Raypak 336,000 BTU Digital Electronic Ignition Natural Gas Pool Heater

This replaced a 20 yo Raypak. It was straightforward on installation - I did it myself because I couldn't find anyone in the area to do an install. Ran into a problem with no display when starting it up initially.Techs helped me through the diagnostic process and sent me replacement circuit board, which solved the problem. Only hesitation is that one tech said they weren't going to honor the warranty since I did the install myself -- but then he did, and sent me the board. So I think the company can be relied upon.Unit functions well now and heats a small 9000 gal pool quickly. Electronic ignition much better than standing pilot, which I had to fool with every year on startup, cleaning thermopile, replacing thermopile, etc.

Replaced a 15 year old raypak with this one. Perfect installation and year one was flawless. This year began loud banging while igniting and then came the reason for my 1 star. During a family party this past weekend we heard a few really loud bangs which turned out to be the pool heater shooting flames out of the top and jumping 1-2 feet off the ground. I had to run back there and immediately turn the gas off as this was about to burst into flames. I have never written a review in my life, but the entire party was scared and needless to say we won’t be forgetting this get together. I will make my calls to raypak tomorrow because conveniently this is just out of the 2 year warranty period. I don’t know if raypak will make this right, but I don’t think I will be putting this heater in my backyard again. Be careful these things are nothing to mess around with!

My existing pool heater was an older Raypak model for which the electronics, burner tray and heat-exchange chamber had all become dysfunctional. Parts are too expensive, so I bought this new one. Local pool-service outfits wouldn't install the unit for me, so I had to do it myself. The main worry was that this new one could be installed without having to reconfigure the electrical connections, the natural gas line or the pool-water inflow & outflow pipes. Bingo! It worked fine. I took note of the existing electrical connections and carefully duplicated them in the new unit. The existing water pipes and fittings mated perfectly with the new unit. The unit weighs over 200 lbs and I asked my son to help me jockey it into place. Otherwise, this was a one-person job. (But you'll have to find your own son to help...)

So far so good working as it should.

We've had this installed for a few months now and love it. It replaced a 17 yr old Jandy 250k BTU heater. We use an iLink controller to operate the Raypak heater from a phone app, but it can also easily be manually operated using the heater's control panel.Be aware that no matter what brand of heater you buy, pool heaters are just fairly high maintenance items and will need repair from time to time. Also be aware that all the major manufacturers of pool heaters have lacking customer service, will likely try to avoid having to honor their warranty, etc. If you research reviews over time, this certainly applies to Raypak as well.But as a DIY handyman when the time comes for repairs, what I like about Raypak vs other major mfgrs is Raypak heaters are easier to work on (i.e. most components likely to fail such as safety sensors are easy to get to and troubleshoot w/o major disassembly) and Raypak parts are more readily available to the public.I deducted one star for a few reasons:1. On the first attempted use after the install, water was pouring out from within. Turned out to be a threaded plastic pipe plug (the heat exchanger drain plug) had it's square head broken off. That plug is inside the outer shell and only accessible through a small access hole after you remove the cover from that hole. There was not a single scratch or dent in the outer shell (or in the shipping box it came in), so the head of that pipe plug could not have been broken during transit or during our installation. Because of it's internal location and lack of any external damage, it had to have been broken as the heat exchanger was being installed during manufacturing and perhaps accidentally dropped or at least was handled too roughly and carelessly.2. While trying to determine where all the water was escaping, I also found several screws just laying on top of the heat exchanger. They appeared to be screws that an assembly worker dropped and just didn't bother to retrieve. I doubt they would have ever caused a problem, but the sloppiness of dropping screws without retrieving them, along with carelessly breaking off the square head of the drain plug while installing the heat exchanger, makes me wonder what else may have been sloppily done, coupled with obviously a lack of quality control inspecting and testing.3. I installed the heater myself, and the mfgr makes it clear that if you don't use a professional installer, the warranty is void. I'm very qualified to install this item (I often have to troubleshoot and fix errors made by the "pros"), but I don't own or work for a pool equipment company. So they can deny warranty even on issues that clearly aren't your fault, such as in this case when there was an internal broken part but no external damage. To be fair, I didn't try to get them to supply a replacement part under warranty because the plastic plug was ready available at a petty cost, but I have read other reviews where they denied warranty in cases where the issue couldn't have been from a faulty installation. And also to fair, other manufacturers seem to have similar loophole policies to allow them to escape having to provide any warranty. But just because others are doing it doesn't make it right to use a installation loophole hole clause to deny warranty on issues not possibly related to installation.I debated only giving Raypak 3 stars, but I don't think any other pool heater manufacturer desires more than 3 stars either.

Just follow the manual. Biggest issue I encountered is that the inlet and outlet are so close you have to plumb out and down to put a decent bypass circuit in. And when you do that’s quite a few right angles the water has to traverse and prob lose a bit of pressure. Otherwise it’s quite straightforward. Heats as quickly as our Hayward 400 and only 3/4 the BTUs. The Hayward was a pain in the butt from day 1. Who know how this will perform long term but so far so good. Oh - keep the pH in the suggested range. Low pH damages these.