Those with pool heaters - read this

Late last fall when my pool guy showed up to help me close my pool for the winter he noticed a slight purplish color around the top of where the water line generally is in my pool. I had drained it down some for winterizing before he got there. He told me this is from the ph and such of the water not being correct and it corrodes the heat exchanger in the pool heater. This is a common problem he says and it greatly reduces the life of a swimming pool heat exchanger. I was not happy about that. This winter (and maybe many pools have this) I bought some PVC valves and today made a bypass for going around my pool water heater. I open my pool as early as possible in the spring and leave it open as long as possible in the fall. But I only run the heater 5-8 weeks during the hottest part of the summer depending on the daily temperatures. I used to run all that water thru the heater even though I did not have the heater running. So now I have it on bypass and have the drain plugs out of my heater to drain any water out of the heat exchanger. When the tine comes to heat the pool I will reinstall the plugs, turn the valves and run the heater. When it gets too cold and I will no longer use the heater in the fall I can run it on bypass again and drain the heater thus lengthening the life of my pool heater and I do not have to watch and keep the ph etc so correct in spring and fall.

Rodney