Newbie, saying hello (obviously have a problem too) 😜

[ Admin note: The questions refer to a pool located in France, with equipment made in China. Temperature values are in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. ]

Hi everyone. Good morning, I hope someone can help me. We bought a house in France with two pools (very little previous proper pool experience) and I currently have a problem with both 😢.

After a year of research and work the water is fine, good balance and clear etc.

We had a heat pump installed outside last year, when it ran at 28* all summer. This year, we have changed the paper cartridge filter to a sand filter and upgraded the pump and the heat pump will only heat to 20*. The outside temp is around 12/13*.

We have tried reducing the water flow to give the water time to heat in the pump (made sense in my head)! We have also tried altering the parameters of the heat pump to allow more defrosting as there was a lot of ice.

Am I expecting too much? Can the heater only heat to a certain temp depending on the air temperature?

There are two parameters on the display we don't understand (The heat pump was installed by locals and we didn't get instructions - we have tracked the heat pump to China and we have received half an instruction manual from them - remember, we are newbies and really didn't understand the implications of all of this when we said yes to the offer to install the heater).

The set of normal parameters we have is fine I think 0-10, got a list of what they mean and how to set them and they are all set. However, there are two extra P1 (set at 9*) and P2 (set at -9*) that are not mentioned in the instructions. Bearing in mind that the heater parameter is set at 29* and will only reach 20*, is this a coincidence or does anyone think the mysterious P1 and P2 setting may be stopping it heating?

My apologies if I have rambled on, I have tried to include all the info that may be useful but happy to share more if needed. Thank you in advance for any advice or support you may be able to offer.

Sorry, but I'm not even going to attempt to answer. It's hard enough to track down manuals and instructions for products sold in the USA, but in my experience it's been useless trying to do so with equipment sold elsewhere. About the only useful advice we've been able to provide to pool owners outside of North America, have been general answers to pool chemistry and treatment questions.

I can tell you that it's highly unlikely that changing from cartridge to sand affected your heat pump's output.

Good luck!

[ May 2018 -- I am removing all European users, rather than risking an EU GDPR violation. As I find them, posts will either be deleted or anonymized. ]