Raypak Gas Heater

[rjarvis]

I have a Raypak gas heater 335,000 BTU and the heater exchnage tubes rotted away. The heater is only 3 years old raypak says it is due to low ph has anyone experienced this problem or something similar?

[cruzmisl]

My Raypak rotted out too after only 4 years. It was a Versa II which apparently are notorious for the manifolds rotting out. I replaced it with a Sta-Rite and have been really happy so far.

[thepoolman1]

Low pH will, indeed, eat the copper from your heat exchanger in very rapid order. I see this a lot on apartment and hotel/motel pools where high use makes good water chemistry a very difficult thing to control. It is also very common on fiberglass and vinyl-liner pools wher the pH tends to be low if not cared for regularly.

High water velocity (pump too large) will also do a similar thing to the exchanger.

These are both beyond the control of the manufacturer and would happen to any brand of heater.

[akrauss]

Are heatpumps less vulnerable than gas fired heaters to such corrosion due to low ph water ? I have a vinyl lined unheated pool and am looking to put in a heater this summer. Thanks.

[waste]

Just a couple of pennies for all --- one of the main reasons I started going to the 'pool sites' is this same problem. What I've seen is that the pools that need a new heat exchanger (in some cases YEARLY ) is the reliance on tri- chlor feeders with ~ NO water testing nor maintenance

Tri- chlor has a very low pH and it doesn't take long for it to become so low that the copper heat exchanger just gets dissolved by the acid water!

BBB is IMO the best way to care for a pool, but if you use tri- chlor - at least do as Carl says and spend 2 min a day to check the pool (and if a # is 'out of whack' - ADJUST THE CHEMISTRY ACCORDINGLY!!!) A heat exchanger runs ~ $1300 - is 1/2 hour per week of your time worth more than that???