I don't want to look at my power bill, but so far the heat pump chiller is working great. It was 99 degrees outside with full sun when we jumped in and my family was complaining it was too cold. The water was 85 and felt refreshing. Our pool has no shade and will often get up to 95 water temp.

jg07 said:

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LostInLA07 said:

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Can you recommend an installer in the Houston area (Woodlands)? I've been getting $12k quotes, so quite a bit different than what you listed.

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I got a similar $11,700 quote for Tropicool TC1500 installed. Originally it was $14,300 before I talked it through with them (sales lady had gas piping in there, I still don't think she actually knows how it works).

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Is the Tropicool TC1500 what you have described in your last post?

Yes it is.

Michael at Eco Pools installs them. He's been servicing a pool for a customer of mine and we've talked a good bit about the chillers. He's always willing to talk shop with me about their pool and others I encounter.

He's ironing out some issues with this pool having to do with poor construction from the beginning by the original builder. But he seems to be on the downhill slope of getting it ironed out and a new automation system up and running for them.

jg07 said:

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Yes it is.

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Just curious, are you running it stand alone on its own app/controller or is it integrated into your automation?

Thx. I'll look them up.

I have Hayward Omnilogic and it doesn't play nice with the TC-1500 chiller yet. They may have a firmware update at some point but I'm not holding my breath. Apparently the latest Pentair and Jandy controllers work fine. In chiller mode you can't control it with 2-wire like you can a heater. You need RS-485 or "smart" communication.

I bought the PoolSync which is their standalone wifi controller for the heatpump. So I have one app to control the pool equipment and one to control the chiller. Not the best but it works. At this point I pretty much just have the chiller come on and off based on a schedule and temperature setpoint so its not a big deal. Just got to make sure I'm not trying to chill the water while heating the spa or I'd really be burning my money up in energy.

I put a power monitor on the chiller circuit. My power rate right now is $0.092/KWH. I run the chiller for about 6-8 hours at night and that is working out to about $3 per day in power. We pretty much use the pool everyday so I haven't experimented with just using it for the weekend. But this is obviously the worst part of the year as far as temperature goes. Once we get down in the mid to lower 90s it should be a bit cheaper to run.

The Glacier unit is cheaper to operate but I personally like having more control on the temperature setpoints and being able turn the hot tub into a plunge pool.

My FIL has the Glacier chiller and has valves connected to his Omnilogic and a relay to turn it on and off based on a schedule. But he doesn't have any real temperature control. He get what he gets based on the dew point and for how long he runs it. But we were in his pool yesterday and it was nice and cool.

Thanks for the detailed write up!

Sucks to hear that Hayward isn't compatible with the RS485, but that doesn't surprise me.

I was told the same thing from my Jandy area service manager (about RS485 connectivity), but I think there could be a better way to turn it on. On the Jandy app (iAquaLink) you have to go to the web portal to control the heat pump, which some homeowners may not like/get. It'd be much easier if they had a toggle switch like they do for the gas heaters.

In the ones I've quoted, I've recommended using Aqua-Cal's app (PoolSync) to control the chiller temperature and operation. I think it'd be more user friendly than the process above.

Not sure how it'd work with a Pentair automation system

Jg's setup is the same as mine. I tried using a RS-485 connection with a Pentair Easytouch and didn't have any luck. The aqua-cal unit would show a connection but couldn't get pentair to acknowledge. Reached out to both manufacturers and no solution.

I don't mind the PoolSync interface. The chiller itself also has a flow sensor so for me it turns off when my pumps shut off in the evenings.

Is there a recommendation for an installer in the Katy area? I'm seeing the 30 GOM Glacial for $1,999 plus shipping. Have a small 12,000 gallon pool - full sun puts temp at 94 - just looking for a 7-10 degree drop

Is there a unit that heats and cools and runs on electricity only (no gas)? If so, how much does it roughly cost to heat?

83 - I can't be much help on an installer.

I was fortunate in that my neighbor was building a pool. His builder acted as agent and coordinated all the trade guys with my neighbor taking the contracts/risk. I bought the unit and an AC pad for the unit to sit on. I had the plumber for my neighbors build come over and tie into to the existing plumbing. I did my own tie in on the electrical to the pentair panel.

