying it. Pools turn into big boats when the water table gets too high and the pool has no water in it. The company that was responsible for opening the drain washed their hands and refused to take responsibility. My buddy then tried to collect from his insurance company. He had paid for pool popping coverage for many years and thought that his foresight was finally going to pay off, as now he really needed help. The insurance company refused to pay for some technicality. To pay for the new pool my buddy who is at a retirement age, raided his IRA retirement money to pay for a new pool out of his pocket and that guaranteed that he would have to work for a few more years to make back the money. I am sure it was close to $60,000.00. I didn’t want to torture him asking for an exact number. He had to tear up the pool and lawn to make it like new. That was some Florida pool magic. I think they kept the old Gulfstream HE125RA heat pump that was still working well. He is a stand up guy who took care of business and took responsibility to make things right, without having to get sued or waiting to sue someone else or dragging his feet while he looked for money or just disappearing, like I have seen over and over on other big jobs. I get calls every week from a new pool customers who are trying to finish a pool that somebody else started and then abandoned. They are learning real fast what parts they need and I try to help them if I can but I am mostly a pool heater, Aquaculture and Geothermal guy. Not sure what the lesson is here. It is good to hang out with honorable people. Standard advice I would say; don’t just take the cheapest quote without researching who you are doing business with and getting as many referrals and finding as many reviews as you can. That wouldn’t have helped my buddy but if you can at least check if your contractor has current insurance and sit down with them and see if you like them at least. If you want to know about me you can Google the words “heat pump” and my name to see what I have been up to. If you need a swimming pool heat pump from Key West to Haines City and from Haines City to Pensacola please let me know.
Be safe out there.
Best,
Marcus Miller Cell 360 348 7574
You & your complicated swimming pool geothermal heat pump won’t live forever.
Everyone knows that I love swimming pool heat pumps. Because of their economical operation, it has allowed pool owners to swim more in comfortable water temperatures at a reasonable cost. Lately I have been fighting some customers on the best way to use the technology. When I first got on the web in 1999 selling swimming pool heat pumps, aquaculture / hydronic / geothermal and air conditioning & heating equipment most of my customers were engineers and pilots for some reason. We had great conversations and for the most part they took my advice and from the feedback I have received they have been happy for more than 20 years. As swimming pool heat pump got more popular in the early 2000’s my customer base shifted to just about anyone who owned a pool and was cold. I felt more like an educator then a guy selling stuff as we did a lot of explaining and teaching about the best way to heat a pool. I just spent a week with a mechanical engineer who wanted to redesign the established technology and make the most efficient heat pump in the world by combining a pool heater with solar, and heat sinks, and some geothermal boost that will make the pool and the home more efficient. He was going to bury pipes in the ground combined with expensive high temperature solar panels, geothermal heat and cool for the home and geothermal and solar to heat and cool the pool. Eventually I lost him in what he was trying to do. I have seen just about everything in the field and have created some interesting combinations of technology for the fun of it at some point. Just for fun is the key as if it broke I could fix it or replace it for little money and I didn’t have small children at home in case I wasn’t around. I didn’t think it was possible to create a system that I didn’t understand. He did it though. When I told him the the temperatures that he was suggesting were to high for a heat pump and that it would blow the pressure controls he ignored me. When I suggested it was too complicated and that it is never a good idea to combine the home heating and cooling system with the pool he didn’t agree. You don’t want the pool part of the system to disable the home heating system if it fails in January when it is below zero outside. Pools can be trouble if the PH gets out of balance. That is why I like pool heaters that are made out of titanium. He was going to combine copper with chlorinated pool water and you can do that but you have to be on top of your chemicals, PH and dissolved solids. You can’t set it and forget it. So after 10 long emails he said goodby and told me he was going to create this new combination system on his own. He didn’t say he was going to take any of my advice and he didn’t want to buy anything from me either. BTW I love guys who think out of the box, but they also have to listen to others if they are going in a direction that has obvious reliability problems. I had a buddy in the early 2000’s who was a heat pump genius. He designed, manufactured and promoted a pool heater that heated and cooled the pool, heated and cooled the house and also heated the domestic hot water. I thought at the time that he had just made the world a better place. He declared bankruptcy a couple of years later. Service guys in the field had a hard time working on them and many wouldn’t even touch anything that wasn’t common. I see that more the last couple of years than I ever had in the past. Established experienced mechanics sometimes even refuse to work on brands that they don’t sell. I would fix anything my customers asked me to fix. That is what a mechanic is supposed to do. I even fished alligators, snakes and frogs out of pools and fixed some lawn mowers and kitchen sinks for my customers and I hate to fix sinks. So the more complicated you make your system the harder it will be to repair it if something happens. I know of mechanical contractors who for their own home design amazing systems to squeeze another 10% efficiency out of their equipment. I saw some great ideas. I even used a couple. They are not worried about fixing it as they can fix anything. The problem is that sometimes they don’t live forever and they have a spouse and kids at home with no onsite genius to fix anything and when the system fails nobody will touch it and the surviving family has to replace everything at a time when money might be tight or not even available. I have seen that personally. Don’t leave your family with a ticking time bomb. The efficiencies on geothermal and swimming pool heat pumps are better than they ever have been. A simple properly installed high efficiency system is usually the best way. Also simple has a better chance of not needing any service. I was at an international pool show recently. It seems that the Chinese manufacturers are going in the other direction. I saw some really cool stuff. There was a pool heat pump that heated and cooled the pool and inside the heat pump was a water pump and filter with a salt chlorinator too. It was web enabled and a couple of other functions that I forgot too. Who do you call when it breaks? There was also pool heat pump that was also a gas heater. That might solve a few application problems but who is going to work on it? I guess it depends on what part of the country or world you are in. In some places a gas guy will work on part of it. Some places a HVAC / refrigeration company. Some guys will be able to do both and in some areas their licences won’t allow them to do both. Pool contractors will be stressed too as the customer will blame them for everything. Then later if a control that affects both systems fails they will blame each other and the customer will pay for 2 or 3 service calls. Ugh. Don’t get me going about refrigerators with wifi, inventory control and TV screens in the door or the 1980’s technology where they combined TV sets with VCRs. Whatever they are. Keep it simple and keep components separate and chances are you will have the most chance of having the least issues. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who has a history of making stuff more complicated and have seen in the real world that it can cause more stress than benefits. Hey even I can change. 🙂
Wishing you the best as always. Marcus
Text me on my cell if you want to do something out of the box. I’ll either help you or rain on your parade. 360 348 7574
Should you repair older swimming pool heat pumps that use the discontinued freon 22, F22 or R22 when the new ones use mostly 410A.
I am asked every week if it makes sense to repair 15 to 20 year old swimming pool heat pumps. Since I come from a service background it gave me great pleasure to keep pool heating equipment running efficiently for as long as possible if the repair is reasonable. I was thrifty property managers best friend when I could make a long term repair instead of replacing equipment for a reasonable cost. I was never a fan of replacing good running equipment with higher efficiency models as the payback was usually a long time and my customers could hopefully invest their money elsewhere for better returns. When there is a big repair on an old piece of swimming pool heating equipment then I am all for getting the highest efficiency (COP) new models so that they will have the lowest electric bills. Things are a bit different now that old heat pumps made before 2010 use the discontinued Freon 22. If you have a bad Freon leak maybe it is time to get a new heat pump instead of paying for expensive new or reclaimed Freon 22 or paying to convert the heat pump to a newer Freon. You also want service to be easy for mechanics down the road who might not know what was done to the old heat pump. Also some utilities are giving large rebates for new swimming pool heat pumps so that makes the decision harder if money is available for higher efficiency equipment. PSEG on Long Island in New York is giving $600.00 in 2021 for many new heat pumps swaps and installs. You need an authorized contractor to do the job to get the rebate, but I am told it is simple for them to get approved and the contractor even gets $100.00 for their trouble. So if you are thinking of repairing or replacing your heat pump and are not sure what to do just send me an e-mail or text and I will try to help out. Recently I had a guy with an old 17 year old Kopec 650 with a rotary knob thermostat that failed. He put in a new digital board from a new heat pump and now has an upgraded digital heat pump for another few seasons. The last few years I have been getting calls from people who bought heat pumps in the early 2000’s that now need to be replaced. Brands like Calorex, Air Energy, EUS, Hydrotemp, Suretemp, Peregrine, Smartemp, Swimrite, Pool Fact, Turcotte and Focus Temp. The owner of Peregrine was a buddy of mine. He designed some amazing heat pumps. One of his would heat and cool the pool. Heat and cool the house. And also heat the domestic hot water. He was a green kind of guy that was ahead of his time. Many of the old heat pump didn’t use titanium heat exchangers and didn’t last long if the pool chemistry was off. If one did last 18 years then you know the pool owner was on top of their PH and kept the pool chemicals just right. Titanium solved a lot of problems except for them freezing with water in them in the winter. Usually I tell people to keep the filter pump on 24 hours a day if you are going to get a freeze and the pool isn’t yet shut down for the winter. Last season my customers in Texas couldn’t do that because they had a deep freeze and also lost the power to run the water pump. In those cases you have to run out and drain the heat pump ASAP. Most of them had other more pressing problems though like pipes breaking in their walls and the homes getting too cold. So if your heat pump is not running let me know and we can troubleshoot a bit to see it it might be an easy fix.
Have a great season,
Best,
Marcus
I need more Swimming Pool Heat Pump, Aquaponic and Aquaculture Stuff.
I supply my customers with heat pumps for swimming pools, aquaculture farms, homes & industry. We send out what I know are the highest quality heatpumps and supplies. My picks can change over time, and especially when I feel that a manufacturer loses a step or I get that funny feeling that something isn’t right. It isn’t an exact science but my picks have been pretty good. Just replaced a Pergrine (Smartemp) pool heater from 2000 that was still running but on its last legs. I have some Heat Siphon, Hayward, Pentair and Jandy heat pumps that have performed well from 15 years ago. Some better than others. I think mice finished the Smartemp off. Maybe invest in a good pool heat pump cover to stop that. This is a strange time in the industry. So many big players have no stock and are having supply chain issues that are causing them to not even have the proper spare parts. I had a swim school in a cold-weather state that was out of business for 3 weeks because their pool was cold and they couldn’t get a $30.00 part on a 1-year-old heater. They reached out to me for help and I called in a few favors from my friends of 30 years in the trade and got them the part. I shouldn’t have to do that. This year I have reached out to new to me USA suppliers of basic HVAC and geothermal supplies; some of them my LinkedIn buddies and some from my everyday encounters and have been ghosted more often than I can remember. Hey suppliers, I can be a big account that might even make you laugh occasionally. Special shout out to a temperature sensor supplier from Utah who was amazing following up with me. Wow, that is a professional sales guy. I like people who know their business and are excited about what they sell. I feel in the back of their mind they think they are making the world a better place. I know that I think that way. I get contacted by Chinese companies every day by e-mail and messaging to supply me with whatever I need. Very tempting, but that isn’t my business model though. I only sell USA-made products. I would sell Canadian heat pumps in Canada but for some reason, the new Canadian manufacturers don’t want my help like they did 10 to 15 years ago. I just had a Canadian poolheatpump Volcano made by Focustemp stop working after 18 years. I liked those guys. We would go out for French food when they were in town. Note to manufacturers. I have a soft spot for going out to eat and talking about pool heaters. Too bad the Focustemp guys have moved on to other things now. What confuses me is why don’t any European or other Asian companies try to reach out to me for more business? I have been to European Trade shows and I know that they can make stuff over there. 🙂 It is Strange. A couple of the big pool USA heat pump manufacturers are distributing small Chinese heat pumps. I have not heard anything negative. They will have to support them for years so I hope they tested them well. That should be a wake-up call for USA manufacturers to keep up on technology. Hard for a serviceman to get an engineer on the phone at 3 pm when you are in the field troubleshooting a system if is 2 am in China though. Not enough to have a good heat pump. There have to be people around supporting it and ready to help out if any issues arise. This probably isn’t news, but mechanical things break every once in a while. This is a strange year and I know that all of you are stressed. Maybe soaking in a warm pool will make you feel better. Or maybe watching your warm Koi fish growing big and strong. I know I can help you there and won’t ghost you. Well, I might if you keep calling wanting to optimize my website, remove ground moles, or keep leaves out of my gutter.
Stay safe out there. We really care about you and your comfort.
Best, Marcus
Boat anchors won’t heat your swimming pool. Coastal communities need a tough heat pump.
My buddy sent a photo to me today of a rusted out pool heater that was near the ocean and needed some deferred maintenance. When I started out in 1999 on the web, people sought my advice about gas, oil, electric & heat pump pool heaters. I felt like an educator. The first couple of years most of my customers were “do it yourself” engineers & pilots. Now people who need a heater can be anyone that you might run into at Target. Twenty years ago most of the manufacturers thought swimming pool heat pumps couldn’t be distributed on the web because they were too specialized. I disagreed, and sent them out as the heaters were factory run tested & ready to heat. You just needed a licensed electrician & someone to glue the two pipes. Pool contractors are usually the best at installing them.
As swimming pool heat pumps became more common, I spent less time educating and more time selling. I am spending more time this year educating for some reason. Maybe with more people staying home this is the first time they though about heating their pool? Educating is fine with me as it is more fun. If you reach out to me & I tell you to use a heat pump with non corrosive parts in a salt or wet environment, then it might be a good idea to consider that. I have seen how different brands hold up in harsh environments. It doesn’t have to be near the ocean to be a hostile environment. I have seen heatpumps in backyards that were installed at the favorite place where the German Shepard to marks his territory, and also then get hit with a sprinkler 4 times a week and rain the other 3 days. Some were placed next to drier vents, and then after a year or so the coil is clogged with lint and needed a service call from a mechanic. For the best hostile environment results, use heat pumps that are made with an all polymer / PVC cabinet with stainless steel fittings and UV protection. Some are also dipped to protect the air coils too. Most heat exchangers are titanium and there is not much you can do to hurt one of those. Just don’t let water freeze in it in a cold weather state. Then the manufacturers won’t be your best friend anymore. 🙁 Please let me know if you need some suggestions. I have my favorites and I want you to have your heater for a long time. The pool heater in the photo is about 6 yrs old. Tough environments need tough heat pumps. The same goes for Aquaculture & Hydroponics heaters. They need to made for your unique application. Most of my customers have other obligations other than to worry about their heaters failing. These are supposed to make your life easier and less stressful. Warm tropical water to swim, socialize and exercise in is my goal for everyone with a pool. I also like my fish farming Aquaculture and Mariculture people to have happy fish and clams, that grow big and strong like their daddy. We are here for you.
