Have a 16' round, above ground pool. Polygroup/Summer waves. Soft sided. Have been told that a heat pump would melt the sides. Have also read disclaimers regarding heat pumps, electric and propane heaters for a soft sided pool. Most suppliers refer to our pool as an Intex Pool. The solar panels are not an option here. Ideally an electric heater would be our first option. Would also consider the Aquq Pro 600. Any ideas???
heater
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- Last Post 09 November 2017
dannyhall
posted this
25 October 2017
- Last edited 07 November 2017
InyoRob
posted this
07 November 2017
Hello Danny - We spoke with a couple heat pump and gas heater manufacturers regarding soft-sided pools. They hadn't heard of any melting issues. However, they did bring up a couple concerns. The first concern was having enough flow for the heater to work. Most heaters require at least 20 gallons per minute to operate. The small pump included with a soft-sided pool may not supply 20 gpm.
The second concern was heat loss. The heat loss from a soft-sided pool would be enormous. The heater/heat pump would have to run continuously. The cost to maintain a higher temperature would be a real burden.
InyoRob
posted this
09 November 2017
Reply from Danny - Thanks InyoRob. Looking at the K Star 5kw maybe 10kw electric pump. Cost per day, power X hrs. per day X price per kw. The K Star 5kw electric unit for 24 hrs. @ $0.06, our off peak hour rate. 5kw X 24 hrs. X 0.06 = $7.20. The elecric heat would be on about 10pm until 6am, 8hrs. That would run us about $2.40. per day. The solar blanket would be on at night. I would also be running some solar panels during the day. As far as enough flow for the electric heater to work, I was planning on a completely separate pump for the daytime solar panels and evening electric heating. The small pump included with the pool would only be used for it's designed function, filtration. We are not looking for alot higher heat than we could get with solar panels, mostly just trying to stretch out the available summer season and notch up the heat 6-8 degrees C. The electric heater would be like a back up to extend the season and add a little extra heat. And again a separate system from the small pump for filtration. Thanks for speeking with some manufacturers, glad to hear they hadn't heard of any melting issues. I would think that if you have the heater temp. set safe an electric heater system would work.
