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I've been in my home for 2 years now, and have maintained my 12,000 gal pool myself. Without a glitch I have heated my pool with a Tropical series swimming pool heat pump. For my daughters party I started it up 15hrs ahead of time but there was no change in temperature. It has now been running for 28hrs and the temperature has not changed. Does anyone have any ideas on what might be the problem.
Lots of ideas. Remember it's a refrigeration unit, like an air conditioner or a refrigerator. First guess is that it's lost its freon, or freon-equivalent. A minor leak can do that. Or something could be clogged with sediment.
Aqua Cal, the manufacturer of the TropiCal Heat Pump is a sister company of AutoPilot.
The TropiCal will indicate on the instrument panel if there are any refridgerant problems so I don't think this is it. To determine why is has not increased, we can determine how much run time is needed to increase the temperature.
You have 12,000 gallons. What was the temperature that you started at? What temperature did you want to achieve? Is your pool covered with a solar blanket? What is the ambient air temperature? Which model TropiCal heat pump do you have (how many BTU's)? How many hours per day is the pump running?
12,000 gallons x 8.3 lbs/gallon = 99,600 lbs.
It takes 1 BTU 1 hour to heat up 1 lb of water 1 degree. Therefore it takes about an hour to heat up 99,600 lbs with a 100,000 BTU heat pump.
If the pump is turned off overnight, an uncovered pool will lose 50% of the heat added. That is, if you add 5 degrees during the day, an uncovered pool will lose 2.5 degrees overnight, which adds back to the amount of heat you have to put back in the following day. If you have been running the heat pump continually, you should have added 28 degrees, theoretically. Again, this will depend on the air temp, BTU rating of the heat pump, and pump run time.
Colder air temps reduce efficiency. Debris along the evaporator coil will reduce efficiency (make sure there are no leaves or debris blocking air flow to the evaporator coil). Too much water flow will reduce efficiency (25 - 70 gpm is recommended with 30 - 50 being more ideal).
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the reply's guys. Carl after your post I took the hose out and tried to clean the coils a bit. I then let it run another 6 hrs , but still no temp change.
I had already cleaned the filter and the water flow is good and strong. I live in St. Petersburg florida so daytime temps are around 84 deg and night time temps are around 74 deg. The heater ran for 15hrs straight than I turned off cleaned the filter and ran it another 13 hrs with no change. I have heated the pool many times before and after 15 hrs, even in winter, the temp would be well over 80 deg.
The unit is a TropiCal T-115B-A
BTU/KW 94000/27.55
I do not have a cover but plan to get one soon so any advice on that matter would also be much appreciated.
Can you feel any warmth at the returns when the heat pump is on? At an outside temp of 84 degrees your heat pump should be providing quite a few degrees of warmth to the returning water.
bmp
Sorry to bump an old post up, but before I have to call out the pool people I thought I would ask for any more ideas for my heater problem. I ran my heater almost 30 hrs and I now own a cover. There was an increase of 2 degrees(most likely from the cover).
I have an AquaCal Heatwave Icebreaker and the manual DOES recommend yearly maintenance to keep the unit running at top efficiency. Perhaps it's time to bite the bullet and get the unit serviced.:( Not really that different from a central AC unit. These really need yearly service also to keep them ruunnig properly.
You can also check the air temperature away from the heat pump. Then compare the air temperature over the discharge air, moving it around to the coolest discharge air. You should get 9 - 12 degrees difference in the air temps.
Water temperature split if tested at the skimmer and the closest return line should be about 3-5 degrees. If you do not have this, you have problems with the unit. How old is your system? You many have warranty coverage on it still.
Are there any red lights on the control panel?