Marcus Cell for text 360 348 7574
California swimming pool heat pumps work great and are more efficient and last longer than gas heaters most of the time.
Some things can be measured. Some things are fantasy and illusions. It has been a frustrating day for me today. I had 3 inquiries from one huge state, and all of the cold pool owners were told negative things about pool heat pumps. So today I had to remember my 6th grade math to make it easier to see how to compare different ways of heating. This one state that has made me is responsible for turning me into a Thursday math genius & educator. Only in this state do I hear pool professionals tell pool owners that pool heatpumps, “don’t work here.” These are the same people who go home at night to their houses that are heated and cooled with heat pumps and never think twice about them. I mean really your refrigerator in your house is a type of heat pump. One pool guy told my customer in San Diego that it was too humid there for a heat pump to work. Humidity of course is a form of heat and great for heat pumps that are heating. Also today one swimming pool contractor in Sacramento said it was too dry there for a swimming pool heat pump to work. I have these same heat pumps making people happy in 3 different deserts from California to Northern Africa, Norway to Alaska, and Canada to Argentina. A few deserted Islands in Fiji and Hawaii too. Just ask Gilligan or the skipper. (We have some in Bolivia and Turkmenistan doing their job where it will be hard to find a service guy) and There are a bunch of Canadian swimming pool heat pump manufacturers that make their heat pumps for Canada who think California with it’s mild climate is perfect for heaters and sometimes pool chillers. Here is some math for the class: Propane has 91,502 Btu’s. 15% goes up the exhaust so what you put in the water is about = 77,777 Btu’s depending on the efficiency of the pool gas heater. If LP is $3.00 a gallon, then you pay $3.00 for that 77,000 Btu’s of heat. If a 143,000 Btu heat pump uses 7 KW at .12 cents a Kilowatt, then you pay about .45 cents for the same Btu’s. There is no loss or wasted heat. You can play with the numbers if propane is less or the KW is more where you live. There was a time when I have a camera on a heat pump in Las Vegas Nevada for a couple of years on the web 24 hours a day every day of the year keeping the pool warm. I have to thank my buddy for that. Some gas heater manufacturers made those videos required watching for their gas heater engineers in California so that they could also educate pool owners about pool heat pumps when they called in asking for information. I had a nice elderly lady customer in Stockton or Sacramento who bought one of my heat pumps 20 years ago. She didn’t want a propane tank on her property and it was too expensive to run a natural gas line on the property as it was going to cost her $1,500.00 because the it was a long pipe run to the pool. She begged her pool maintenance company to sell her a pool heat pump. She did all her research and saw the warranties were better for pool heat pumps than gas, and also that swimming pool heat pumps were made with titanium with lifetime heat exchanger warranties and that is what she wanted. They refused to help her and she bought one from me. She didn’t want to do it herself but she called an electrician as that is 95% of the job and then she asked her nephew that was a plumber who was visiting her to glue the two pipes. Took him 15 minutes I think she said. She then heated her pool and was very happy. She kept her pool guy to clean and service the pool and started noticing after a few months that he was bringing strangers to her back yard. She asked what was going on and she found out that her pool guy was using her house as a sales and marketing tool to sell swimming pool heat pumps to other pool owners. She was so mad as he had refused to help her, so she fired him and kicked his butt off her property. Oh and I forgot to mention that 2 of the inquiries that I got today had full house PV panels so were generating lots of free electricity. 2 of these guys would pay almost nothing for pool heat and cooling and still they were told that they should have gas burning by their pool sending almost 20,000 pounds of pollution in the air a year. As Gomer Pyle always said: for shame, for shame, for shame. If he ever would have gotten a pool heat pump he would have said: “Golly Shazam”.
I love free heat. Stay safe out there. All these forest fires are stressing me out.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574 (text)
A flea is more likely to cause you problems than an huge African elephant.
I was thinking about swimming pool heat pump service problems today. My favorite models have the least issues of course. They are still just machines, and sometimes they need to be repaired. Some of my favorite brands that I sent out 15 to 20 years ago are still running and have never been touched by a mechanic. I hope that the ones that I like now will have the same performance. That isn’t too good for my business model now but maybe customer referrals will make up for that. A pool is supposed to be fun and relieve stress and not cause you stress with operational problems. My goal has always been to have give people a comfortable pool that they can use for the longest possible time where they live. The most common call that I get is that there are no unions included on their new heatpump. The unions are inside the access panel usually taped to a PVC pipe so that they don’t get lost of or broken in shipment. The next most common call is that the heat pump is leaking water. 99.9% of the time that is normal condensation that is caused when you take heat out of the air to put in the pool you bring the air below the dew point and water then drips out of the pool heater. The more water on the ground the better the heat pump is heating. If you are ever in doubt that it is condensation you can test it with a chlorine strip to see if it reacts to pool chemicals. If no reading than you are fine. You can also turn the swimming pool heat pump off for a day to see if the area dries out. If it does dry out then everything is normal. Tripped breakers and blown fuses are common. Check that before you pay for a service call on your heater. Most issues are flea type things. The big elephant repairs are pretty rare. I think one in 5000 pool heat pumps lose a compressor. That could be a figure from the air conditioning / heating industry but I am sure it is close. Fan motors on pool heaters sometimes fail. Many times that is because they are installed just under the drip edge of the roof. They are designed to be outside for 15 years but are not designed to get a flood of water from the roof during a rain storm. If you have no choice and can’t move it then maybe put a 6 foot gutter over the heat pump. Electrical controls like contactors and relays are taken out by ants many times especially in the South. I have even seen a opossum and huge frogs in the control panel. They got in their when they were little and then grew too big to get out. You might have to seal up some holes when that happens. Not on my new heat pumps though. They are pretty well sealed up. If it starts raining frogs then you have bigger problems than your pool heater and I would take cover inside. If anyone has any trouble shooting questions please write, text or call and I will try to help out.
Keep swimming. It is great exercise and lots of fun.
I am on your side.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
It is time to service or give maintenance to your swimming pool heat pump.
I am regularly asked what maintenance needs to be done to swimming pool heat pumps. Most people never do anything until they need a service call. Really pool heaters are just big air conditioners, so many of the same types of service needs to be done to them. It is always a good idea to wash out the insides to get any dirt and leaves that might have slipped past the fan motor and fan blade. Make sure the circuit breaker is off and that you don’t get the water near the electrical components. AquaCal used to have a plastic lid that closed over the fan when the unit turned off to stop debris from getting inside. Seemed like a good idea. Nobody else picked up on it though. Not sure why. The outside coils should be rinsed off of dirt and even salt if you are anywhere near the ocean. An HVAC or electrician should tighten the electrical connections every few years. Maybe oil the fan motor if it isn’t sealed from the factory. Not that much to do. I come from a service background so I like to see it done but I have also seen 15 years old models running without ever being touched. If an HVAC person is checking the unit, maybe check the freon pressure and the temperature difference between the outside air and the air blown out by the fan. Also the water pressure switch should be tested to make sure the heat pump shuts off when the filter pump shuts down. I have people in Florida near some of the best heat pump manufacturers in the world looking to buy heat pumps from other countries. I don’t understand if you have a great manufacturer in your back yard why you would look someplace else. When you have an emergency you want a part or a service person fast. I have seen some quality heat pumps come out of Canada like Thermeau, Nirvana, Waterco, Nautyl. Some that went out of business or were sold that I used to repair like, Turcotte, Focustemp, and Summit. Summit was a reliable heat pump that was bought by Hayward. I had a hand in Hayward buying that company. Titan was another Canadian brand but I didn’t see one in person. Lots of Chinese heat pumps out there now. There is Comfortemp on the web. I saw that they were in the Northeast especially New York State. Fairland, Fibro Pool and Phnix are also Chinese but I don’t have any personal experience with them. Some I don’t know where they are made like XtremepowerUS, Trevinium, Trydent and Distinction. If you are a rep for them please call me and let me know. If you want to know what manufacturers are doing everything right please let me know. Swimming pools should be fun. They should not cause your stress with a repair. I like reliable heaters that I have seen to have the least chance of having any issues years down the road. I try to visit factories to check up on them to confirm that they are busy, organized and the quality of workmanship is impressive. Not traveling much lately though. This Covid has really changed my travel plans. I call lots of manufacturers to see if they seem to care and can answer questions. Stay safe and keep fit in your warm pool. If I can help with a heatpump heater or a chiller if the water gets too hot, please let me know.
Best,
Marcus
I have cabin fever. I am happy the swimming pool and aquaculture heat pump industry is keeping me busy.
I have cabin fever. We are living through a weird time. I know that I have it good compared to the rest of the world. I don’t have food stress, I have shelter a job. Still, I miss the old days of just 6 months ago. It is strange going to the doctor with a mask on. I got the feeling today that when I went with my wife for her medical appointment that the doctor didn’t want me in the room as if he was afraid I would give him Covid 19. Impossible to read people with most of their face blocked off. I have to figure out how to express 10 emotions with my eyes I guess. Bizarre going to the bank and them not minding I had a mask and sun glasses on. I have friends that I know had Covid in February that are afraid to socialize with me unless I am 6 feet away and masked up. Lots of geothermal installations still going on. I am happy that I am still sending swimming pool heat pumps to people stuck at home. It makes me feel like I am doing something to make some people more comfortable & happy. I am sending more heat pump chillers out this year to people that usually just put up with pools that were too hot for a month or two. Best year ever for that. My fish people do need chillers to keep the little fingerlings from over heating. Sent 2 heat pump chillers to Hawaii to help a man with trout that needed cool water to be healthy and grow big. I hope my other Aquaculture, hydroponic and Aquaponic people check in with me to tell me how they are doing. I want someone to step up and challenge me to a grow off and see if science can beat me. I will even send you documented 2000 pound possible pumpkin seeds so we can judge whos growing technique works the best.
Stay safe out there,
Best,
Marcus
Customers thinking out of the box making emergency hydronic geothermal repairs.
My customers are thinking out of the box. I received this photo last week from a customer’s whose 25 years old #geothermal heat pump failed right before he had to travel overseas last summer. He didn’t have time to order and install a new heat pump to keep his family cool, so instead he hooked up his open loop well water to his evaporation coil inside the Geo unit and used the 48 degree F ground well water to cool his home making his air coil a hydronic coil. Not the ideal way to cool or to dehumidify but an amazing hack to solve a problem. Now with our social isolating and a stay at home spring, he has time to swap his #heat pump with a new one before this summer’s cooing season starts. I have some people in Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada and Texas who cool their pools using a fountain instead of a heat / cool swimming pool heater when the water gets over 90 F. You waste more chemicals and water doing it, but if you don’t have the cooling option, then it will do in an emergency. I know lots of you are doing forced stay-cations now and are staring at cold pools. If I can help make you home more comfortable or your pool more tropical please let me know. A warm pool helps keep a positive mental attitude for the family and helps keep moral high. Keeping fit is a great bonus in these days of binge TV and delivery pizza. Sometimes a pool heater is a necessity and not a luxury.
We will get through this.
Please be safe out there.
You need a swimming pool heat pump when you are stuck at home with a cold pool.
Social safe isolation is the rule of the land today. The National Guard is coming to my town on Monday to help out. I took this photo on Friday to show that even the clouds are in quarantine where I live. I don’t ever remember only seeing one cloud anywhere that I look in the sky. Maybe it is a sign? Maybe just something to distract me? I have still been sending out pool heat pumps. In the middle of a pandemic you might think that pool heaters are not the most important thing in peoples lives. I have even heard guilt in my customers voices when buying one. I thought about that, and the way I see it if people are going to be spending time at home and not traveling doing their stay-cations & social isolation & their pool is too cold to swim in, then they really and a need a swimming pool heat pump. These are stressful times & anything that will help people relieve stress and get their exercise is a good thing. Most of the home based activities are sedentary or eating related. I don’t stream movies or deliver pizza. Both are important services but there needs to be more to do to stay healthy. I make pools usable. If your pool is warm, and you use it regularly, then life should be a bit more bearable. I am not writing this to sell pool heat pumps. I can sell HVAC supplies to survive. Nobody reading this is going to have an a-ha moment because of me blogging about heaters and just now they just realized they need a warm pool. I am writing it so that you don’t feel guilty making your home livable in this emergency. To be your best and ready for anything you need to be healthy.
As always we are here for you.
Stay safe and call your Mom.
Best,
Marcus
Cherry buds in February with no bees is not good. A heat pump heated pool is good.
It is late February and my cherry trees are flowering. I have not seen any bees around yet so this isn’t a good sign. It is still getting below freezing at night and that can’t be too good for this years fruit crop. I wonder how my green house buddies are doing who can more closely control the environment. We send many heat pumps to heat the air and the ground in green houses. Many flower growers in Texas and South America use them so they can grow petunias all year long. It looks like I will be spending a lot of time this spring staring at my trees and not leaving my yard as the first Coronavirus death in the USA just happened close to my town. I have been avoiding traveling and especially airports this year so I didn’t come in contact with other travelers but, now it seems people will be avoiding people from my area. I feel bad for my hotel / motel / campground and resort clients. They are taking a hit and many good people depend on that industry for employment. Not happy with all these markets in China that mix so many different species & foods. I am sure other countries are just as bad and have issues too. Maybe this will be the age of AquaCulture, Aquaponics and Hydroponics where they can control the environment and avoid this type of disaster. We are not living in the middle ages. If you are at your market stall playing on your smartphone then you can make sure you are also able to keep things clean and sterile. I would love to hear from all my agricultural buddies in that field on their views. Looks like there will be more Stay-cations this year. I hope that my pool heaters and heat pumps can help people enjoy their homes more. People with warm pools stay fitter and have great family togetherness occasions. If you need to heat or cool water or air with a gas, electric or heat pump please let me know. If you need to repair your old pool heater we can help with parts and troubleshooting. This months advice is to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds & call your Mom more. She loves you.