AW - there are units that do both as I saw when i researching the aquacal I bought but I didn't spend much time looking at them so I don't know all the manufacturers. I can't speak to the gas or electric.

Thanks for the feedback- appreciated!

This thread reminded me of the coolers we used to make for use during my swim team days. They were very effective on outdoor pools. Not so much this one where the natatorium AC was broken and we were desperate to get the water temp down to USA swimming range for a meet.

Customer of ours built one of these, says it works great and all it cost him was a few hundred bucks

How far out in DFW do you go to build?

ChoppinDs40 said:

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How far out in DFW do you go to build?

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Sorry, just now seeing this. Been in CO for a few days w/o signal.

We sometimes travel by request, I've been 1-2 hours outside of DFW before. There's typically just travel costs associated with getting more than 60 miles away for some of the subcontractors.

Feel free to shoot me an email if you'd like to discuss further.

kb at nw-pools dot com

Prosper?

ChoppinDs40 said:

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Prosper?

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That would be tough as I run my business out of the west side of Fort Worth. I'd be happy to help you with a design and budget if you'd like.

PM me if you don't mind - don't want to waste of a bunch of your time but would like to speak to someone that isn't a pure big builder sales guy.

Shoot me an email

kb at nw-pools.com

rlb28 said:

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This dropped our temp 3-4 degrees

Small flower fountain

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I can't stress enough how much of a difference these things make. We went to the beach yesterday and came home sun burned and tired. The pool was cool and we lounged for a couple hours not wanting to get out.

We leave them screwed in 24/7 during the summer. Our pool thermometer is broken, but I told my wife I was going to Leslie's today to get one so I could share on this Texags thread.

I'm curious why some of you wouldn't try this (less than $100) before spending thousands on a chiller?

Do they seriously work that well?

yes

https://poolonomics.com/pool-mister/

I'll have to give it a shot.

I finally got a quote for a Glacier model GPC25 installed for $4,300. My cousin said he got his installed a few years ago for around $3,500 so I think that's the ballpark range. I'll probably pull the trigger on this next month. Just wanted to give some pricing feedback for some of you guys.

rlb28 said:

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yes

https://poolonomics.com/pool-mister/

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Late quote so you might not see this. How compatible are these with most pools? New pool owner so I'm hesitant to start jacking with return jets.

(meant to reply specifically to SharkinAg)

I had the same hesitancy. My pool wasn't new but had just been replastered when I started using a 'pool cooler' similar to the one in example #2 in the link. I was worried that one of my kids was going to yank on the coolers and either break off something inside the return pipe or, worst case, actually crack the return piping.

The ones I have are built to mitigate potential damage though. You just unscrew the 'eyeball' return fitting and screw in a short adapter from the threaded return pipe to PVC socket. The actual pool cooler is 'L' shaped and press fits into the PVC socket adapter in the wall. If one of the kids hits the cooler, it generally dislodges and just falls to the bottom of the pool with minimal stress on the actual return piping/wall.

The downside to this setup is that sometimes the coolers fallout when the pool pump starts for the day or the cleaner hits it but I consider that an ok tradeoff for avoiding damage.

I just looked at the place I originally bought mine many years ago and I would NOT want the 'new and improved' model that screws directly into part of the eyeball fitting.

https://mistcooling.com/mist-cooling-systems/pool-cooler.html
I would get the MC15100.
I would NOT get the MC15105.

All that said, you can make your own. Or do like I did and buy one and then made a second one once I could see exactly how it was made.

dgb99 said:

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I just looked at the place I originally bought mine many years ago and I would NOT want the 'new and improved' model that screws directly into part of the eyeball fitting.

https://mistcooling.com/mist-cooling-systems/pool-cooler.html
I would get the MC15100.
I would NOT get the MC15105.

All that said, you can make your own. Or do like I did and buy one and then made a second one once I could see exactly how it was made.

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Ya my concern is exactly that. I may just have to remove before people get in the pool