What is the best heater for your pool

There are 3 types of pool heaters. What is the best pool heater to buy?  We will discuss each one to find out which is best for your Southern Utah Pool to keep you swimming year around.

Gas Heaters

The first one, and probably the most common one, is a gas pool heater. Now you can get one of these for both in-ground and above-ground pools. They’re pretty costly. And this is something you plumb into your filter system, so you have your pump, goes into your filter, and then it goes into your heater to heat it up, and then it goes into your chlorinator or saltwater system, and then it goes back into your pool. So, a gas heater is really good, at heating the water very quickly.

There are two different types of gas heaters. You can get natural gas, you can have natural gas piped directly into the heater, or you can get a propane heater, which in this case, you’re going to have to have a giant propane tank in your backyard. And I’m definitely not talking about the propane tanks used for grilling. We’re talking about a big propane tank that you’d have in your backyard because you maybe couldn’t get natural gas piped into your house. This is using literal fire and it’s heating up a copper element, and water is passing through that and it’s getting hot, and it gets piped back into your pool. 

Heat Pumps

The second type of pool heater is a heat pump. Now, this is a pump system that actually uses the outside ambient temperature to heat up the water. It’s definitely much more eco-friendly because you’re not using gas to heat the pool, you’re just using a big powerful fan. It takes much longer to heat and it can be more expensive even than a gas heater. It depends on the brand you get and what it costs to install, but this is a great system to use if you’re a little more eco-conscious and you don’t want to use gas. Just remember that the heat might not get as hot as you want it in your pool, but it still works really well. It runs a lot more than a gas heater because, again, it takes longer, but it’s a really good alternative.

Solar Heaters

The third thing you could do is get a solar heater. Now, a solar heater, is you basically have the sun heat up this black piping and the water runs through that, and it heats up naturally by the sun. You can even get solar panels installed in your roof if you want to send the water up there. It can get really complicated and also very expensive, but it is definitely the most eco-conscious way to heat your pool.

Solar Covers

It doesn’t even matter which pool heating system you use. Whether you go with any of these or you already have one, what I recommend on top of having a heater is also having a solar cover because what happens is, let’s say you have a gas pool heater. If you don’t have a solar cover, it’s like having a cup of coffee in a thermos and you have the lid off the whole time. Well, that coffee’s going to get cooler over time, but if you have a lid on it, that coffee will stay warmer longer and you’ll get more benefits out of that initial heating process. This goes for all of them, gas, heat pump, solar heater, doesn’t matter. If you have a cover on your pool that keeps that heat in, any money that you’re spending to heat your pool in any of those systems, you’re going to be much more efficient at keeping the heat in your pool.

Conclusion

If I had to pick the best one, I’d definitely recommend a gas pool heater because it’s going to heat your pool and spa up the quickest. But the second one I would recommend if you’re more eco-conscious is a heat pump, especially if your are on Dixie power located here in Southern Utah as this has some of the cheapest power in the nation. Heat pumps can also cool your pool as well. The best setup would be a dual setup, a small gas heater to heat the spa up quickly and a heat pump to heat and chill the pool if you can get cheap power.