Question:
Does anyone have any techniques to get excess air out of the pool heater
?
Answer:
Well, I finally made some time today to repair the Pool Heater. I took off
the 2 panels to look at the tubes in the heat exchanger; they were fully
lined with white calcium deposits, and there were quite a few shards of
pieces that had fallen off. They reminded me of small seashells. Anyway, I
tried the manual's 1st method, reaming out the copper pipes of the heat
exchanger with a wire brush; not successful at all.. the deposits were quite
caked on.
I went with plan B from the manual: completely removing the heat exchanger
and soaking it in Muriatic Acid.. (3 parts water to 1 part acid). Here's how
it went:
- Taking the Heat Exchanger out took about an hour. I had to remove the
exhaust hood and then take the screws out holding down the heat exchanger.
- I filled up a large container with 10 gallons of hot water and placed the
heat exchanger in. I had purchased 3 gallons of Muriatic acid per the
instructions in the manual. I poured just 1 gallon of acid in the water and
it immediately started working. All 9 of the copper tubes started foaming,
breaking down the deposits. I never poured in the other 2 gallons. After
about 4-5 minutes the heat exchanger was looking great ! I pulled it out and
placed it in another container filled with fresh water and used the wire
brush to clean out the holes completely, this time it worked fine (though
there was not much left for the wire brush to do, that acid did a GREAT
job).
- I rinsed it off completely and installed it back into the heater, replaced
the hood, attached the baffle plates and end pieces, hooked up the pressure
switch tube, ad Re connected the wires for the pressure switch. This also
took another hour.
- I then started the heater up and it ran Perfectly. I ran it for about and
hour before I turned it off for the night. No Banging ! and my pool is now
83 degrees !
Beautiful..
Anyway, thanks for the replies.. all I have to say about the experience is
that is isn't too hard as long as your somewhat handy and careful (with the
acid). And that you don't really need that much acid to do the job.
Like I said, the manual called for 3 parts water to 1 part acid, I ended up
using 10 parts water to 1 part acid and it worked Perfectly.. 3-1 probably
would have eaten the metal clear through !
