Finally! A Heater For the Pool

You know there's times when it's just too cold to get into your pool. I'm talking wintertime, folks. Frigid temperatures, like when the pool goes down below 80℉, like down to the mid-seventies.

Such was our case. A pool heater seemed like a mighty fine idea. One problem, though, was that I didn't want to spend a fortune on a heater, nor did I want to make it any more complex that necessary.

I did quite a bit of research over the past three years or so. Not continuously, but every now and then. Kind of a casual, laid-back sort of research. Anyway, it seems that most of the heating systems out there, at least for in-ground pools, want several things.

One, spend lots of money. Two, use your main pump so you can move massive amounts of water. Three, it needs to be complex. Adding a system to the pool after it's up and running is hard.

Those three caused me pause. That's why research went on for so long. Well, one of the reasons anyway.

I began to think about the cost. Was there a way that I could install a pool heater without breaking the bank, and that wasn't overly complex and didn't require me to modify the existing plumbing unnecessarily?

I noticed in my research, that there was a wide difference in heater system prices for above-ground pools, compared to in-ground systems.

Little by little, I began to wonder why I couldn't adapt elements of an above-ground pool to my in-ground pool. I realized that there was no reason I couldn't do just that. The pool doesn't know if it's above-ground or not.

I was taken with the idea of using an above-ground heater, especially the long strip types, with narrow little tubes for the water to run through. I had the roof space available, so why not?

I had thought of using large vinyl tubing to heat the water, but putting it into coils, for some reason, seemed like a lot of work to me. I have a roll of about 200-feet of 3/4" black tubing, so that wasn't the problem. For some reason, I just couldn't get motivated to do my heater that way.

The more I thought about the issue, the more the strip appealed to me. The one that captivated my attention was twenty foot long by about two or three feet, and it only cost around $150.00 US.

Some time ago, David Wright and I went together on an order for a solar system. This consisted of a two-foot by four-foot solar panel, metal support frame, to attach it to a pole, and a small, low-volume 12-V d.c. pump. That was a good setup to order. The boxes containing the ordered bits sat in my workshop for several months.

The other thing I had done to get ready was a bit of pool modification. I didn't do it, but I had asked our contractor, Mario, to include two ports in the pool for a heater system, They did just that and ran it to the pump house. That was all. You can see in the photo below, the little holes I'm talking about.

Little Holes

Not those on the left. That's some troubleshooting that was going on to track down an internal leak connected with the waterfall. The ones I'm talking about are on the right side just left of the black power panel box. See those two little holes? That's it. That was the extent of the prebuilt for the heater.

So, when I finally did get serious about the pool heater, I bit the bullet and ordered a twenty-foot heater strip. I was concerned because a couple of the reviews of it had stated that the 'non-standard' fittings created major problems, and the people couldn't understand why they used such oddball fittings. I figured that I could cobble something together that would work. Half of what we work on down here is cobbled together.

Shift forward a couple of weeks and Easy Shipping to Belize shows up at our gate with the rolled-up heater and some other stuff. Wow. Time to get serious. Especially since I had the help of Denis Patterson, our neighbor from across the street.

Denis and Vivien, his wife, were staying in our Mennonite house since their house was rented long-term and they didn't want to disturb their tenants. Denis and Vivien are from Alberta, Canada, and are nice people (aren't all Canadians?).

The Repair Shop

Denis and I took a break from the project to take care of a project of Denis'. His on-demand heater at his house had stopped working. We needed to get it running in short order so his tenants didn't rebel.

It may not look like it, but this is the best TV, stereo, and water heater repair place in town. When Denis first took his heater there, they said, "No. We don't fix them things no more." Ok. So, Denis and I went on an adventure to find who could.

We tried Nairobi Rancharan's place. Nope, He doesn't do heaters, only refrigerators and auto A/C units. I've taken my Isuzu there. He thought there was a guy down the street by a vacant lot, and to the left, who did that. On we went.