Best,
Marcus
Customers are buying foreign pool heat pump heaters and not being told they are not built in the USA
There is nothing like home made bread. Kinda like local heat pumps. I just had a week of people telling me they can buy a swimming pool heat pump pool heater for $500.00 less then mine. I asked what brand of pool heater that they saw, and most had trouble remembering the exact name, but eventually we figured it out. The problem was that the marketing company selling inexpensive pool heaters combined the names from two USA pool heater companies to make it seem like an American product. Nowhere on their website did it say where the heat pump was made. I recognized it only because I go to the international pool shows and it looked familiar. I have lots of pride in my country and try to use and distribute USA products. That isn’t enough of a reason for you to buy a local a heat pump though. The pool heater also needs to be reliable, efficient, with a long warranty with a company close to your time zone in case you ever need factory support. If you want to call a Chinese engineer in Shanghai at 2 in the morning with a question then you have my respect. I don’t even want to call my cell phone company in the afternoon anymore. The Chinese have some good ideas with some of the features of their heat pumps. They impressed Hayward enough to sell them small heat pumps. Hayward has the infrastructure to service them though. If you have a problem you have someone to call. Most others do not. I still would’t send my clients in that direction. I still have customers who call me that I have known from 35 years ago when I was repairing their air conditioners and appliances. I hate to get a call that they have a problem with a pool heater that will cost them money and stress, so I do my best to give them the most reliable equipment backed by engineers with big egos who give their heart and soul into making the best product. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out, but most of the time my record is pretty good with my suggestions. I have to be an expert after all these years. One of my favorite brands that went out of business was The Kopec swimming pool heat pump. That man put his own name on the heater. I really respected that. He was a real guy making the pool heat pumps as good as he could because he knew that if there were any issues that it was his name that would suffer. 16 years later I still have customers telling me that their Kopec heat pumps are still heating even though all the lettering has faded from the sun. And I can still get parts for that heat pump because they were USA parts that are mostly still available. So ask me questions. I really have seen almost everything in this industry and want to help you have tropical water in your back yard so you and your family can enjoy your pool all season and not just for 2 weeks when the water is warm enough on its’ own.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
The Coronavirus makes me want to stay home in my tropical heat pump heated swimming pool.
I know that I am being irrational about this #Coronavirus. Although the first case in the USA was in my county about 10 miles from my house. I did get my flu shot last week as I learned really how dangerous the yearly influenza is. I cancelled a domestic flight because I didn’t want to be stuck on line going through security with lots of world travelers. I over reacted when I found out my daughter was taken to a local Chinese meat market on a play date with her friend. I am not a big fan of huge food markets anymore with a mix of everything from everywhere. I thought it might be safe to go to Costco, but then to my dismay I saw the greeters wearing masks. One of my potential customers told me $3,000.00 was too much to spend on a #heatpump to keep their #swimming #pool warm all season. My new homebody self thought it would be great to have a warm pool and just do a stay-cation this year. I am sure they would spend that much on summer travel. I am taking my wife to a local #Hotel next week for her birthday. It has a heated pool and we won’t have the stress of travel now. I hope the pool and spa / Jacuzzi is heated with a heat pump though and not a gas or electric heater. I have Chinese pool #heat #pump manufacturers e-mailing me everyday trying to get me to buy one. I feel bad that they are going through this & hope it is over soon. I wouldn’t wish quarantine on anyone. Many of my customers are in the #aquaCulture, #aquaponic and #hydroponic industries. I hope this doesn’t disrupt them too much. Also my #theme park, #campground and #resort customers, I am sure will be affected. It is so unnecessary. Really though, it is now time to clean up those markets. You can’t keep stressing out our shrinking world. We all have to live together.
Come on Florida swimming pool heat pump people. Do your pool heater research.
I get calls regularly from Florida pool owners who are looking for a heat pump and they try to buy one from me that someone suggested without doing their research. Some people who sell swimming pool heat pumps only have access to one or two brands. So that is what they recommend regardless if they are a good fit for the homeowner with the pool. There are many good USA made heat pumps in the market. There are quite a few pool heater factories that are in Florida with a great product. There are also some out of state manufacturers that have been around for almost 40 years who have developed a great service network in Florida to take care of their customers. Ask me and I will tell you who they are. There are cheap heat pumps made in China. Some are made in other countries. Some foreign companies have bought big USA brands and now are controlled from Europe. I can tell you who that is. Some USA companies don’t even make their own heaters anymore. You want a heat pump made in a USA factory by a head engineer onsite with a big ego who wants to make sure his heat pumps don’t break and last for a long time. You want to be able to call the factory or the warranty department during the day and not have to stay up until 1 AM to get an engineer. You want a long warranty with high efficiency on a proven heat pump that has the least chance of failure. Being involved with a warm pool should be a fun thing. Like when you invest your money; you want security, good performance and to be able to enjoy if for many years and sleep well at night. You don’t want stress. Why on earth if you live 50 miles from a great factory with factory guys driving factory trucks past your house would you buy a Canadian swimming pool heat pump that has only been around for 3 or 4 years? I will tell you why. Because someone is making good money when they sell it to you. I love my Canadian friends. I play hockey so most of my friends are Canadian or pool contractors. I have sold 100’s of heat pumps to Canada. But I am sure if my Canadian buddies had a pool heater factory in their back yard they would have bought a Canadian pool heater with a long local Canadian warranty. I am happy that Canada is so huge and spread out so that didn’t happen that much though. 🙂 Not may heat pump manufacturers in Western Canada thankfully. So even though it is hard to get unsweetened Ice tea in Canada, we still love them. But not enough to buy one of their heat pumps if you live in the Southern USA. I called one Canadian manufacturer 4 times and e-mailed 3 or 4 times for a comment to discus this; Thermeau Industries Inc in Quebec City. I asked to speak to one of the owners and they would not talk to me. They pawned me off to a rep in Florida. Shame on them. I don’t bite. Please call or text me if you want a great swimming pool heatpump heater. I have access to most all of the major brands of pool heaters and I won’t just push the one I make the most money on if it isn’t right for you. I will make some money though. You want me to be around to sell you another one in 10 to 20 years I hope.
Spring is coming soon.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
Economical ways to heat your swimming pool to tropical temperature.
I want you to enjoy your pool for as much of the year as possible. Having a pool that is too cold is a waste of money and you are not using it to keep fit or for a comfortable place to entertain your friends and family. Pool heating with a pool heater or pool heat pump is the easiest way to solve that issue. A heat pump for pool is one of the best ways to maintain reliable heating throughout the season. I can help you with pool heater sizing, pool supplies, give advice on pool heater installation and most anything you need to know about a pool heating system. Some of you already have an old pool heater and might need advice on a pool heater repair or if you are replacing one, I can tell you who has the best pool heater for your specific application. A pool heating system can be a pool heat pump, gas heater, oil heater, solar panels or a wood-fired boiler. We can help you with all the pool supplies. We only distribute North American made products. You won’t get a cheap pool heat pump from me. Well, cheaply made anyway. You will get the best-priced pool heater that is of high quality.
I am here for you if you have any questions,
Best,
Marcus Cell Call or text 360 348 7574
How to troubleshoot you swimming pool heat pump and pool heater and then chill with a beer.
Swimming pool heat pumps and pool heaters should bring happiness and less stress into your life. You should be able to enjoy your warm tropical water without worrying about repairing your heat pump. It is a machine though and sometimes you have to have it serviced. Here are some tips if your pool heater is not heating.
1: Is your pool heat pump running at all? Look to see if the digital display is lite up and displaying a message. Many times the pool heater will tell you what is wrong. If you hear no sound and see no display then look to see that your circuit breaker tripped off and replace your fuse if you have one.
2: If you see low flow on the display then see if your filter is clean and all the valves are in the right position.
3: Sometimes you need to turn the breaker on and off to reset the heat pump if it had experienced multiple water flow failures.
4: The pool heat pump is running and the pool isn’t heating up then see if the discharge air temperature is about 10 degrees cooler than the outside air. That shows the compressor is running.
5: If everything seems to be working you might need to run the filter pump longer or put a blanket on the pool.
6: Text me at 360 348 7574 to tell me what is happening and I might be able to help troubleshoot.
7: If there is water draining from the heat pump and it is running that should be normal condensation. If you have any doubt then put a chlorine test strip in the water to see if chlorine. If chlorine then you have a leak. No chlorine then it is normal.
8: If also might have shut down to a cold night below 50 degrees. Give it some time to warm in the sun. Some low-temperature heat pumps will go into the 30’s.
We are here for you if you have any questions on how to troubleshoot your pool heat pump.
Best,
Marcus
How to choose a swimming pool heat pump for your pool.
Congratulations on getting this far in your pool heating equipment search. I am sure you thought about a gas heater. Some people go in the heat pump direction because they don’t have natural gas at the house and others because they don’t want a 500-gallon propane looking bomb in their backyard. All of them are bad reasons to get a pool heat pump. The best reason is that a heat pump is the best choice because of how efficiently they heat the pool, how their titanium heat exchangers are superior to most gas heaters, and usually how the warranty is much longer. There are other ways to heat a pool like with wood, oil or electric element. For most people, they are not practical or sustainable ways of heating. An electric element can cost 6 or more times what a heat pump costs to run, and oil heater is expensive and everyone I have ever worked on smelled bad and also gave a cloud of fumes in your tropical swimming pool paradise. Wood heaters are cool but most people don’t want the work of filling it every couple of hours every day. A pool heater is supposed to give you fun leisure time and not make you chop wood to go for a swim. Don’t get me too wrong. I sell lots of gas heaters. Ski resorts in New Hampshire, indoor pools in hotels in Minnesota, impatient people who want their spa hot in 15 minutes and don’t care how much it costs.
The most important things to look for in a pool heat pump are:
1: Reliability
2: USA made
3: Warranty
4: efficiency
5: Size (capacity)
6: Price
7: Availability
8: Manufacturer that only makes heat pumps and not floating toys or pool furniture.
Most of those facts are researchable. Some are not. That is where I hope that you ask my opinion. I have seen it all. I can tell you what to say when your California pool guy says they don’t work here when the Canadian pool heater manufacturers have Canada covered pretty well with heat pumps. I have seen people doing their research and just coming up with the most Btu’s for the cheapest price. Then they call me and ask what can I do on a price for this amazing machine. I see that they are ignoring whether the heat pump is made in China or if there is no or just a short warranty where they live. Don’t get a Canadian swimming pool heat pump if you live in Florida an hour away from a good heat pump factory.
Don’t get a huge heat pump if you have a tiny pool. Don’t get a metal heat pump if you live on the ocean or have a dog that mistakes it for a fire hydrant. Don’t get a digital heat pump if you hate digital. Don’t get a heat pump from a factory that doesn’t want to speak to you if you call them. Do ask me who is doing everything right and I will help out.
Please call text or write to us. We want to make your swimming pool heat pump experience the best possible.
Summer is on the way. Where I live the daily temperature averages get warmer starting January 12th.
Be safe out there.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
You shouldn’t have to consult an arcade game to choose the best pool heat pump for your swimming pool.
I want you to have the best swimming pool heat pump with the longest warranty, the highest efficiency, made in the USA, with the least chance of needing service. I feel like this year pool owners are consulting Voltar to pick a heater or chiller. How do I know this? The hint I have is that they are calling me after they buy for help with an issue with the machine. I have seen and probably serviced every swimming pool heat pump and most gas heaters that were made in the USA since the early 1980s. People ask me if they should buy a metal cabinet heat pump and they live on the beach. I say that it isn’t a good idea and they go someplace else and buy one. I say that my customer should only buy a USA made heat pump with engineers in the country and service contractors ready to help and then they buy a Chinese heat pump for $200.00 less and have to call China if something goes bad. I was given a Chinese heat pump for free after a trade show to test on my pool from %#@& so I know what it is like to e-mail and call China when it is dead on arrival than watch the Chinese rep disappear when it isn’t a simple fix. I tell a customer to buy a big heat pump and then they order a 50,000 Btu heat pump from e-bay for their 25,000-gallon pool and then bad mouths heat pumps instead of the bad research. If you are going to live in your home for more than a year then please get a reliable, heat pump that is made in the USA with high efficiency for a low power bill, doesn’t shut off at 55F when you need heat the most, has a long warranty, big enough for your pool with a titanium heat exchanger that is quiet, covered with a polymer cabinet and stainless steel fittings so it doesn’t look like a sunken ship salvage after a few years. I had a customer spend $100.00 more for a Canadian heat pump with a factory 2000 miles from them when a great manufacturer was one hour from their home with factory service guys patrolling their neighborhood like police officers in a crime zone. (It also had a 5-year labor warranty.) That is an amazingly long time for labor in your backyard. Now everyone is asking me to buy the Hayward Heatpro HP2104T with 140,000 Btu’s. I have sold lots of them with no issues. Maybe I have sold more than most pool guys. Also, some of my favorite people are Hayward engineers and customer service guys that I have known for more than 20 years. (You know who you are) The problem is the warranty isn’t very long is most states. It might be good for some people and for others they can do better. I want you to do better. Since you should not buy a heat pump more than once or twice in your life, you need to get it right the first time. Pool heat pump buying is not just about buying the biggest Btu unit. There are lots of variables to consider. Just ask me and I will tell you the pros and cons of most of the brands as I have seen and service most of them. Some USA manufacturers are buying Chinese heat pumps and then just putting their label on it and selling like their own. Some are putting the heat pump together in the USA and using foreign and Chinese parts. The warm tropical water in your pool should be a fun thing and not a burden if it fails. Let me know what kind of project you have going on and I will pick a model that checks all the boxes so that you get the best possible heat pump and have the longest swimming season.
Aquaculture and aquaponics are a science most of the time until something unexpected happens.
