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
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
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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