Turns out after a couple wrong turns, that you had to go through the vacant lot to find this guy. Nope. This heater has electronics in it. He only repairs the kind with a pilot light. He thought there was another shop down by the little park near Memo's Auto Repair (who I've never used). Memo's looks more like a bar than an auto shop, but what do I know? A couple of guys sitting on a bench out front thought that this guy was a little past the park and to the left.

Turns out he was. He was upset that we got there early. He didn't open till 9:00 AM. But, to our benefit, (he was talking to us through his bedroom window), he put on some shorts and came out to talk with us. From the way he talked, he seemed more educated than some. He repaired all sorts of electronics and computers, but not heaters. He even had a website (E & L Electronics) and has a small e-store for parts. Who knew?

When he turned us down, we were at a loss. Denis decided to go back to the first place, with hat in hand and beg them to look at it. So, that's what we did.

The TV Technician

Back at the shop, we went inside to find the TV technician busy modifying his hoodie to hold some small speakers. I can't imagine wearing a hoodie in this environment, but whatever. He hollered for the water heater technician, "Hey, Water Heater!" The water heater technician just happened to be coming through the door with a cup of coffee. "Yup, we can fix it," he said.

Now, keep in mind, this was the same guy who, the day before, had told Denis, that they no longer worked on heaters. It was like that conversation had never occurred.

Here's the Stereo Lab

Just before we left, I snapped a shot of the Stereo technician's workspace or lab. Ain't it wonderful?

The great end of the story is that the water heater guy called Denis the very next day and told him the heater was ready to go. Turns out the Solenoid had gone bad. Miracles do happen.


Now, on with the main story. Denis and I went up to Lano's Hardware and picked up several lengths of PVC tubing, fittings, glue, brackets and all that sort of stuff. I had also brought along one of the key fittings from the heater, expecting to spend some quality time figuring out how to cobble together something that would join the heater to my ½" PVC tubing.

I showed Vien (Mr. Lan's nephew, who runs the sales counter at the store) the fitting. He took one look at it after I briefly described what I wanted to do, and said, "I know what will work," and quickly disappeared into the back of the store. He returned with two fittings. One, a coupling, slid snugly over the fitting of the heater, and the other, a ¾" to ½" reducer. That was it. A perfect solution. A little epoxy, to ensure that it doesn't separate and we'd be good to go.

I had expected to spend at least an hour rummaging around trying to find something that would solve our problem. Sometimes, things just work out right, you know? Denis and I took our purchases and headed back to Casa Winjama and our project.

Where the Heater is Going

Here's the area of the roof where I thought of placing the heater. It's on the order of being 30-feet long so there should be no problem placing the heater there.

Proposed Track for the Tubing

I thought that with the heater strip laid out on the roof, that I'd be able to run the tubing over the roof parapet and along the top of the frame for the pool shade enclosure, over to the pump house and in through a hole somewhere to the inside of the pump house.

Over the parapet

In fact, the parapet is where we started the tubing work. You can see we're getting it assembled in good fashion. We have three tubes, one for incoming cold water, one for outgoing hot water, and one to hold the wires from the solar panel to the pump motor that we're locating in the pump house.

Running Down the Roof

The PVC tubing is now running down the length of the roof of the pool enclosure. Good progress.

The Heater Laid Down

Here's the heater in it's position on the roof. It works fine right there. I might add a framework to support the heater and the solar panel at the proper 15° for our latitude, but I'm not sure that it's really going to be necessary.

Looking the Other Direction

You can see we also have the solar panel more or less in place. Nothing is crowded and everything is in place with plenty of unimpeded sunlight for most of the day.

The solar panel is in shade in the morning till about 8:00 AM. So, the pump doesn't start till then, but that delay allows the water remaining in the tubes to heat up so that when the pump does start, it's moving hot water to the pool.