I hope that all my aquaculture & aquaponic friends are doing well this season. Even though most consider this industry a science, the results are not always scientific. You can see the photo of my rotten jack-o-lantern that appeared without any help from me. I had it all arranged for someone to water my giant pumpkins in August while I was away from the patch. August is the most critical time in their growth cycle where I live. My watering friend showed up one day and saw that someone else had used the hose near the pumpkin patch for washing something and figured that I didn’t need them to take care of the giants and then they never came back. So all the plants were damaged, and I didn’t get a very impressive crop this year. My failure didn’t affect my ability to earn a living, it just made me upset. That is nothing like my buddies who depend on successful productions for their agroecology, mariculture, fish farming, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, algaculture, and aquiculture operations to pay the bills. They have to consider heat and cold, bacteria, UV, humidity, and probably 100 other things. When they use my reliable agricultural heat pumps to heat and cool air in greenhouses, heat and cool water for plants and fish, then that will be one less thing they have to worry about. Please keep your fish and plants happy by keeping the air and water surrounding them at just the right temperature with heatpumps to make them grow fast and live a healthy life.
My pool contractor only knows about pool gas heaters and isn’t helping with my pool heat pump choice.
The Department of Energy says about gas heaters that: “Depending on your climate and pool use, they may not be the most energy-efficient option when compared to heat pump and solar pool heaters.” Gas pool heaters have been around longer than heat pumps. They are an older technology. Swimming pool heat pumps have been available for about 40 years now. The DOE says about pool heat pumps: “Heat pump pool heaters cost more than gas pool heaters, (to purchase) but they typically have much lower annual operating costs because of their higher efficiencies. With proper maintenance, heat pump pool heaters typically last longer than gas pool heaters. Therefore, you’ll save more money in the long run.” Many old school pool contractors only have experience with gas pool heaters and are not up to speed with the newer heat pumps that run at colder outside air temperatures than older ones. Pool guys are also not licensed to repair swimming pool heat pumps. That is a job for Air Conditioning & heating companies as they are really just big air conditioners. I have many stories of pool owners coming directly to me for advice when they couldn’t get their pool guy to help them choose a heat pump. Then when they have done their own homework and have had it installed for a year or two their pool guy comes around to the heat pump way of thinking. I fault many of the manufacturers for not having more educational events at wholesale distribution businesses to bring useful information to contractors so that they can recommend the most efficient equipment to their customers. I was hired to do just that many years ago in hotel conference rooms. I remember large turnouts of trade people and lots of interest but the manufacturer killed it due to budget concerns and I have not seen other manufacturers step up much since. I love pool guys and most of my friends got their start cleaning pools as teenagers. But they really are in an impossible situation to be expected to keep up on all the new technology while working 6 or 7 days a week in the season. I always welcome phone calls or texts from people in the pool industry if they need advice or help with pool heating equipment. I want them, and my customers to have the most efficient equipment with the lowest heating and maintenance costs so that they keep their pools at a swimmable temperature with pool heat pumps for as long as possible to keep fit and have great family memories from the back yard pool. Gas heaters have their place in the world. If you need one I will send you one in a heartbeat. For most people, it doesn’t make sense. Especially for all you hotel, motel, campground, and theme park people out there that could take the $50,000 a year in savings from using pool heat pumps to give your guests a better swimming experience with more lifeguards and free poolside drinks with all the money you will save.
We are here for you and want to see you swimming in tropical water.
Best,
Marcus Miller
The Hurricane in the Bahamas and Carolinas.
I have been thinking about writing something about the Bahamas for a couple of weeks. First I want to say that I and my family are sending positive thoughts to the people who have been affected by the storm in the Bahamas and the Carolinas too here in the USA. Most of what I know about the Bahamas is concerning my customers and friends swimming pool heaters; although I spent some time in Nassau. Over the last 20 years, we have shipped 100’s of swimming pool heat pumps to the Bahamas. Some to famous entertainers. In Florida, the local codes say that you have to strap the heat pumps to the cement slab in case of hurricanes. We always support that you install your equipment to satisfy the rules where you live. There is always a reason. Strapping the heat pump is also good to keep the heat pump from moving in case something bumps into it and it moves and then cracks the PVC pipes causing a pool water leak. I have seen that backfire though if a customer has a lawn service with fast-moving tractors that hit a strapped heat pump and it doesn’t move but the impact then punctures the coil and you lose all your freon and probably the whole heat pump. Maybe if you have that sort of lawn service you can put a barrier to protect the swimming pool heat pump and your home air-conditioner? I also have thought that if you are strapping your heat pump down to stop it from flying away, then Volkswagen Beetles would also be flying and you would have much more to worry about than your pool heater disappearing. I went to Homestead Florida after Hurricane Andrew to do animal rescue work and saw cars that had flown in the wind. I remember also that all the homes were green. It seems that the vegetation hitting the concrete block houses exploded on contact and the chlorophyll in the leaves stained everything green that it touched. It was a bizarre sight that I hope not to experience again. I have lots of pool buddies in the Florida Keys that have gone through hurricanes. I have photos of pool heaters that were 1/2 underwater that still ran after the skys cleared. I would suggest to everyone anywhere near an ocean to wash the salt off their outside mechanical equipment regularly. Turn the power off first though and if you have any doubts what can get wet please ask your mechanical, HVAC or swimming pool contractor. When I lived a mile from the beach I would spray the outside coil of my home heat pump with a garden hose every month to try to prevent the coil from rotting. That can prolong a heat pumps life from 5 years to 15 years or more in very corrosive salt air or pollution type of environments. Most of my pool heat pumps are plastic with stainless steel fittings and the freon coils have been coated to protect from salt, but it still can’t hurt. Every storm that puts people in harm’s way reminds me of how fragile and tenuous life is and how selling pool heaters is not that important in the bigger scheme of things.
Be safe out there. Be nice to each other. The most important thing is you and your families safety. We are rooting for you.
Cheers,
Marcus
Use a professional gas person to install your gas pool heater. Use a licenced electrician for your swimming pool heat pump.
Now before you, CSI sleuths get on my case about the scull on the Rheem heat pump, Please keep in mind that I am pretty sure it is Neanderthal and it originated not from Europe or Asia with a land bridge from Russia but from a store called Party City around Halloween time back in 2014. The scull has a double meaning here. I want to sell heat pumps for a long time and make a profit and not become an angry skeleton and I want you to use a professional to install your gas heater. Gas goes boom if not controlled. I remember a buddy who had trouble with his pilot light on his gas pool heater back in the last century. The access panel blew off when the heater finally lite and knocked him on his butt. That was the easiest heat pump sale that I ever had. I lost a sale 2 weeks ago on a gas pool heater to the “Internet”. After I would have charged local tax I was going to make $9.57 on a $2,000.00 heater. I can’t do customer service for the next 20 years for that profit. Then the same guy called me yesterday with no shame for customer service anyway when he got a fault code. Maybe I can do that business model after all? I love the Internet. I tried to buy locally a sleep aide today and the drug store didn’t stock what the TV ad said they did. Went to Amazon and bought it with next day delivery. Some big pool heat pump manufacturers don’t want you to buy their swimming pool heat pumps on the web. They are fighting the future and trying to make believe it is 1995 again. They want you to buy from a local guy who only knows one or two brands; no selection is not in your best interest. I know all the brands. Can you trust my picks? Am I totally impartial and won’t steer you to what makes me the most money? Well, keep one thing in mind. I take it personally when there is a service problem. So you at least know I will recommend something reliable in my own self-interest and I like my reputation. 20 years on the web. Buy locally unless it is me of course. Be safe out there enjoy your swimming pool for as much of the year as possible. If I can help you do that then I have succeeded.
Best
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
My squash plants would be better off this winter in an aquaponic or hydroponic greenhouse.
My garden work is winding down this month. The giant pumpkins are gaining the last pounds of the season. Kind of a lame size this year. Not going to hit 1500 pounds. Maybe not even 250 pounds. Ugh! I think that they experienced too much water stress when I was unable to care for them for a few weeks this August. I wish that I have some of my hydroponic, aquaponic and aquaculture buddies near my house so I could share some of my plants with them. I harvested a squash last September in 2018 and kept it on the kitchen counter until about a week or two ago. I didn’t even keep it cool in a root cellar or basement. It never rotted so I wanted to see if the seeds were still good. I cut the gourd in half and buried it in my garden and then forgot about it. Today I noticed about a 100 baby seedlings breaking through the ground. Kind of sad that they won’t grow big because winter is coming. I still have one more 2018 squash left so I will save those seeds for next year. If any of you want some seeds please send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will send you some. I would really like to see how some of you make out over the winter growing them in a controlled environment. I have a lot of heat pumps out there in grow houses keeping water warm so that the plants are growing in the best conditions. I am still cooling water and greenhouses in some of the hot states and hot countries too in the northern hemisphere. I wish you the best growing season ever. As always if you can grow a bigger gourd than me with my seeds, then I will send you something cool as a reward.
Best,
Marcus
If you are going to use your swimming pool heat pump once a year then I don’t care what brand you get.
I was on the phone with a customer last week and he wanted to buy an inexpensive heat pump that was made in China. I have not had the best luck with them as I have tested 3 Chinese swimming pool heat pumps and they all had an issue. Maybe in 5 years, they will get it all sorted out but I told him that is wasn’t a good idea as I couldn’t give my blessing to its reliability and I have like to use North American made heat pumps as I believe the USA and Canada have the best-made ones in the world. I say that from experience as I have seen most of the ones in the world and those that I have not personally seen in person I have read up on them and have looked at reviews. So for this customer, I told him that in ten years where did he think he would get parts or even be able to talk to an engineer if he had a problem. He then told me that he was 87 years old and wasn’t that concerned about what would happen when he was 97. My best argument didn’t work. After a few more phone calls he agreed to spend a little more for an American made pool heat pump. I felt much better but it made me think of one of my favorite stores; Harbor Freight. I know all my gear head friends go there when nobody is looking. Some of my older friends tell me that sometimes they need a specialized tool that they will only use a few times and that the inexpensive ones there do the trick. I just like to roam around looking at everything. I bought some motorcycle tie-down straps and ear protection for some loud 2 stroke motorcycle engines that I started up. I know most of the stuff in there is from China. I have mixed emotions with that. I wish that there was a store with the same business model with locally made tools. I can’t go to my Sears anymore as it closed, so for a guy that likes that sort of thing, there is not a lot of local options. With Swimming pool heat pumps we have that option though. I have great heat pumps that are made from Pennsylvania to Florida. You have to know who is making what and where though. Some big USA manufacturers are buying their heat pumps from China while some others are putting them together in other countries. Some USA manufacturers have cut their warranties while some have lengthened them. I can tell you who did what. I like simple reliable heat pumps made in a factory with an engineer around to make sure they are tested and running like they were designed. In ten years I want the heat pump keeping your pool like a tropical lagoon with reliability that isn’t going to cause you any stress.
I am on your side.
Best,
Marcus Miller
Geothermal heat pumps are part of a solution to fight high wasteful energy costs.
I love Geothermal heating and cooling with packaged heat pumps. For many homes and businesses, it can save 50 to 75 or more from the cost of other technologies. Some people are still heating their homes with technology from the caveman or woman days. I must admit that I have a wood stove. Though I stopped using it 15 years ago after a diverter plate failed inside the stove and the un-baffled heat caught my chimney on fire. Not a big fan of chimney fires. The problem with many geothermal projects is the cost to the home or business owner. I have seen $50,000.00 quotes to dig 4 ditches and pipe and wire a heat pump. That is horrible when you could have replaced your propane furnace for $3,000.00. It will then take a long time to make up the difference, especially since most people move every seven years. $47,000.00 will buy a lot of propane. Many of my customers put geothermal systems in themselves. Then the numbers are a no brainer. They hire a backhoe or track-hoe with a driver for a day or two to dig the ditches. I just rented a track-hoe for $250.00 plus diesel. My neighbor did most of the work and then taught me how to operate it. I had to give him a lifetime pass for grazing his sheep on my yard though. It was a win-win as now I don’t have to mow anymore. Geothermal loops are about $300.00 a roll. Heat pumps are about $2,600.00 to $5,500.00 or so. There are many utilities offering rebates. I have seen customers in some areas basically get the heat pump for free after a $1,000.00 a ton rebate. Not that common though. Then there are federal tax credits on some brands for the next couple of years also. There are lots of You-tube videos on how to lay pipe. I just watched one on how to change a sewage pump and I can swear that now I am an expert. A smelly one though. My favorite factories of heat pumps won’t punish people who install their own geothermal heat pumps by voiding warranties as long as you get a licensed electrician to do all the wiring and follow local codes, pull permits, etc. Some of my customers hire an HVAC guy to supervise the job to guide them. I like that idea. Then you will have a local guy to help if you ever need service. Install an efficient geothermal heat pump system and you will be making money for years to come. If you are saving $500.00 a month every year, then you will make me happy. After ten years that is $60,000.00 in the bank and that will buy a lot of propane.
PS. All the numbers are completely made up by me but should be pretty close for most people depending on where you live, the size of the heat pump and size of the house, etc. 🙂
I am on your side.
We are here for you if you have any questions.
Best,
Marcus
Some swimming pool heat pump manufacturers want you to pay an extra $1,000.00 or more for your pool heater. I name names!
I have been selling swimming pool heat pumps for more than 30 years. That is pretty good for a 39 years old man. 🙂
I started out servicing them. I loved doing that as it was much more fun than crawling through 140-degree attics fixing air handler fan motors during a South Florida August. Soon I was selling pool heaters to people whose swimming pool heat pumps were not repairable. That was before most brands heat exchangers were made out of titanium and the copper or copper-nickel in them were very sensitive to PH issues. When they failed it turned the heat pump into a big boat anchor. I sold mostly EUS at first as they were a fair company that made a great product who stood behind their dealers, customers and service companies. That is the way it should be. They even invited me to teach service seminars to their dealers. I would have worked for food but they also paid me. They have since been bought out by Hayward after one of the owners was in a farm tractor accident. Now it seems I am getting lawyer letters and upset phone calls from some companies representatives that only want you to buy your heat pump from a someone who the manufacturer chooses for you, and you can be sure it isn’t an online company, even if that company has a “bricks and mortar store. They think they can turn back the clock to 1990 and stop you from doing your homework, comparing prices, specifications, size, efficiency, etc, and maybe saving a few thousand dollars. The wrong direction I think.
