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 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
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
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
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.
There is a storm brewing in the industry. Some companies are trying to make heating and cooling equipment overpriced and not letting you have a factory direct price. Then the payback starts to make no sense. It makes me crazy that some big companies want you to pay double what they are worth. I think that this technology is the future and will help your finances and the earth. Because I can be brutally honest about the industry, some big manufacturers now hate me. Too bad. They loved me 20 years ago when I opened up markets that didn’t exist, but now that they have their own sales people with protected territories, exclusive dealers & high quotas they lost their memory. That isn’t good for your pocketbook. That is why I am still here to help you. I won’t pressure you or give you a pitch from a sales seminar. I won’t take you out to dinner to make a sale and I will pull no punches if you want a heater that has a bad warranty or doesn’t fit your needs. I sell other stuff as a courtesy to my customers but I am not an expert on 1000’s of products except #heat pumps. If you want a heat pump for your home, business, #hotel #motel #waterpark #campground #resorts or #schools then I want to help. This is what I live and write about. If you buy a #heatpump from me you get my cell phone number. My customers are smart and I encourage them to do research. “An educated consumer is the best customer”. I can’t take credit for the last quote as it was from a men’s clothing company. I thought it fit though. 🙂
I am here for you.
Best,
Marcus
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 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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