Add caption

Here you can see everything in more or less it's final places. You can also see the join between the PVC tubing and the heater fitting. There's also a union fitting on each leg to make separation of the heater from the PVC tubing easier, because when the pool warms up enough that the heater is no longer needed, it will be rolled up and both it and the solar panel will be lowered off the roof and put in storage in the pool utility room till the succeeding winter when it's needed again.

The Pump In Place

This is a view inside the pump house again. It's showing the pump on a shelf I installed, all hooked up. The black line has the wires coming from the solar panel through the roof and through the power panel to the motor.

Pump Detail

There's also a controller circuit in the little black box,since removed. It didn't work right and proved to not be necessary. The tube sticking up from the pump with a blue-handled valve on it, allows us, as needed, to prime the pump (brings to mind an old Kingston Trio song - Desert Pete). We even have a funnel on hand just for that purpose.

I also installed a switch (the old-school looking round thing), in case we need to shut the pump off during the day. I also will be adding a 15-amp fuse to protect the pump motor, just in case.

Final words on the project. Yesterday was its first full day of work. For a couple of weeks now, the pool temperature has been hovering around 79℉, barely able to make it 80℉ during the day. Well, yesterday, the temp was up to 81℉. Not bad for one day's work. We think it will take two to three days to get the temp from 79℉ all the way up to 84℉. Perfect till summer kicks in.

Pardon me. I've got my trunks on, a cold beer, and I'm headed to the warm pool. life is grand!

Pool House Expansion Project, Day 90 - 25/01/16

Ceiling Fans and Other Stuff

Day Ninety, 25 January, 2016

Monday morning, right after I unlocked the gate for the workers, I remembered I hadn't taken any photos of our new shipment from Easy Shipping to Belize, LLC. After grabbing the camera, I headed into the new house to snap away. On the way, I took a shot of where the laundry piping still needed finishing in the office. It's coming along.

Washer Hookup Backside Being Filled

Then, I made my way into what will be the utility, laundry, pantry room and took a few shots of most of the boxes that came in on Saturday (I think). It consists mostly of ceiling fans, a large light for over the bathroom vanity, a whole-house water filter, and a no-salt needed water softener.

Christmas in January With Fans and Stuff 

On my way back to the Mennonite house, I snapped a shot of the new clotheslines that I put up in another part of the parking palapa. Thanks to Denis for his help in tensioning the lines. Definitely more than a one-man operation. You might be wondering why we have laundry hanging out at six in the morning. Well, humidity is such that it generally takes a couple of days to get clothes hanging on the line to dry. These are beginning day two.

New Laundry Lines Being Put to the Test

After that, as I was making my way back upstairs for breakfast, I noticed the sky. The usual great colors, so I snapped a shot. It's not bad, but I really was hoping it would turn into one of those 'Bob Ross' mornings, that happen very often down here. Not to be for this morning. Still, I'll take it.

Sunrise Over Casa Winjama

Our new windows arrived. Here they are stacked in the living room. These new ones have a lever system to open and close, much like the other louvers in the old part of the pool house, but there is a big difference. The new levers have a rachet-like feel as you open or close them. Also, when they're closed, the lever actually locks in place. A nice feature.

New Louvers Waiting for Install

The other part of the order was the sliding glass doors. Here they are getting untied. the two guys didn't waste any time getting all the parts into the house.

Sliding Glass Doors Still On Truck

And then they got right to work. Here they're assembling the frame.

Assembling the Frame

Upsidaisy, and quick as can be, the frame is up in the air and being gently nudged into position in the doorway.

Hoisting Her Up

Like this. It looks so easy, it could almost assemble itself.

In Position More or Less

I mentioned a little gentle nudging. Well, yes, with a hammer and a few well-placed soft taps with a rubber mallet, and it was in position.

A Little Tap Here, A Little Tap There

They worked well as a team. One guy grabbed the drill and began putting holes in the metal. The other one came by with a countersink on his drill and countersunk all the drill holes.

