17 Best Solar Heater For Above Ground Pool (2023 Updated)

So far so good! It’s on the roof and pumping pool water through, leak free. The provided materials sealed together well. I used some clear rubber fuel line hosing, hose clamps, and PVC to connect it to my existing pump system.

I highly recommend setting this out on a patio, putting it all together, and testing for leaks before putting it in a permanent location (like a roof). It can handle a decent amount of water pressure now, but it took me a couple of test runs to tighten the connections, use enough plumbers tape and pvc cement sufficient to stop the leaks.

Now for the longevity test.

Product was well packaged and shipped quickly. Product is also good quality made with fittings required. Big draw back is that it says in the manual that the panels must be disassembled and stored indoors during the winter.

Looking at the size of the tubes, I see it would be difficult to get all the water out of the small tubes even with an air compressor. Any remaining water could freeze in winter conditions causing it to break or split.

I wish I would have been informed of this prior to purchasing, since I have nowhere to store them in a heated area for the winter.

I bought this kit and another kit of 2 panels and roof mount kit. I currently have them set up in series on my lawn just to test them and wow they work quite well! I am getting a10 to 15 degree temperature rise from inlet to outlet.

I hope to get them mounted on the roof soon and plumb them in parallel per the instructions. Hoping they will be even more efficient up there.

The panels are a good product, but the threads are non-standard which makes it difficult to keep them from leaking. The leaking is not excessive, but there is minimal leaking from 2 areas. Teflon tape can be used to eliminate the leaking, but it’s a bit of a hassle to unscrew the connection, reapply the tape and re-glue your pipes.

I found the set up to be very easy to assemble and very straight forward. the three collectors were recommended by a phone call and text message. Very helpful. Great quality

We live in Vermont & though we love having a pool, due to the lower night time temperature there is only 1 week in August (or if we get a heatwave) that it gets warm enough to be enjoyable for adults to swim in (the kids don’t care if it’s cold!).

After trying out an insulated solar cover heater last year, & having it cause a massive green algae bloom that took the season of the year to get rid of, we were in the market for a new solution. We really wanted to utilize solar because of the way our pool faces there is lots of energy coming at it from the sun! We were looking at doing a DIY with slate & black tubing to do essentially the same thing as this item, but it was super complicated & we weren’t sure how effective it was going to be.

Then this item pops up! It’s a ready to go version of that a much more affordable price point, & we can easily link more together to get more heating power. We have not had the opportunity to test it out as there is snow on the ground here still, but I unboxed & am pleased with the construction, instructions are straightforward & easy to understand.

I anticipate we will need to swap the tube that goes into the pool filter out or extend it to position it where it will get good sun, but once we get it over there, we have the space to link as many as 10 of them together in full sun to get the heat level we want so I am confident we will get a nice & toasty pool, just depends on how many we need.

I am guessing because we have a 25′ pool we will need at least 2-3 to notice a substantial heat difference as my parents have a similar heater (that they DIY’d) that is about twice the size, & only a 18′ pool & heats to a nice temperature without being too warm.

I was so excited to finally get this pool pad. We just recently got a pool and didn’t get to swim much before the colder air hit. So this pool pad warms up your pool so you can use your pool longer. It uses the sun to heat it up.

The setup was fairly simple, I did get a little help from my hubby. It definitely helped heat up the temperature of the pool some. It says that you can also hook up more pads to heat it more. I’m a true fan of this pool pad.

I bought 3 of these covers for my indoor pool. This cover actually works rather well given it is basically quite similar to packing bubble wrap. The advantages are: the thin gauge of the material renders the cover very light.

(Note the dry weight is 2. 6 lbs. ). My pool is 40 ft. long and removal of the heavy gauge solar bubble covers was an exhausting job. I use very light sanitation so the material is not subjected to the caustic chemicals needed for sanitation of an outdoor heavily used pool.

Furthermore, my covers receive very little direct sun which no doubt would further degrade the material. The thin gauge and light weight of the material are both an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is the cover is easy to remove.

The disadvantage is the pool pump forces one cover to collide with the contiguous cover(s). In part, I have solved this by anchoring the cover with a weight to hold it in place. When the placement (of the cover) is disturbed, water will cover part of the cover rendering the saturated surface area useless since the surface water will evaporate.

