Quote Originally Posted by Bsqrd View Post
Could the heater be damaged due to poorly maintained chemical balance, or do these things just go bad?
Poorly maintained chemical balance is most likely your culprit. Specifically, when pH is allowed to drop below 7 ( the range limit on most test kits) your water is acidic and will corrode the copper from your heater. The copper is in your water and on your pool walls. That's why things are stained blue.

Quote Originally Posted by Bsqrd View Post
is it possible to repair the heater?
If you're handy, it is possible to install a replacement heat exchanger if all the other parts are in good working order. The heat exchanger for my H250 (for example) is only about half what a replacement H250 would cost.


The first thing you need to do is get the copper out of your water and off the pool walls. There's a good write-up here http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...acid-treatment

I'll bow out of instructing you on how to best deal with lots of copper in the water beyond this link. One of the other contributors or mods can probably provide more useful help in that area than I can.