They forget it was the online companies that spread the word in the USA and the world about pool heat pumps in the late ’90s and early 2000s before their dealer and wholesale network caught up with the demand. The Chinese were paying attention though. They watched the industry grow and in the last 10 years, they have flooded the world with inexpensive heat pumps. Not my style, but consumers that only shop by price and are not educated about heat pumps, and who are blocked from buying the USA or Canadian heat pump that they should buy, but can’t because of a manufacturer who only wants to sell them with lots of hands in the distribution line, marking the price up too much. One argument some manufacturers use is that pool contractors can’t make a good profit if people can buy on the internet. I love pool guys. They are some of the most hardworking people that I have ever seen. You try cleaning pools and replacing a filter pump motor when it is 115 F in Arizona or Las Vegas. The temperature of the motor will burn you just from the sunlight. Or a swimming pool guy in Palm Beach, Broward or Dade County Florida working during a day with 100% relative humidity and 95F, behind schedule with lightning striking all around them. I saw that one personally. Most of my good friends are pool guys and I know that if they buy a pool heat pump wholesale and install it they can make a fair profit and everyone is happy regardless of what is happening on the internet. It is a different customer. Then the pool dealer can keep an eye on the heater and clean the leaves out of it every year, etc. There will always be plenty of business for them with that model. You are paying for someone local who is always around to remind you what valves to turn to use the spa and what buttons to press to program the thermostat. In cold weather states, you have someone who will drain the water, and put the winter cover on it. Not everyone wants to pay for that especially someone handy that can glue some pipes and call a licensed electrician to wire the heat pump. A manufacturer out of Canada got upset with me a couple of months ago when I listed their information on my site. I try to have information on as many heat pumps as possible so that pool owners can do all their homework in one place. Thermeau Industries out of Quebec City Canada told me to take all their information down on their heat pumps. They didn’t have the courtesy to call me directly as they know who I am because I sold 100’s of heat pumps from their former company called “Summit” that they sold a few years ago. When I e-mailed and then also called them to talk about that, I couldn’t even get one of the owners on the phone or to respond. I think that was a first for me not to be able to chat with a head engineer or owner of any pool heat pump manufacturer anywhere in the world. Why were they hiding?
I do believe that it is their right to sell to whoever they want. They can also try to control how and where their information is presented. I also believe they are on the wrong side of history and that this kind of behavior is an open door to the Chinese to start shipping containers of heat pumps here for half the price of North American heat pumps. Who are you going to call when you need service? I have no idea. Need a part. I doubt your local HVAC contractor has a part. Call me if you want some ideas on what pool heat pump companies are doing everything right, with long warranties, high efficiencies, and amazing reliability; some for over 35 years.
I am on your side.
Best,
Marcus Miller
Most problems with swimming pool heat pumps are due to water flow, valves and breakers that are off.
Your swimming pool heat pump is not running and you are frustrated. It could be bran-new or it has been in your back yard for the last 15 years. Either way, it is something you don’t want to deal with as swimming pool heat pumps are supposed to help to enjoy the swimming season and to help you relax and not cause you to stress by not doing their job. I took a call this week from a man who bought a new heat pump to replace a 17 years old one that finally wore out. His new heat pump was not starting and the digital control was blank with no display. He said he had power and that made me scratch my head as it is so rare to have power and not have some kind of reading on the thermostat display. Finally, his electrician found that his electrical disconnect was bad and only feeding 120 volts to the heat pump instead of 240 volts. Once that was fixed the heat pump started right up and did the job that it was made to do. I find that a high percentage of service calls are not related to the heat pump itself. Many calls are due to lack of water flow. I have seen dirty pool filters shutting down pool heat pumps, and even if the filter is clean the cartridge filter was so old that restricted water flow so that the water pressure switch in the pool heat pump wouldn’t activate. Then there are bypass ball, gate and 3-way valves in the wrong position causing the misdirection of water flow. Also, I have seen all the water valves in the right position but they have failed internally so you can’t tell easily that they are the problem causing low or no flow. Then there are people who were trying to save money while being green by buying an expensive variable speed water pump. Nobody told them that when it is on low speed it sometimes isn’t enough flow to run the heat pump. Sometimes when all looks good it is the basket on the filter pump that is full or more sneaky yet the basket is empty but the impeller is clogged with pine needles or some other organic material. Sometimes the unit is fine and is just off on the 5-minute start delay. They have no patience and keep resetting the 5 minutes by shutting off the power or playing with the thermostat and then after a 1/2 hour decide the heat pump is junk and call to complain. Having a troubleshooting owners manual handly is always a good idea. Something happened today that is relevant. I was swimming in a freezing 20 X 40 no heater pool in the shade during a 3-week heatwave with temperatures every day over 35C or 95F when the owner asked me if I could to change an outside light. I love electrical challenges so I changed the light fixture by the pool and an hour later the owner complained the light was on constantly now and not coming on at dusk with the timer like all the others by the pool are supposed to do. He suggested that I wired it wrong. I knew it was not on after I wired it so I was a bit confused. At first, I thought I might be slipping and not still the same guy who wired and piped 100 tons of air conditioning on a commercial building that all started and ran the first time without any changes. I went out to the light to check the wiring. It did look like it was on. I was about to take it apart when I saw that the sun had set a bit and the sunlight was perfectly coming through a gap between the roof drain and the wall focusing the sun rays on the fixture making it look on. So the strangest things sometimes happen that have no relation to the object that you think failed. Think out of the box. Most swimming pool heat pumps are pretty reliable. If you get in a jam e-mail or text me and I will try to help out.
I am on your side. Have a great swimming season.
Best,
Marcus
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California swimming pool heat pump trash talking from gas heater sales people.
I have been sending swimming pool heat pumps to California for 20 years. California has a huge amount of pools. Traditionally they have been heated with gas. My job 20 years ago was to educate pool guys and pool owners of the advantages of heat pumps. It was hard at first. California had a history of cheap natural gas and most of the pool professionals had been putting gas in for 20 to 50 years. Things are changing though. So far in the last 20 years, I have never had a customer sorry that they put in one of my heat pumps. I never got that call or e-mail. Now it seems a no brainer that heat pumps with titanium heat exchangers, stainless steel fittings and polymer UV protected cabinets would be more durable than copper and steel gas heaters. (Note some gas manufacturers have now stepped up and made their heaters more weather and pool ph tough) Ask us who if you are going in that direction. Heat pumps also are less expensive to use. You are not burning or consuming gas like a gas heater or pure electricity like an element pool heater. (Similar to an electric stove element) or even an oil fired pool heater. A heat pump uses a little electricity to move solar heat that is in the air to the water. Even at 45F, there is enough heat in the air to heat most pools with a heat pump that has a defrosting model heat pump. We are just moving heat around instead of creating heat by burning a fuel. Plus a heat pump can cool the pool too. Tough to that with gas. One of the largest pool heating companies in the world required their gas engineers to watch my 30 heat pump videos that I had made in desert conditions to get up to speed when talking to customers calling in. The gas guys would say on the phone, “heat pumps don’t work here” while ignoring the fact that they work all across Canada, Norway, the midwest, New England, Texas, Arizona etc. Don’t say they don’t work in Canada to a Canadian heat pump manufacturer as they would just laugh. Lots of pool heater manufacturers in Canada. In about 2002 I took a call from a lady from Sacramento. She said that for one year she begged her pool service company to put in a heat pump for her. She had done her research and was convinced that it would be in her best interest to have a heat pump for her pool. She also didn’t want gas exhaust fumes near her pool that she used to health reasons. She also considered herself green and wanted to use the most efficient technology available to solve her cold pool needs. The pool guy refused to help her and she came to me to supply her with a heat pump. She hired her own licensed electrician, as that is 90% of most pool heat pump installation jobs require, and I believe she glued the two pipes herself. She called me the next year and told me how she loved her heat pump but that a strange thing happened after she started using it. She kept her pool service company who wouldn’t help her with the heat pump and they were still maintaining her chemicals and repairing her filter and water pump, etc. They were supposed to come every two weeks but she noticed that they were coming sometimes twice a week and they were bringing people she didn’t recognize on the property and spending a lot of time looking at her heat pump. She went out to see what was going on and discovered that the pool contractor who refused to help her get a heat pump was using her as an example of a successful heat pump installation to sell heat pumps to her neighbors. She was so mad she fired him on the spot and told him never to be on the property again. She kept in touch for I think the next ten years. That about sums up a common California issue. I thought that 20 years later those days might be behind me but last week I got a call from someone near LA who had bought a pool heat pump from me but who had not installed it yet. He was worried because his pool guy told him a story about a customer years ago who didn’t like his heat pump. This was a customer who had a 10 KW PV (photovoltaic) panel electricity generating system at his house. So really the heat pump was going to cost him almost nothing to use. I told him not to worry. I thought it was almost malpractice to suggest to a PV electric guy not to use a heat pump. That really is the best of both worlds. So come on California. It is a new century and we have electric cars and computers on our cell phones. Be green. And if you don’t want to be green then indulge yourself and family and get a swimming pool heat pump and save enough money on heating and cooling to take a Europen vacation with your energy savings.
Aquaponic and Aquaculture growers should make bigger Zucchinis than me.
In May I saw a squash plant growing out of some decorative stones in front of my house. It was growing from a hostile environment of only sand and stones and nothing really to support a big gourd. I didn’t plant it so it a small animal or bird must have dragged it there from the garden last fall. I don’t like to kill plants that appear in impossible situations so I am letting it grow. I overwatered it and over-fertilized it to pretend that I had a mini Aquaponic farm with one plant. The sand is always dripping wet and the plant is thriving with many small zucchinis growing from the many flowers that keep blooming. I would love to send some seeds to all me Aquaponic and Aquaculture friends and see who can grow the largest gourds. Just send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will get them in the mail right away. If you can grow bigger ones than me I will figure out something cool to send you. Maybe giant potential 2000 pound pumpkin seeds or giant sunflowers? Also, I will take $100.00 off an aquaculture heat pump to keep your fish and plants comfortable and healthy growing like crazy. My heat pumps also cool the water for the critters that need to chill to be happy.
I hope to send out lots of seeds this year to see what my greenhouse, Agroecology, Algaculture, and Mariculture, buddies can create.
We are on your side. Have a great growing season.
Best,
Marcus
Swimming pool heat pumps from the early 2000’s that are still running.
This as been a month of people calling for parts who bought Kopec and Heat Siphon pool heaters back in the early 2000’s. I love to see people who maintained their equipment well all these years getting rewarded with a long service life for their heat pumps. I remember someone once sent me a photo of them applying car wax to the cabinet. I send out parts when I can to help customers keep their machines running. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense though if the repair is too expensive considering that equipment from that era used a freon that has since been discontinued. It was interesting that Mr. Kopec who had models like the 650TI, 600TI, 700TI Titan and the 525SC, 525S, 525SCTI etc. used a rotary knob for a thermostat on some of his models. I loved that the engineer who designed the heater also put his name on the heat pump. I want a product that is backed by someone who wants the world to know their name. He made a tough heat pump. I was sorry to see him get out of the pool heater business. US Thermo Amp who is still making heat pumps, also known as Heat Siphon, also used a manual rotary dial thermostat on their C5.0 and SX5.0 models. Now Heat Siphon is the only manufacturer left that still incorporates the analog thermostat control on their heat pumps. Even though it has a special place in my analog heart, most people don’t want that. They want a digital thermostat that they can program in an exact temperature and that will also have a diagnostic troubleshooting code to display if anything is wrong to help pinpoint what has shut the pool heater off. Tough to decide if you want simple and strong or if you need the extra bling, bling that we are surrounded with. If you are thinking of having your old pool heat pump repaired text me what is going on and maybe I can help you decide which direction to go in. I have a service history and have kept HVAC and swimming pool heat pumps going longer than they were designed to go but I also have a good idea on when to pull the plug and start fresh with a pool heater that has a long warranty. Pools are supposed to be fun and relaxing. I don’t want you stressing during the swimming season about repairs when you should be swimming with the family.
Peregrine 9547258041
Air Energy 3057830884, 3057854900, 8003344328, 9547840508
EUS 8004328387 4232825148, 4232820673
Turcotte
4073751480
8005619936
8779923335
800833752
Focustemp
7277359804, 3056927906
Heat Pumps Unlimited Suretemp 9417681100, 8005356800 8884937683, 8008317133
Kopec 9543253901, 9549178998, 8669178998
They voided your warranty because you are loyal and did your pool heat pump homework.
I received a call yesterday from a pastor at a bible camp requesting parts to repair his swimming pool heat pump. 15 years ago he had bought a swimming pool heat pump made by one of the largest pool equipment company in the United States. At that time they were happy to see him buy it from his computer. The camp is on a tight budget and they needed all the money possible for activities and quality counselors. He did his homework and bought what he thought was a good heater. It proved to be a good choice at that time as it lasted for many years. Recently he had to replace it due to age and the fact that his camp is near the ocean and subjected to salt and harsh weather. He bought another heater made by the same manufacturer because the old heat pump had given him good service and he liked to stay with what worked. He didn’t buy it from me as I would have advised otherwise now. The new heat pump failed quickly after he bought it. He called the factory to arrange warranty service as it was well within the time period printed in his owner’s manual. They asked him if he had put the heat pump in himself and he answered truthfully, that yes he did glue the pipes and set the unit, but he had a licensed electrician transfer the wires from the old one to the new one. The well-know factory then thanked him for calling and told him that they were voiding his warranty. Their new business model is that now only want local pool companies to install heat pumps. That is their new marketing strategy to get more pool contractor business. There is no school that gives diplomas for gluing 2 PVC pipes and putting a heat pump on a hand truck to set it on a concrete slab. He was loyal to the company for 15 years, and bible camp or not, they treated him with no respect or courtesy. Broke my heart to hear this story. Especially that kids are involved. I ordered him the parts, but that will take time and the camp pool is cold during their short camp season. If you want to know what company it was, give me a call. It seems some other companies are looking for lame excuses to void warranties too. I won’t let that happen to you. I know which companies want your business and then they stand behind their warranties because they care about you and also their reputation. Get a heat pump made in North America with a long warranty that has high efficiency and a good reliability record and you will have the highest chance of many years of trouble-free service. It just so happens that I know a few. 🙂
How to protect your Aquaculture and Aquaponic tanks from environmental disruptions.