In fairness, I had this problem with heavy gauge covers. Note that I am NOT using this product to retain pool water heat. Rather, I am using this to reduce evaporation. While I have a Desert Aire dehumidification unit my monthly utility bills are $1,000/month.

If you have an indoor pool this will help to reduce evaporation. While I have considered a stationary installed pool cover, I have decided against it since they are hideous looking.

In previous years I’ve have purchased other brand covers. They have lasted a couple years each The last one was destroyed a few years back. Last year we tried to purchase one, but they were not in supply due to everybody being home during covid.

That was a pain. We ended up having to cut up black contractor bags and floating them around the top of the pool. It helped but it was not ideal. This spring I purchased the Intex cover. We have a 10 ft diameter pool.

I read that these covers ran small so I got a 12 ft one. I put it on the pool and cut it down to size. I find that it does work great to keep the debris out over the pool. The cover fits properly on the water, it’s almost adhered to it as far as strong breezes and wind is concerned.

The jury is still out whether it heats up the water. Although, I’m pretty sure it helps. The reason I say this is we had moved it to a different location in the yard this year. Our original location was more sunny, but dangerously close to the house foundation, lol.

The thing that I do notice about this cover is that it almost seems to be, I don’t want to say brittle, but it’s not as pliable as previous covers. I’ve seen other reviews where they’ve fallen apart.

I don’t know if this issue is contributing to that problem or maybe there’s too much chlorine in the pool causing the disintegration. Since you have to put the bubble side down on the water, that thin plastic is vulnerable.

So far, I have not had any problems with that. I will knock on wood and keep my fingers crossed that it lasts another month and a half! I think I paid about $30 for this cover. Overall I’ve been pretty happy with it.

If it does fall apart, hopefully it’ll be at the end of the swimming season. I will probably just get another one. I guess. Although, I will shop around for the best price.

This definitely warms up the ***. it also keeps most of the debris out. I have had the other type of cover that wraps over the top of the blown up ring but it’s a pain to put on take ***. these work much better because they just float on the water.

I don’t need to wrap it around like the regular pool cover hope it stays. They just float stay ***. they’re awesome. Regarding the reviews saying they’re not durable, ***. you have to consider that they are just thick bubble wrap.

sitting in the sun. floating on chlorine. Soooo yeah, they get thinner sun bleached. start going bad after about a year kinda like a cheap car cover. I get a new one every season. They work great! The other covers don’t last any longer than these btw.

Overall, this was a great replacement for our above-ground 15×26′ pool. It replaced a Hayward H100i that was probably 15 years old. My only complaint is that the unit came pretty dinged up – likely FedEx’s fault and not InTheSwim’s.

I’m a pretty handy DIY-er, so installing it wasn’t that difficult. We dug up the lines because the inlet/outlet are on the back of the unit, as opposed to the side on the Hayward. We then poured a new concrete pad based on the clearance specs given in the manual.

Once everything was re-plumbed, it fired up the first time and heats noticeably quicker than the old unit. I really like the digital control better than the old analog Hayward. As a note, the outlet we have this on is timer controlled along with the pump for the pool filter.

I was worried that the heater would reset every time its power was cut, but it seems to save its settings. Saved me from having to do some re-wiring as well!.

I BOUGHT 8 OF THE 2X12 PANELS TO ROOF MOUNT. FIRST THING IS THE CONNECTIONS ON THESE ARE 1 1/2″ OUTSIDE DIAMETER. MOST PIPE, FITTINGS, RUBBER CONNECTORS, & OTHER BRANDS OF COLLECTORS ARE 1 1/2″ INSIDE DIAMETER.

SO YOUR STUCK BUYING THE STUFF FROM THEM & CANT HOOK THEM UP WITH ANOTHER BRAND COLLECTOR. THEN THE INSTRUCTIONS I RECEIVED WERE VERY POOR. SEEMED LIKE PAGES MISSING EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE IN NUMBERED ORDER.

DEFINITLY INFO MISSING. THEY WOULD NOT WARRANTY MY PANELS WHEN NEEDED. EVEN THOUGH THEY WORK GOOD AND ARE MADE WELL, I WOULD LOOK TO ANOTHER BRAND IN FUTURE.