Drilling the Holes

Like he's doing here. Then the first guy comes in and drills a deep hole into the concrete. And finally, the other guy has switched tools and is using his drill to drive the blue screws into the concrete.

Countersinking Drill Holes

Dianna was getting excited just watching them work.

Dianna's Excited

As soon as all the drilling and screwdriving was done, then they began to hang the stationary windows.

Fitting In A Stationary Door

But, first this slight break. Here's the back porch or stoop, all cleaned up and ready for tiling.

Back Stoop Ready for Tiling

Lest I get too distracted here's the guys working on the doors. They were busy .lining them up, and screwing and pop-riveting them into position.

Looking Like Glass Doors

As here. Top and bottom, rivets are applied. The door is already changing the character of the room.

Riveting Them into Place

Then, a short break while they check to make sure that they actually do slide.

Looks Like They Slide

Looking past the worker, you can see that the view is quite nice and really doesn't appear inhibited at all.

Still A Nice panorama

Then come the screens and the sliding glass door is done.

Adding the Screens

But they're not, yet. There's louvers to hang as in the view below.

Installing the Louvers

Each louver is adjusted for height and side-to-side location.

Adjusting the Fit

A nice looking louver. If you notice the gap at the bottom, that's because we didn't size the opening to fit these particular louvers. About the only way we could have done that would have been to have a completed louver on hand so that we could refine measurements.

The View From Outside

And a louver closed. A nice, tight fit - well, it will be once that corner gets nudged into place.

Louvers Going In

Work on the bedroom louvers is moving right along. You might have noticed the gap at the bottom of the louver. That's not a defect, but, like I said earlier about knowing the size of the louvers, you tend to end up with some gaposis at the bottom of the opening which must be filled with concrete and then colored to match. A minor inconvenience, but a commonly found one.

Installing Another One

It looks nice with louvers running down the wall. Gives the place a finished look.

Louvers All The Way Down

Omar has been busy laying out tile on the back stoop. He'll begin using Thinset to permanently anchor them.

Back Stoop Tile Fitting

I started work on a project of my own. Since we got the water softener, I decided I'd take a whack at installing it myself. This also means installing the whole house filter as well. All that will start tomorrow.

Whole House Filter and Water Softener

There's many more photos than appear in each posting. You can see all the photos of the construction project on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/0wVc3s. There will be new photos added each day of the project.        

Shipping From the States - Five Years On

This post is a result from a comment by Eddy, this morning, asking if the info from a post of mine (Shipping from the States) from April 7, 2009 was still good.

As you might guess, there's a 'yes' and 'no' answer. Some things are still good, some have changed.

Currently, I use Easy Shipping to Belize, LLC for all my shipments from the States to Belize. There's two reasons I changed over to them. One, They are in Florida. California started collecting sales tax on items delivered in California - even if they were to be shipped somewhere else. Since I don't live in California, I saw no reason to pay California sales tax on items I purchased that were delivered to California-based shippers, and Second, Easy Shipping to Belize ships monthly to Belize. Their contact info is:

Amado Mena and Cherry Cadle

Easy Shipping To Belize, LLC

18340 Robinson Avenue,

Port Charlotte, Florida 33948

941-255-1031 (Office)

941-740-2576 (Cell)

501-620-5718 (Belize)email is: easyshippingtobelize@hotmail.com.

Cherry is the person who you generally email or talk to on the phone. Amado, shuttles between Florida and Belize. He does the deliveries here in Belize.

So, having said that, I skim through the previous posting on shipping and keep things as current as I know.

The first two ship by weight (more or less - as much as you can figure this stuff out.). They both are their own customs brokers as well.

The thing that's nice about Easy Shipping, Marage, and Roy, is that they all deliver directly to your door. Sterling has a warehouse over at Central Farm in Cayo where you have to go to pick up your goods.
Others, you have to go to the Port Authority in Belize City to pick up your stuff. That's worth doing once, just to have the experience. It's a trip. Or avoid it and keep your sanity.

