Hello helpful friends!

My Teledyne Laars 400 LX suffered a fatal injury to the heat exchanger. It is leaking and the replacement part costs more than a new heater (Doh!).

So the tech from a well known pool company says he recommends a Mastertemp 250,000 BTU replacement as all we use the heater for is the spa and 250K BTUs will be fine. The problem is that the current heater has some sort of control that automatically changes the valves from "pool" to "spa" flows. The tech says that they can sell me the new heater for ~$2K and if I act before Sunday they have a "special" installation deal for $99 on labor.

BUT.... The valves will have to either be manually switched (not a big deal for me, but wife and daughters, um another story), or I will have to buy a special ~$600 automation package.

I have read the Mastertemp manual but it seems lacking on the wiring of automatic valves.

Can anybody here point me in the right direction? (The old system used the LAARS aqua link remote/system)

Also, is that the best bang for the buck on a heater?

Many hundreds of pre-thanks!