You have a perfectly created environment for your fish and plants that depend on electricity and mechanical equipment to maintain them. Mechanical equipment and or electricity will fail at times. That is why it is always good to have a plan B.
Make sure you had a licenced electrician check to see that all is up to code and you are not overloading the electrical system in the facility. Have back up heaters and chillers in case one of yours fails. Then you have a window to repair the equipment before the temperature is critical in your tanks. Have a generator on the property with a few days fuel to bridge the gap while power is restored. If you are worried about the water getting too hot and have no back up kill the lights for as long as you can. Usually, the benefit of the lights is not as important as the water getting too warm for some species. You know your situation better than me here. Maybe consider a solar or battery powered fountain to help evaporate the water to cool the tank or pond. Maybe a battery powered air pump to get some oxygen in the water too? You don’t want to have set up a bicycle connected to a coconut pump like Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island might do. 🙂 Maybe oversize your filters to give a little extra time when the system goes down? Put battery-powered monitors to alert you if there are any issues. The faster you know about a problem the faster you can work to resolve it.
I am on your side. I want happy healthy fish and little creatures out there.
Should you repair your swimming pool heat pump or replace it?
Swimming pool heat pumps are an amazing reliable piece of machinery. They are designed to heat and cool for many years without service. As with all mechanical things at some point, it will need service or repairs. Judging on how much to invest in a repair is an art though. Before you call for service from an HVAC company you should do all the basic troubleshooting yourself to save the cost of a service call. Turn the circuit breaker on and off to reset the computer board. Check if the board lights up? If no display, then call an electrician to see why there is no power to the heat pump. Many display boards will tell you what is wrong with your swimming pool heat pump. 50% of the time when a heat pump won’t run it is because there is a water flow problem. The printed circuit board might tell you that. Then you should check your pool filter to see if it is clean. Check your filter basket and maybe the pump impeller for debris. Then check that the return jets in the pool are at full pressure. Maybe there is a valve in the wrong position not letting enough water flow through the heat pump? Maybe a valve has failed close but still looks open? That will fool most troubleshooters. At some point, you will need a service call to see what is going on. Keep in mind a swimming pool heat pumps life should be 10 to 15 years. You don’t want to put $1,000.00 in an old heat pump that is out of warranty and might even be using the old freon 22 that has been discontinued. You are welcome to text me at 360 348 7574 to run your proposed repair by me to see what I think.
I love keeping old heat pumps going, but at some point, it doesn’t make sense. I just sold a heat pump to a guy with a 17-year-old Focustemp. They were a simple heat pump with a rotary knob as a thermostat. The heat pump lasted 15 years after they went out of business. FYI I use one heat pump factory that is 36 plus years old and still uses a rotary knob on some of their models. So do as much troubleshooting as you can. Look through your manual for the codes of the display. Call me if you can’t figure it out, and get the pool up to temperature as fast as you can because it will be getting cold soon.
Have a great swimming season.
Best,
Marcus Miller
Aquaculture heat pumps keep fish warm all winter and cool all summer
My Northern California Koi breeder buddy that lives in the foothills, is keeping his fish warm all winter with one of my cold temperature breeder heater aquaculture / aquaponic heat pumps. The Koi are healthy and eating like crazy. No dormant sad, bottom dwelling fish here. Even though there is snow on the ground, the heat pump is keeping his pond warm. It will keep heating down into the high 30’s Fahrenheit or about 2 to 4 Celsius outside temperature. He is spending about 1/6th of what he would pay for a electric element or propane (LP) heater to operate and his fish don’t go dormant in the winter and not grow. Also in the summer it will chill the water so that the fish won’t get stressed by water that is too warm. So come on all you hydroponic / aquaponic type people out there. Make this a year of happy fish and plants. I know that if they could talk, that they would thank you. If you get a aquaculture heat pump, It would make the little creatures and me happy too, and I will thank you. 🙂
Best,
Marcus
Stay warm and safe out there.
I don’t live in China, so should I buy a Chinese swimming pool heat pump?
I have received quite a few questions about Chinese swimming pool heat pumps from my customers who are price shopping. There are some that are being sold for less money than an American manufacturer can afford to build them. There are even some American manufacturers who are putting their name on Chinese heat pumps. The Chinese factories make them in big bunches like bananas and then ship the heaters 6000 to 9000 miles in a tightly packed containers to the USA, South America and Europe. Then they are shipped out from the warehouses from people who couldn’t care less about the product they are handling as most have no personal connection to the swimming pool owner, the service or install company or even the distributors that sell the heat pump. Then, when you need service there is no local service company that has a personal relationship with the manufacturer. My favorite swimming pool heat pumps are handmade in the USA with the designing engineer on site to give each a final ok before they are shipped out. You want a swimming heat pump made with love from people who care and have reputations to protect. You might even want the cell number of the distributor in case you ever have a concern or install question after hours. My next blog will be about Florida homeowners who buy a Canadian heat pump when they have 4 local heat pump factories in their backyard with lots of service guys running around. Hope all my Canadian friends don’t read that one. 🙂
Be safe and enjoy your pool.
Swimming pool heat pumps remove wrinkles and make you more popular!
I have been taking some heat from some of my blog reading buddies lately for not writing enough about Swimming pool heat pumps, and how they can save you thousands of dollars when you are heating or cooling pools, homes and businesses, and of course my favorite industries: aquaculture and aquaponics. At first I was a little put off, as there are so many important subjects in the business world, that if we can utilize them, we can make what we do easier, or if not that, at least make us more successful. If you are more successful, then you are solving more problems for your customers, and as I always have believed, making the world a better, less stressed place.
I thought about it a bit and realized that it was true that I have not been giving enough time to sharing heat pump information with my friends. It’s a subject that I have devoted my life to. Heat pumps, when properly sized, save a ton of money heating and cooling water and air. If you ever have someone in your backyard make a blanket statement that swimming pool heat pumps don’t work here, while they are trying to sell you a propane heater, then you can easily say, “Show me the BTU’s per dollar.” If a pool heat pump works in Norway and Canada, then they will work in California and Italy for sure. A gallon of propane has 91,500 BTU’s. If your gas heater burns 3 gallons per hour then you will have payed $7.50 that day. Natural gas has 100,000 BTU’s per therm. Figure out what a therm costs where you live and do the math. If a heat pump has 136,000 BTU’s like my big pool and aquaculture heat pump does, and uses 6 KW an hour, and you pay 10 cents per KWH, then you will have spent $1.80 for three hours of running,and will have put 408,000 BTU’s into the pool. That is at the best test conditions, but you get the point. It is not mysterious, as it is just numbers. How much you pay, and then how much heat you get. The speed of the payback for new equipment can be amazingly fast.
I visited a friend in Massachusetts a few years ago to catch up on old times and swim in his pool. When I was a kid I would go to his home and watch as his dad and grandpa build a pool in his backyard. They were from the old country, and were expert stone masons. I am not sure if they knew how to build a pool, but it was fun to watch. The problem was, that they took 3 or 4 years to complete it, and before it was finished, my family moved to the other side of the country. I was so looking forward to swimming in that pool as a kid. It was supposed to be finished every year that I was there. He was the only kid that I knew in town with an inground big pool. 30 plus years later I was invited to visit him when I was in the area and he suggested a pool party. I brought barbeque supplies and drinks. My wife was excited to meet one of my childhood friends and my daughter was just excited just to go swimming. It was a beautiful sunny day in July with temperatures in the 80’s. When I first saw the pool I was so impressed. There was a huge stone wall at the back of the pool with water features and fountains. Behind the wall was a long shed that held the propane gas heater. Not a pool heat pump, but once in the water, “warm is warm” I thought. I jumped in, and was immediately shocked that the water was in the 60’s. That is freezing to me. I don’t want to exaggerate too much, but I thought that I had just fallen into the Arctic Sea while fishing for crab on the on a TV show. I was hoping someone would call the Coast Guard to save me. I think I said a bad word because I saw that look that I know too well on my wife’s face when I surfaced. Maybe a string of bad words. Not sure, as I was beginning to feel paralyzed. My words were a bit slurred. I thought I couldn’t swim in that cold of water but then realized that it didn’t matter, as I could just stand up and walk out, because I was in the children’s section. I turned to my dry friend laying in the sun, and asked why he had not turned on the propane heater to warm the pool for us? He looked at me like I was crazy, and said that I should know how expensive propane was. I obviously wasn’t propane worthy.
I hope you don’t freeze your guests, your fish or your marine mammals, you zoo guys out there. Humans like water in a narrow range. Fish grow better when they are happy. If you are shivering and squinting your eyes shut, then after a few years you will have laugh wrinkles around your eyes, and you won’t be laughing. Hey, I am not a plastic surgeon type doctor, but I played one during halloween when I was a kid. So this isn’t medical advice, but it is good host advice. Make people comfortable for a reasonable price, and you will be the life of the party. This goes for you hotel, motel, campground and resort type people. Warm guests are happy guests. They come back year after year. They buy cold drinks. If it costs too much to heat the pool then switch to heat pumps. Friends don’t let friends swim cold.
Have an amazing summer. Don’t pay $50,000 for a nice pool and then only use it for 2 weeks in July. January for all my South American buddies in the hospitality industry. As Frankenstein’s monster once said: “Warm pool good, Cold pool bad…..very bad.”
Did you have any other questions that I can help you with? We love to help with projects.
We ship regularly to your area and are experts with your climate conditions.
If you need Aquaculture, HVAC, Geothermal or swimming pool supplies, please let us quote you wholesale prices.
Sincerely,
Marcus Miller, President
Green Planet Supply
1 888 205 7766 National Office
360 348 7574 Cell
marc@heatpumpheroes.com
www.heatpumpsuppliers.com
www.heatpumpsuppliers.com
“Mine is installed and working, I called Marcus a couple times on Saturday, All I can say is he is awesome, and very patient. I did end up calling a local contractor to hook up the desuperheater pump, and the drain valve. the furnace is cranking out the heat.
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The highest compliment that we can receive is the referral of your friends, family and business associates
Swimming Pool and Aquaculture heat pumps are needed to keep humans and fish happy
The photo was taken when I was at a fish hatchery looking at new hatchlings and eggs that were almost ready to hatch. We love anything to do with Aquaculture, Mariculture, Algaculture (the cultivation of Algae) and Fish Farming. We have shipped many swimming pool heatpumps and Aquaculture, Aquaponic heat pumps to Nairobi, Kenya. People forget that even in countries that are hot all year, we still need heat pumps to keep the water comfortable for humans and fish. Sometimes we heat the water, and sometimes we cool the water in Kenya. One hotel where we have 3 pool heat pumps installed is saving 80% of their heating budget over using an LP gas (propane heater) or an electric element heater. We do that with Aquaculture / Aquaponic fish farms in Africa too. In Nairobi, it never gets much below 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 C ) at night, and the pools still cools off below comfortable swimming temperatures. I remember when I was at a high end hotel in Belize, spreading the word about pool heat pumps in Central America, and I didn’t get a very warm welcome from hoteliers at hotel, motel, theme parks and resorts. The hotel where I was staying had a pool that was only 72 F, (22 C) because a rainy cold front had just come through the area. That is not a fun swim for me. My wife took a video of me all alone shivering in the deserted pool, even though the hotel was completely full. Sorry, only available for you to see if you visit my office. 🙂 Now I hope that you will help me spread the pool heat pump word so I can make the world a more comfortable and happy place without me having to change time zones so much.
It is time to heat cold swimming pools and spas in Northern states and countries by using heat pumps.
Hey all you Northern hemisphere people. Late spring is here, and it is time to think about swimming even though this morning I woke up to temperatures in the high 40’s F or below 10C for all you European and South American peeps. Even my Florida, Texas and Arizona friends are still using their heat pumps for their Spas, cold plunge pools or if their pools are in the shade or windy locations. Many people forget that most of the South and Southwest needs heaters and even chillers some parts of the year. Many pool owners need a pool heat pump to keep the water comfortable for almost the whole year. Some use it for exercise or rehabilitation. The temperature in spas needs to be 98 to 104 degrees to be useful. A pool heat pump is a reliable and efficient way to heat it. Don’t panic all my metric and Celsius buddies. That is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. We don’t boil our swimmers in the USA. The planting zone for Northwest Florida is about the same as Seattle. I planted a palm tree last year at my house to make it seem more tropical in the Northwest and it lived through this brutal winter and snowy spring winter. Some swimming pool heat pumps with the defrosting feature will keep heating down to the high 30’s F. outside air temp. That is good for my Aquaculture friends too who need their fish comfortable to grow big and strong. Open your pools early this year. Relax at sunset by your warm pool sipping your favorite drink with your best friend. I want to help you turn all of your Arctic backyards tropical.
We ship regularly to your area and are experts with your climate conditions.
Sincerely,
Marcus Miller, President
Green Planet Supply
1 888 205 7766 National Office
360 348 7574 Cell
marc@heatpumpheroes.com
www.heatpumpsuppliers.com
www.heatpumpsuppliers.com
“Mine is installed and working, I called Marcus a couple times on Saturday, All I can say is he is awesome, and very patient. I did end up calling a local contractor to hook up the desuperheater pump, and the drain valve. the furnace is cranking out the heat.
