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.
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