1. Marage Shipping and Trucking Service
3720 South Normandie Avenue, Apt. #3
Los Angeles, CA 90007
USA
323-304-8774
Email: marage@corozal.bz (either for Clifford, Darla, or their son, Brinston)
Website: http://corozal.bz/marage/index/en

I've used Marage Shipping quite a bit. They come down quite frequently, by truck from LA to Houston then by ocean container to Belize, and/or by truck to Belize from LA. They act as their own customs broker.

2. Roy and Son Trucking
2620 West View Street
Los Angeles, CA 90016
USA
Nena Pascascio in LA: 323-732-0376 npascascio@yahoo.com
Roy Pascascio's cell phone in Belize: 621-9353

Both Doug, my neighbor and I have used Roy and Son. Doug more than I have. They don't seem to ship as frequently as Marage. They used to ship by truck to Houston to a container ship to Belize. I think most of the companies truck stuff over to Florida and load onto a ship (Hyde Shipping) there. Roy also is his own customs broker.

The last ships by size. I'm not sure if Sterling is their own customs broker or not.

3. Sterling Freight Systems
SFS
Energy Freight Systems
14310 Interdrive East
Suite 300
Houston, TX 77032 USA
Fax: 011-501-824-2325 (Belize)
Tel: 011-501-824-2496
Cell: 011-501-601-8479
Email Dan Roth, Operations: d.roth@sterlingfreight.com
Website: http://www.sterlingfreight.com

Doug has used Sterling to ship a large generator (350 lbs). I haven't used them.

Each district seems to have shippers located in and/or catering to that district. I can't speak to them, as I've never dealt with them. Again, I would recommend you check with other folks in the areas of Belize you are moving to, to see who they recommend.

Hope this helps.

Not Fixing - Just On-Going Maintenance

And now we come to the part of the show where we demo how to change the litter box... Wait a minit... Wrong sand pile. This is how to change the sand in your pool filter. Just throw the old stuff onto the floor. That's easy. At least that's the instructions for this model of sand filter - the Pentair Triton II Residential filter. Some engineer (no slur intended or implied - other than for the dufus who approved this concept) really worked overtime to come up with this one.

We'll eavesdrop a bit and learn how this genius plan developed.

"Let's see now. How're we going to empty the sand out of this thing. Hmmm. Let's see. We better have a meeting of the best minds in the business here at the Honorable People's Pool Filter Plant No. 1, and see how we solve this conundrum."

"Hey, Harry, Find Tom, will ya and then get your asses in here and help me. I'm stuck." "Sure thing, Boss. I'm right on it."

Sometime later in the HPPFP conference room, well, we'll join the meeting in progress...

"Dick, I dunno. The top opening is only six inches across. If you use a cup to scoop the sand out, you almost have to hold the it by the tips of your fingers to get the thing out of the filter."

"I hear ya, Tom. Keep in mind this thing holds three hundred twenty-five pounds of sand too. I'm just stumped. Harry, you've been quiet this whole session. Lost in thought?"

"Aww, guys, this is a tough problem. The only thing I can think of is how about we use the drain hole - you know, the little one-inch hole on the bottom of the filter."

"You mean the one we put in to easily drain the water out of the filter?"

"The very same. Why can't we just add water at the top and flush the stuff out the drain hole?"

"Harry, that's brilliant. That'll work. And we don't have to jury-rig anything to make it work. It's a built-in design feature."

"Y'think we need to change the specs to allow the user to hook up a hose to the drain?"

"Naw, why would we do that? It's just a drain fer Chrissakes." Call it good. Make a note on the drawing and I'll sign off on it in the morning. I'm thirsty. Let's go grab a brewski."

Now we know the extensive thought process that went into the design of this part of the filter. The good folks at Pentair (otherwise known as the HPPFP for this story) had to have divided the engineering design of this unit among at least two different shops. The rest of the filter works like a champ. I mean it's really first-rate. But, those guys in the filter drain section... Hoo-boy.