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The highest compliment that we can receive is the referral of your friends, family and business associates
July 4th swimming pool heating with a discontinued heat pump from almost the 20th century
I have a swimming pool heat pump at my home that was left over from a successful run test 10 plus years ago. It probably has the old freon 22 that was discontinued in 2010. I like to watch heat pumps working in the field for a few years before I distribute them if at all possible. (Not always possible, but I try) I had a few on a live webcam for 3 years where you could drop in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in all weather conditions to see how they were performing. Many gas heater manufacturers used the videos as training tools. I might do that again. The problem is that my above ground pool collapsed last year, and then my neighbor and pool buddy who got my free heat pumps moved away with one of my test pools. My beautiful wife and the CEO of Green Plant Supply suggested last week with a hint of menace in her voice that I get that old test heat pump running and heating a pool before her Fourth of July holiday party. So, trying to be a good husband, I rented an above ground pool from a junk removal company to use until I could build a proper swimming pool for her. We would have a mini theme park in the backyard. Needless to say, I am writing these posts from the doghouse. I am really happy that I put in Wifi for Mr. Snuggles-Worth the elderly Dachshund. I might have to take her to a hotel or motel so she can swim. Have a safe holiday. We are here for you. Marcus Miller Maybe I can also use it for aquaculture, hydroponics or aquaponics?
Marcus Miller, President
Green Planet Supply
1 888 205 7766 National Office
360 348 7574 Cell
marc@heatpumpheroes.com
www.heatpumpsuppliers.com
www.heatpumpsuppliers.com
“Mine is installed and working, I called Marcus a couple times on Saturday, All I can say is he is awesome, and very patient. I did end up calling a local contractor to hook up the desuperheater pump, and the drain valve. the furnace is cranking out the heat.
|
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View Marcus Miller’s profile on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional community. Marcus has 1 job listed on their profile. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Marcus …
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The highest compliment that we can receive is the referral of your friends, family and business associates
Aquaculture, hydroponic and Aquaponics backstage at Disney World in Orlando Florida
Here at Green Planet Supply we pride ourselves at well….being green. Our heat pumps heat and chill Aquaponic and Hydroponic farms using much less energy than almost any other method. We also love to save hotels, motels, campgrounds and resorts money heating their swimming pools and spas with heat pumps. I was being happy with my family at Disney World, (the happiest place on earth) when I saw some of their guests trying to be green by hanging out their laundry on their hotel room porch. For some reason that didn’t make me happy. I know Disney generates lots of their electricity from solar panels to help their high air conditioning load, and they are doing what they can to be green. If you ever get a chance to take their private tour backstage at their aquaculture, hydroponic and aquaponic showcase please do it. They have done amazing things there raising huge healthy produce and fish using heat pumps to keep the water at just the right temperature. If you have solar panels and heat pump like they do then you have the best of both worlds. They can cool the water with the sunshine. Amazing. They say that their aquaculture area is has no negative environmental impact, and that they recycle 100% of their waste. I know that they made me recycle my wood toothpick. I wonder where that one will wind up? I hope not for someone else to spear their cucumber slice with? I am off topic though. Please dry your clothes in your room where I can’t see it, not outside at 90% + RH in Orlando, FL in the summer. That is the green thing to do in this case. It works better too. My room dried bathing suite proves that. Martha Stewart approved. For all my agricultural type people out there, I will send free Giant sunflower seeds to anyone in the USA who will send me a photo of your giant gourd in October. The photos is of big healthy coffee plants. I will try to grow then as soon as my Aquaculture system is set up in the barn.
Have a great summer
Should I repair the parts of my old freon 22 swimming pool heat pump or replace it?
I get calls like this almost every day. Swimming pool heat pumps should last 10 to 15 years. 10 years ago many pool heaters used the old discontinued freon 22 refrigerant. I come from a service background. It is natural for me to try to repair my customers old heat pumps if I could do it for a reasonable amount that made sense. Unfortunately I can’t travel all over the world to repair heat pumps for my customers. I took a call from a heat pump owner who had a 15 year old pool heater that had a Freon leak. Some copper pipes were touching and the vibration of the heater caused the pipes to rub, and then leak Freon from the hole. That usually is an easy fix, but this time it wasn’t in his best interest I thought after asking him a few questions about his plans for the pool. He was going to live there for the next 8 years until he retired and then sell the house. The pool was important to him now as he used the pool regularly to exercise. I suggested a new heat pump as then he would be under warranty for parts and labor and then when he sold the house the heat pump would still be under a parts warranty. Also he would have a heat pump with the new Freon that any HVAC heating or cooling company would have on their truck if he ever needed service. Everyone has different needs. If someone wants to repair a really old heater and needs parts we can help them find then even if the heat pump is no longer manufactured. I have listed some current models and older discontinued heat pumps that are still out there so that if you have one and want to keep it going longer then I will try to help you do that.
Have a great swimming season.
Best,
Marcus Miller
Air Energy, Air Water Systems, AreoTemp, Aquascapes, Protech, Solar Series 2000, Water King, Heat Star, Hydrotemp, Mini Max, Swim King, Fafco, Heat Siphon, Raypack, Smart Temp, Swimrite, Peregrine, Whispertemp, Pool Fact, Perfectemp, Hayward, Pentair, Waterpick, Laars, CompacTemp, Volcan-o, Turbo Pack, Dynamic Energies, Aquatemp, Heat Max, Heat Pro, Terminator, Heat Wave, Tropical, Aquatherm, Porpoise, Swim More, Suntech, Sunpower, Riviera, Seablue, Econo Heat, Challenger, Turcotte, Focus Temp, Energy Pro, Gulfstream, Kopec, Focustemp, Aquatherm, Heat Perfector, Energy Pro, Heat Siphon 3.25HP C200HP or Z200HP HP, CP & HC HP3, CP3, HC3 220v, 3ph 60Hz Z575HC HPX, CPX, HCX HP4, CP4, HC4 EUS The Captain, EUS Mark6, Energy Utilization Systems, Sure Temp, Eco-Energy, AreoTemp, Aquascapes, Protech, Solar Series 2000, Water King, Heat Star, Hydrotemp, Mini Max, Swim King, Fafco, Heat Siphon, Raypack, Smart Temp, Swimrite, Peregrine, Whispertemp, Pool Fact, Perfectemp, Hayward, Pentair, Waterpick, Laars, CompacTemp, Volcan-o, Turbo Pack, Dynamic Energies, Aquatemp, Heat Pro, Terminator, Heat Wave, Tropical, Porpoise, Swim More, Suntech, Sunpower, Riviera, Seablue, Econo Heat, Challenger, Turcotte, Focus Temp, Energy Pro, Gulfstream, Gulf Stream, Gulfbreeze, Aquaheat LS, TDM, Nirvana, Kopec, Focustemp, Heat Perfector, Energy Pro, Fiberheat, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Solarium, Rome, Rheem, Addison, Wood Fired Heater, Summit, My Blue Pool, Waterco, Zodiac, Aquapro, Aqua Pro, Solarium, Heat Max, Aquatherm, Fibropool, Medtech, Med Tech. Canadian pool heaters, Canadian swimming pool heat pumps, Heat Siphon SX5.0 DX5 SX3.25 DX3.25 200HP 375HP 575HP 700HP 3.25HP 5.0HP United States ThermoAmp Inc Z375 Z575 Z700 R22, 410A,
RHEEM M6450TI-E
RHEEM M6450TI-E-F5
RAYPAK R8450TI-E
RUUD D6450TI-E
RAYPAK R5350TI-E
RAYPAK R5350TI-A
RAYPAK R6350TI-E-HC
RAYPAK R6350TI-E
RHEEM M8450TI-E
RAYPAK R8450TI-E-F5
ULTRATEMP 460932
PERFECTEMP P6350TI-E
RHEEMM5350TI-A
RHEEM M6450TI-E
ULTRATEMP 460935
ULTRATEMP 460933
RHEEM M5350TI-E
RHEEM M6350TI-A
RHEEM M6350TI-E-HC
RHEEM M6350TI-E
RAYPAK R8353TI-E
RAYPAK R8350TI-A
RAYPAK R8350TI-E
RHEEM M8353TI-E
RHEEM M8350TI-A
RHEEM M8350TI-E
HEATPRO HP21104T
SUMMIT SUM8TA
SUMMIT SUM5TA
GULFSTREAM HE110-R-A
SUMMIT SUM3TA
SUMMIT SUM25TA
GULFSTREAM HE150-R-A
GULFSTREAM HI150-R-A
GULFSTREAM HE90-R-A
GULFSTREAM HE125-R-A
GULFSTREAM HE125-T-A
GUARDIAN LE150-R-A
GUARDIAN LE125-T-A
GUARDIAN LE90-R-A
GULFSTREAM HI110-R-A
GUARDIAN LE110-R-A
GUARDIAN LE125-R-A
GULFSTREAM HI125-R-A
HEATPRO HP21404T
EASYTEMP HCB125BTA
HEATMASTER HML125TA
EASYTEMP HCB110BTA
HEATMASTER HML110TA
EASYTEMP HCB65BTA
HEAT MASTER HML50TA
HAYWARD HP50TA
RUUD D5350TI-A
RUUD D5350TI-E
RUUD D6350TI-A
RUUD D6350TI-E
RUUD D6350TI-E-HC
RUUD D8350TI-A
RUUD D8350TI-E
RUUD D8353TI-E
PERFECTEMP P6350TI-E-PD
RAYPAK R6350TI-E-PD
RHEEM M6350TI-E-PD
RUUD D6350TI-E-PD
SUNRUNNER SUN-1100E
SUNRUNNER SUN-1100
SUNRUNNER SUN-1100ETC
SUNRUNNER SUN-1300
SUNRUNNER SUN-1300TCE
SUNRUNNER SUN-1300HC
SUNRUNNER SUN-1300HCTCE
RUUD D8354TI-A
RHEEM M8354TI-A
RAYPAK R8353TI-E-HC
RAYPAK R8350TI-E-HC
RHEEM M8353TI-E-HC
RUUD D8353TI-E-HC
RHEEM M8350TI-E-HC
RUUD D8350TI-E-HC
BUILT RIGHT BR110
BUILT RIGHT BR115
BUILT RIGHT BR135
RAYPAK R2350TI-E
RHEEM M2350TI-E
COMFORT SWIM CS150-R-A
COMFORT SWIM CS125-T-A
COMFORT SWIM CS125-R-A
COMFORT SWIM CS110-R-A
COMFORT SWIM CS90-R-A
RAYPAK PS10353TI-E-HC
RAYPAK PS10355TI-E-HC
RAYPAK PS10354TI-E-HC
RAYPAK PS10355TI-E-HC
RAYPAK R3350TI-E
RHEEM M3350TI-E
RUUD D3350TI-E
RAYPAK R4350TI-E
RHEEM M4350TI-E
RUUD D4350TI-E
BUILT RIGHT BR100-1
WEATHERKING W6350TI-E
PERFECTEMP P6353TI-E
PERFECTEMP P6353TI-E-HC
RAYPAK R6353TI-E
RAYPAK R6353TI-E-HC
RHEEM M6353TI-E
RHEEM M6353TI-E-HC
RUUD D6353TI-E
RUUD D6353TI-E-HC
FLUIDRA USA ASTRAL POOL AHP-100
BUILT RIGHT BR80-1 XW
BUILT RIGHT BR100-1 S7
BUILT RIGHT BR115-1 S7
BUILT RIGHT BR115-1 XW
BUILT RIGHT BR135-1 S7
BUILT RIGHT BR135-1 XW
SUMMIT SUM45TA
EASYTEMP HCB95BTA
HEATMASTER HML95TA
HEATPRO HP21004T
RAYPAK R4350TI-E-PD
RHEEM M4350TI-E-PD
RUUD D4350TI-E-PD
FLUIDRA USA ASTRAL POOL AHP-
FLUIDRA USA ASTRAL POOL AHP-125
FLUIDRA USA ASTRAL POOL AHP-125HC
FLUIDRA USA ASTRAL POOL AHP-150
BUILT RIGHT BR100-1 XW
WEATHERKING W8360TI-E
RAYPAK RS5350TI-E-QT
RAYPAK MS5350TI-E-QT
RAYPAK RS6350TI-E-QT
RAYPAK MS6350TI-E-QT
EASYTEMP HCB140BTA
RAYPAK RS8350TI-E-QT
RHEEM MS8350TI-E-QT
THERMEAU TH125
THERMEAU S125
THERMEAU TH65
THERMEAU TH200
THERMEAU TH200-3
THERMEAU TH200-3A
THERMEAU S65
THERMEAU TH140A
THERMEAU S140A
THERMEAU TH55
THERMEAU S55
TRYDENT F65BB-6A1HA
INTELLEAU F65CP-6A1HA
RECRE’EAU F65GG-6A1HA
TRYDENT F50BB-6A1HA
INTELLEAU F50CP-6A1HA
RECRE’EAU F50GG-6A1HA
TRYDENT F80BB-6A1HA
INTELLEAU F80CP-6A1HA
RECRE’EAU F80GG-6A1HA
AQUADURA A6350TI-E
TRYDENT F100BB-6A1HA
INTELLEAU F100CP-6A1HA
RECRE’EAU F100GG-6A1HA
RAYPAK R5350TI-E-F5
RHEEM M5350TI-E-F5
RAYPAK R6350TI-E-F5
RHEEM M6350TI-E-F5
RAYPAK R8350TI-E-F5
RHEEM M8350TI-E-F5
THERMEAU P55
THERMEAU P65
THERMEAU P125
THERMEAU P140
NAUTYL PHCP80
NAUTYL PHCP110
NAUTYL PHCP50
ECOSTEALTH ECOPRO120TI
ECOSTEALTH ECOPRO140HCTI
RAYPAK PS9350TI-E-HC
RAYPAK PS9353TI-E-HC
TRANE TR21474T
JACUZZI J-H127C
SUMMIT SUMXL112
SUMMIT SUMXL140
NAUTYL PHCP65
RAYPAK R8354TI-A
RAYPAK R5450TI-E
RAYPAK R5450TI-E-F5
RHEEM M5450TI-E
RHEEM M5450TI-E-F5
RUUD D5450TI-E
RAYPAK R6450TI-E
RAYPAK R6450TI-E-F5
RHEEM M6450TI-E
RHEEM M6450TI-E-F5
RUUD D6450TI-E
RAYPAK R8450TI-E
RAYPAK R8450TI-E-F5
RHEEM M8450TI-E
RHEEM M8450TI-E-F5
RUUD D8450TI-E
TROPICAL 090AHDSBPH
TROPICAL 055AHDSBLH
TROPICAL 075AHDSBLH
TROPICAL 115AHDSBPH
TROPICAL 135AHDSBPH
AQUATHERM AT075AHDSBND
LEISURE TEMP (LT) LT0400AHDSBND
LEISURE TEMP (LT) LT0600AHDSBND
LEISURE TEMP (LT) LT0700AHDSBND
LEISURE TEMP (LT) LT0800AHDSBND
LEISURE TEMP (LT) LT1000AHDSBND
LEISURE TEMP (LT) | LT1000BHDSBND |
THERMEAU TH105
THERMEAU S105
THERMEAU P105
BUILT RIGHT BR105-1 XW
BUILT RIGHT BR105-1 S7
THERMEAU TH85
THERMEAU P85
THERMEAU S85
RAYPAK R8450TI-E-HC
RHEEM M8450TI-E-HC
RUUD D8450TI-E-HC
SUMMIT SUM8TAC
SUMMIT SUM55TA
RAYPAK R6450TI-E-PD
RHEEM M6450TI-E-PD
RUUD D6450TI-E-PD
RAYPAK R6450TI-E-HC
RHEEM M6450TI-E-HC
RUUD D6450TI-E-HC
WEATHERKING W6350TI-A
ZODIAC JE1500T
JANDY JE1500T
ZODIAC JE2000T
JANDY JE2000T
ZODIAC JE2500T
JANDY JE2500T
ZODIAC JE2500T3
