A Guide to Buying the Best Pool Heater
A pool heater is one of the most efficient ways to extend the usability of your swimming pool beyond the summer. Granted, us Australians are lucky enough to have warm weather for the majority of the year, but a heat pump can help you close the cold weather gap even more. If you haven't dealt with pool heaters before, you might have some trouble deciding which one is best for your swimming pool, and that's what I'm here to talk about.
There are three basic types of pool heaters - electric heat pumps, natural gas heaters and solar heaters.
Heat Pump
Heat pumps warm the water by having it pass through them. It has a fan which takes the outdoor air and passes it over an evaporator coil which contains a liquid refrigerant that absorbs the heat and turns it into gas. The warm gas then goes over to a compressor which significantly increases the heat and passes it through a condenser. Lastly, the condenser takes the heated gas and places it into your pool water.
A heat pump is cheap to operate, but may cost you initially more. It doesn't produce toxic emissions, which makes it an eco-friendly water heating solution.
Gas Pool Heater
Gas pool heaters operate using either propane or natural gas. Water passes through the heater as a combustion chamber burns and warms it, before returning it back to the pool. Whether you pick a propane or natural gas heater depends on the price and availability of the fuel where you live. Regardless, the initial price of both types of heaters is the same.
These heaters warm the water fast, and are quite cheaper than heat pumps. However, they aren't the most eco-friendly solution, and cost quite a lot of money to operate in the long run.
Solar Pool Heaters
These heaters operate by pumping water from your pool into your filter, diverting it through solar collectors which warm it, and then put it back into the pool. There are two types of solar collectors - unglazed and glazed. Glazed collectors are more expensive and durable, as they're made with copper tubes on aluminium plates and are covered with tempered glass. Unglazed collectors are either plastic or heavy-duty rubber panels with a UV light inhibitor.
Solar pool heaters are very eco-friendly, and they're cheap to operate. However, you can't rely on a solar pump pool heater if the weather isn't favourable, and the initial buying cost is huge.
