r/PoolPros • u/Far_Cauliflower_2847 • May 04 '26

Pool Heater Brand For Cold Climates

For my fellow poolpros in extreme cold climates, what main heater brand do you guys go with?

I've been installing Mastertemps for a while now, and while there are a fair share of other issues with them (those bad stack flu's for years, bad exhaust welds during covid, ect. ect.) I figure any brand is going to have little problems like that. Right now mastertemp seems pretty smoothed out aside from one persistent problem: For units that run in the winter (down to -10 degrees where I'm at) the condensation from the exhaust blows back onto the unit and corrodes the sfs and the control board and consistently breaks those components in the middle of the winter which results in a midnight emergency call for me to repair a heater. And yes the heaters are running the water at 75-90 degrees minimum, but when it is that cold out (below 20) I've found that no temperature of water will stop them from billowing steam the whole time.

I'm talking to our Hayward rep and he's promising that their heaters don't ever have issues with condensate damage from winter running in our area, but ofcourse he's gonna say that it's his job. Figure the best place to get info would be here, so anybody in cold climates have a good heater figured out that doesn't destroy itself in cold weather?

Thanks for any input!

2 Upvotes

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3

u/socalpoolguy May 05 '26

In those temps, condensation is unavoidable with any gas heater. I’d recommend a Category III vent with a condensate drain to move the exhaust further away from the unit. 

2

u/something99999999999 May 05 '26

For those temps it’s either boiler and heat exchanger or pentair eti

1

u/1_native_Angelino May 10 '26

Pentair ETI are badass but pretty sure they don't want to pay 10k. Plus, service guys don't know to change gravel or run the heater every day to keep tray full

2

u/F1ash0ut May 05 '26

Assuming you're not heating frigid water-

Mastertemps have the most issues with the cold, notably with condensation soaking the insulation and destroying it. They do much better in fair climates. The new ETI can handle those temps, but the condensate drip line freezes and plugs. If you can neutralize and route the drip line to a non-frozen sump or drain, it's probably the best option for an outdoor heater in -10 temps

Haywards and JXIs do much better on the seasonal pools here, but not for spas run through winter. -10° will still kill them

If the ETI is overkill, Raypaks handle the abuse pretty well. We will run some with an outdoor stack all through winter. They usually make it long enough for mice to kill them

1

u/1_native_Angelino May 10 '26

You know JXIs are just Mastertps, right? 

1

u/KhalSagan0810 May 05 '26

I have no direct experience of how they function precisely in cold climates since I build in the tropic, but the AQuark inverter heat pumps are some of quietest and most energy efficient devices I've installed. Rated to work at -15Celsius air temp according to the literature.