Works great I get about 2 degree raise per day in temp on a 25000 gallon pool with 16 panels. I’m sure a solar blanket would make them more efficient. I went from 70 to 80 in a week with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s at night.

Pool is ready for spring with these panels. Should have done this year’s ago. The only thing I would say took some doing is mounting the panels, the straps they sent with the kit really don’t keep the panels from sliding down the roof.

I ended up using PVC conduit straps on the header to hold them in place. Other then that it’s a great value for the $.

These are very similar to what I was purchasing in the past. These seem to allow more water to flow through and the pool warmed up quickly. Even though we live in the south and it is hot, the pool water never heats up to the bottom.

I adjust the jets downward, and the water heats up top to bottom. We have had this type of solar panel for our pool for at least 10 years. The water recently heated to 82 deg. and was so comfortable to swim in the evening.

I would recommend these panels.

This kit is easy to implement. simple connection to the pipes, little fear about the leak when connecting the pipes of diameter 38. Indeed the pipes fit a little too easily, but here it goes, no leakage.

The Teflon roll is “calculated” as accurately as possible, it is more prudent to have a second one, because you do not have to hesitate to put a lot. A very weak drop is made on one of the reducers.

I knew it was a great deal but I had no idea it would have all the exact parts I will need. It has multiple sizes and several other helpful parts I can use on other projects. Great value.

Having worked in the swimming pool business for over 13 years I can say this is the best heater you can buy. I’ve worked on many heaters including ones made by Teledyne Laars, Pentair, Sta-rite, Jandy, and Hayward.

These are the reasons why I recommend this heater in my business: it has a simplistic, easy-to-work-on design with less wiring and moving parts. This is important because mice and insects destroy all of the heaters I mentioned at a faster rate.

Raypak actually seals the computer board in a compartment that is almost impregnable. When something does go wrong the diagnosis is much simpler because there are fewer wires and parts. Frankly just about every other heater I work on is a complete nightmare in the wiring department.

Over the years Raypak is the only company I’ve seen make meaningful changes to their product namely, protecting the delicate computer board and decreasing the size of the power supply. Furthermore, this is one of the only brands I’ve never seen catch on fire, because it is vented properly.

Older Purex and Hayward heaters were notorious for burning up but luckily the wires would melt and shut the heater down so it never became an inferno. Newer Hayward and Sta-Rite heaters use a power vent, which is a cool idea although unnecessary for outdoor use.

However these fans crap out all the time as mice seem to love them more than computer boards. It’s just an unnecessary part unless you’re setting your heater up indoors and if you do, Raypak sells a more robust vent separately.

By far this is the easiest heater to install and integrate with the Comp Pool and Aqualink computer management systems. I also feel the need to address some of the negative reviews for this product, namely that you are buying this product on-line at wholesale price.

You assume the risk for it’s installation. When I buy it from my supplier there is a mark-up and a warranty that extends to professional people who install these things professionally. If you don’t check your pH in four years and your heat exchanger disintegrates Raypak shouldn’t have to replace it because you’re an idiot.

The extra money you pay for a professional installation is the peace of mind you get from knowing the job was done right.

Shipped well and arrived as expected. Had small issues with the voltage plug not being set up for 120 volts, it was plugged in for the 240 and just had to be swapped around. must’ve been that way in case you hooked it to 240 and it would’ve fried the whole system.

Other than that had a little issue with a limit switch connection. Once these 2 items were found, it worked properly, so far. just been 2 wks since installation. Advice: if your not experienced in some manner of heating and cooling, get someone who is to install this.

Heater has been installed for 3 months now. wanted to delay a review until I was comfortable with the operation of this unit. It is extremely efficient with the use of natural gas. I had a Teledyne-Larrs, 20 years old, that never worked as good as this at any point.

Heating the spa is about 15 to 20 minutes max. The pool used to take overnight to heat and now it’s about 4 to 5 hours! LOVE IT!!! Would never buy any other heater in the future! 16,000 gallon with 9 ft.

deep end.

bought a house with this model installed but nonoperational. from purchase received in 3 days. easy install works flawlessly. thank you.