JANDY JE2500T3
ZODIAC JE3000T
ZODIAC JE3000T3
JANDY JE3000T3
ZODIAC JE3000TR
JANDY JE3000TR
ZODIAC JE3000TR3
JANDY JE3000TR3
SUMMIT SUM25TAC
PHNIX PASRW080-U-P-BP
PHNIX PASRW070-U-P-BP
RAYPAK R2450TI-E
RHEEM M2450TI-E
RAYPAK R3450TI-E
RHEEM M3450TI-E
RAYPAK R4450TI-E
RHEEM M4450TI-E
OMNISWIM OS140AHDSBPA
OMNISWIM OS115AHDSBPA
ET165ARDSBPA ECOTHERM ET165ARDSBPA
OS140AHDSBPA OMNISWIM OS140AHDSBPA
OS115AHDSBPA OMNISWIM OS115AHDSBPA
ET120ARDSBPA ECOTHERM ET120ARDSBPA
ET135AHDSBNA ECOTHERM ET135AHDSBNA
ET110AHDSBNA ECOTHERM ET110AHDSBNA
ET095AHDSBNA ECOTHERM ET095AHDSBNA
ET075AHDSBNA ECOTHERM ET075AHDSBNA
ET055AHDSBNA ECOTHERM ET055AHDSBNA
SUMMIT SUM45TAC
HEATMASTER HML140TA
SUMMIT SUM3TAC
SUMMIT SUM5TAC
EASYTEMP HCB112BTA
TRANE TR21174T
Jacuzzi JHP140
RUUD D2450TI-E
RUUD D3450TI-E
RUUD D4450TI-E
ECOSTEALTH OPTIMIZEP120TI
ECOSTEALTH OPTIMIZEP140HCTI
PHNIX PASRW030-P-BP2
PHNIX PASRW040-P-BP2
Sunblazer (SB) SB128AHDSBLA
NAUTYL PHCP65A
NAUTYL PHCP50A
Trevinium HP75TREE
Aqua comfort technologies
ACT – 1100T5S
ACT – 1250 HCT 6S
ACT-1250T6S
ACT-1500T7S
ACT – 1750T7S
ACT – 7504TS
Aqua Pro systems
ECO 600
ECO pro 120 TI
Eco pro 140 HCTI
J- H127C
Pro – 1100
Pro – 1100 E
Pro – 1100 ETC
Pro – 1300
Pro – 1300 H- C
Pro- 1300 HC
Pro- 1300 HCTCE
Pro – 1300 TCE
Pro 1400
Pro 1400 H-C
Sun – 1100
Sun-1100E
Sun- 1100 ETC
Sun – 1300
Sun- 1300 HC
Sun- 1300 HCTCE
Sun – 1300 TCE
VIGOH77
Built right pool heaters
BR100-1
BR100-1S7
BR100-1 XW
BR110-1
BR115-1
BR115-1 S7
BR115-1 XW
BR80-1 XW
Hayward Pool Products
BHP21254T
BHP31204T
HCB110BTA
HCB125BTA
HCB140BTA
HCB50BTA
HCB65BTA
HCB95BTA
HML110TA
HML125TA
HML50TA
HML95TA
HP21004T
HP21124T
HP21254T
HP31204T
HP40B
HP50A
HP50B
HP50HA
HP55BEE
HP55TR
HP65B
HP65B1
HP65BEE
HP75A
PHCP110
PHCP50
PHCP65
PHCP80
SUM25TA
SUM3TA
SUM45TA
SUM5TA
SUM8TA
SUMXL112
SUMXL140
TR21174T
TR21474T
Nirvana Chauffeur Piscine
F100BB-6A1HA
F100CP-6A1HA
F100GG-6A1HA
F100GT-6A1HA
F120BB-6A1HA
F120CP-6A1HA
F120GG-6A1HA
F120GT-6A1HA
F140CP-6A1HA
F140GG-6A1HA
F140GT-6A1HA
F50BB-6A1HA
F50CP-6A1HA
F50GG-6A1HA
F50GT-6A1HA
F65BB-6A1H
F65CP-6A1HA
F65GT-6A1HA
F80BB-6A1HA
F80CP-6A1HA
F80GG-6A1HA
F80GT-6A1HA
FC120VF-6A1HA
Pentair Aquatic Systems
460928
460929
460930
460931
460932
460933
460934
460935
460937
460958
460959
460960
460961
469962
460963
469964
460965
460967
Zen and the Art of freezing my butt because high end hotels and motels don’t have my heat pumps.
Heat pumps are my life; especially for swimming pools and aquaculture / hydroponics applications. Since I missed hockey-sign ups, I have not been getting my usual exercise. I have not been feeling the healthiest and was looking for some good clean swimming fun with my family. I was eagerly anticipating a work-out swim in a heated indoor hotel pool to make my heart beat a bit. I am not saying that I stay at the best hotels regularly, but this one was pretty nice and I had expectations of warm water. I stuck my toe in the water and shivered. I was going to skip the swim as I am stressed and not the best traveler, and I don’t want to get sick. My daughter was there and wanted to swim too, so she cold shamed me into getting in the water with her. I did a 1/2 hour of laps and felt better. I want to reach out to all my hospitality industry bu and campground buddies to keep your pool warmer. 82 F is where I am happy. Many people like at least 86 F. I also jumped into the cool spa that I know wasn’t anywhere near 104F or 40C. Brrr. If gas / electric heating is too much for your bottom line, don’t drop the temp. Please look into saving $1000’s a year with my pool heatpumps. You can tell what book I am reading this week by the title of this post. That is my freezing truck in a hail storm in the photo.
Hidden truth about pool heat pumps in the USA
Be aware if you are going to use a national well known name brand heat pump that it might have been built in another country: as far away as China.
In the last couple years we’ve been noticing that some of the major names in swimming pool heat pump manufacturing industry have been outsourcing their production to countries like China and Mexico. Also many of the manufacturers have diversified into making other types of pool equipment and accessories for swimming pools that have nothing to do with heating. Some have diversified to the extent that they’re making hundreds of products like toys and don’t give priority to their heat pumps. We like manufacturers with a proven track history that only manufacture and support their swimming pool heat pumps. We like that all their attention is devoted to making their heat pump as reliable and efficient as possible and developing a dealer service network all over the USA. You don’t want to call China if you have a question about using your heat pump. We like to see the original engineer that they designed the machine still at the factory production line improving it every year and supervising the production.
We feel that in the heat pump world you should keep all your eggs are in one basket and then you will watch that basket very carefully to make sure you have the best product available.
We have been here from the beginning of this industry that started in the early 1980’s. We have seen everything and know who is doing their job and who is outsourcing their products to people who don’t have as much of a vested interest as an engineer with a big ego who won’t let anything or anybody get in the way of making the best product that they put their name on. Ask us what are considered the best pool heat pumps that are proudly build in the USA. We want to share.
Marcus Miller
I want to use my pool for as much of the year as possible. I live in Massachusetts. Is a heat pump right for me?
I grew up in MA so I know your area well. In your state I like to heat from May first through as much of October as possible unless you have
too much of a falling leaf situation. Some of my heartier customers start in April if they are having good weather. You need to have a heat
pump that will run when it is below 50F to make this happen. The nights and some of the days in spring and fall can still be a little nippy. I
have some heat pumps that will keep heating down to the lower 30’s. Ask me about them. If it is colder than the 30’s and you want to swim
outside then you are a polar bear and have my full respect, but I will need to get you a gas heater and a raw seal.
I live in Illinois and want to know how to prepare my heat pump for the winter?
Thank you for writing. The best thing to do if follow your manufacturers procedure that is in most owners manuals. If that isn’t an option then I would disconnect the water pipes and put a wet vac on each pipe on the heat pump and suck out any remaining water. Then squirt some recreational vehicle anti-freeze in the pipes as insurance. Then I would cover the heat pump with a tarp to keep the snow and leaves out. Don’t complete cover the heat pumps sides as then you make a small solar rodent vacation home for the winter. A better option is to buy a custom cut winter swimming pool heat pump cover from me that will be hand made for your model. they don’t get any better than that.
Example of question we receive frequently, Do Florida pools need a heat & Cool?
“Marc-
Thanks for all the info. I’ve been looking at the Ultraquiet 130. I really can’t understand why I would choose the “regular” vs the hot and cold version for a few hundred dollars more? I certainly don’t ever need to “chill” my pool but it seems that this also has an added defrost cabaility for heating at low ambient temperatures. Can you help me?
Also, with the nearby factory, is there any chance to pickup from the factory and save a bit on freight?
I’m still a few weeks out from making a decision. I’m currently getting quotes on the electric line.
Thanks
Jerry”
Marc Miller’s response to this email:
“Hello Jerry,
People use the hot gas defrost (chiller option) in warm weather states like Florida, GA, MS, LA, Texas, California and Arizona in the winter if they want to keep heating down to freezing air temps. They get temperatures at night in the winter below 50 F. Most brands of pool heat pumps shut down at about 50F or so and that is fine for 90% of my customers. Some people get a 50% break of their electric rate at night and they run all night with a blanket on the water. Check if your utility has a program like that. I hope that helps and that I hear from you soon.
Marcus”
Spring (Pool) Cleaning: Your Pool Opening Checklist
Spring has sprung! It is time for the pool opening season to begin for northern climates. With that in mind you will need to take a good look at your pool. Take your time and be sure to go over these steps while opening your pool for the season.
Step One: Surface Check
Take a walk around your pool, look for settling and cracks.
Step Two: Assess What’s Beneath the Cover
Remove your cover and check for debris, water color, and water level.
Step Three: Reconnect and Inspect the Equipment
Make sure the pump works, the filter works, and the heater. Test your outlet and check your electrical panel.
Step Four: Replace Pool Fittings
Check/replace fittings throughout the system.
Step Five: Test the Water
Test the alkalinity and pH balance of the pool water.
Step Six: Skimming and Vacuuming
Clear out anything that may have gotten into the water during the winter.
For more information visit Aqua Magazine.
DIY geothermal residential installation. How much can you do?
Installing a geothermal heating system is not rocket science. Most of the work can be done by the homeowner or hired out to a professional saving $20,000 to $60,000 and making the payback very fast especially considering the tax credits or local money that might be available from utilities. Everyone will want you to use a licenced electrician for safety and to preserve the warranty.
Most geothermal heat pumps are package units that are tested at the factory and are ready to run after hooking up the water pipes and power. Ditch work can be hired out. Most backhoes and trackhoes can be rented for $200.00 to $400.00 a day. An experienced operator are available.
Give us a call to talk about your ideas and we can help you plan your project.
Aquaculture water heating and chilling, benefits. PROS and CONS
I love heating aquaculture and aquaponic farms with heat pumps. I have found that most applications can benefit from using heat pump technology over other methods like solar, gas or electric element heaters. Air to water, Water to water geothermal and air to air heat pumps are usually 4 to 6 X more efficient than propane or electric heaters and 2 to 3 times more efficient than natural gas. Also with heat pumps you have a titanium heat exchanger in contact with the water that has a lifetime warranty and can’t hurt fish. Many other types of heating methods use copper and that is poisonous to many fish and plant life.
Please call to let us know about your unique heating or chilling needs. Heat pumps are not always the best choice. Maybe 5% of the time we suggest other methods if we feel that you won’t benefit from heat pump technology. If you don’t have access to source water or ground area to bury pipes and if your climate is too cold for a traditional air to water heat pump we might point you in another direction. That is very rare though. 95% of our clients and friend see an immediate improvement in there heating costs and also the comfort and health of their aquacultural product.
Geothermal heat pump vs heat pump
I am asked often about whether a client should use a traditional air to air or air to water heat pump or if they should go in the Geothermal heat pump direction. There are many factors to consider when deciding what technology you should use to heat or cool your home, business, water park, hotel, swimming pool or aquaculture / aquaponic application. It is important to know what climate you are located in? Warm weather states or countries or cold climates?
The initial costs involved in geothermal can be more than a simple air source heat pump unless you are using an open loop system and you have water or an existing well available. If you are going to use a closed loop geothermal system then there will need to be pipe buried and that has to be taken into consideration. Every installation is different so I would be happy to have you run by me what conditions you have so we can plan a heating or chilling installation that will have the fastest payback and will give you or your customers the comfort and reliability that they need.
Best,
Marcus Miller Cell 360 348 7574
President Green Planet Supply
Hydroroyal Agricultural heat pumps.