Here's what the Pentair Triton II looks like before being plugged into some user's system. That black thing with the pressure valve at the top is the part that's removed to add sand, flush sand, and do any other work needed inside the filter - which isn't much, thankfully.

Pentair Triton II Filter

Once I made up my mind that there was simply no other way to accomplish removing the old sand from the filter. I was resigned to having a rather large mess on the floor of the pump house. Here the sand has started coming out and beginning to accumulate on the floor of the pump house.

Np Easy Way to do It

Here's  what things look like while you're draining out the filter. You still have to insert your arm in there to direct the hose to move the sand. Remember, three hundred twenty-five pounds of sand is a lot of sand.

Hosing Out the Old Sand

Also, the opening. It's a fiberglass tank, so the opening is slightly rough fiberglass. Unless you wear a long-sleeved shirt or something, count on getting an armful of tiny little fiberglass particles embedded in your arm. They'll go away after a couple of itchy days.


Finally, you get to the point where it's  actually hard to see any sand inside the filter. Those black things peaking from under the white pipe are called 'laterals' and they guide the incoming water up through the sand inside the filter. Don't ever break one.

Sand All Gone From Filter

Heck no. It's all outside of the thing. You're standing in it. It's everywhere. And it still needs to be removed.

Accumulated Sand on Floor

Before you can clean up the  sand and stuff that's all over the floor, you have to replace it with new sand inside the filter. Oh, yes. First, you have to burrow through the sand on the floor to find the drain cock and re-install the plug, so that all that nice new sand doesn't simply come out and join the old dirty sand.

For that, as a sign that Corozal is becoming less third world every day, Prossers (a local agricultural chemical vendor) also carries a selection of pool supplies. One of those is fifty-pound bags of #20 silica sand by HTH. Just the stuff you want to stick back into your filter. Honest, you really do.

First of Bags of Silica Sand

What's cool with the bags of sand, is they come with their own built-in pour spout. Of course there's no label o the bag to let you know it's there. I discovered it quite by accident - just before I ripped into the bag top to pour the sand. It's pretty cool. You just reach inside and pull out this blue plastic tube, hoist up the bag and pour away.

Built-in Pour Spout

It only takes about 10 minutes or so to pour six and a half bags of sand into the filter. The shot below gives you a good idea just how small that opening really is.

Adding Sand Through The Filter Top

And, when you're done, it mighty satisfying  (alright, marginally so, but still...) to see all these bags piled on the patio. I saved the last half bag so I can get a head start a couple of years from now when I have to do this all over again. Oooh, I'm just all a-quiver with anticipation.

Six and One-Half Bags Go In

Finally the clean-up. Luckily, I have the luxury of having an employee who doesn't mind too much when I let him know he's the 'duty-stuckee' and he's going to be the one actually scooping up all that sand from the floor. In this photo, you see the detritus that  the sand catches when the filter is doing it's job. There's always a little bit left over. Turns out it was fairly easy to squeegee that stuff out the door, leaving the sand behind. It goes down the drain just outside the door of the pump house and empties into the canal behind us.

Dirt From Sand Going Down the Drain

Cody, my caretaker, is a good worker. he managed to not only corral all the sand, but to really spiff up the pump house. It fairly sparkles.

Cody Made it All Nice and Pretty

Talk about sparkling. The pool water, after this sand change, really does sparkle. It's always seemed clear (mostly), now it really is clear.

And, just as we finished that all up, guess who shows up? Why it's Amado Mena, owner of Easy Shipping to Belize, LLC, (http://www.easyshippingtobelize.com) with some new hoses for Huey, our erstwhile automatic pool vacuum. Perfect timing to try out the new sand except Huey managed to break some minor parts of his that are on order as we speak.

Easy Shipping to Belize's Website has all the info you need to take advantage of their services.

Amado Mena Delivering Our Goodies