Raypak Pool Heaters

Raypak is one of the oldest names in pool heating. The company started in 1947 in a Southern California garage, moved into its current Oxnard plant in 2000, and has been part of Rheem's family of brands since 1985 — the same group as Ruud, Richmond and Eemax. It builds commercial and residential boilers and water heaters alongside pool heaters, which is why its equipment has always leaned toward the commercial end of the trade's expectations.

The current residential gas heater is the AVIA, in 264,000 and 399,000 BTU/hr sizes for natural gas or propane, at 84% thermal efficiency. Its design arguments are specific rather than vague: a patented straight-tube heat exchanger with no bends or helical coils, a stainless steel combustion chamber instead of the galvanized steel Raypak says is common in this class, a replaceable ProTek Shield sacrificial anode in the inlet header, and a Unitherm Governor thermostatic mixing valve that holds the heater's internal water temperature between 120°F and 135°F so the fin tubes neither condense nor scale. AVIA HD models swap the copper exchanger for NiTek, a nickel alloy Raypak rates as 300% more erosion resistant than copper and 200% more than cupro-nickel on ASTM G73-10 liquid-impingement testing — at the same 84% efficiency.

On the electric side, Crosswind V is the mainstream heat pump line: 4550, 5550, 6550 and 8550 in heat-only form, with heat/chill versions of the two largest, all with a titanium heat exchanger, an up-flow (vertical) air discharge and a powder-coated metal cabinet. It is a fixed-speed machine — Raypak's inverter model is the separate, smaller horizontal-discharge Crosswind 50-I and 65-I, at 44,000 and 61,000 BTU/hr. Raypak also still sells the older atmospheric Digital gas heaters at 82% thermal efficiency, which are a useful baseline to compare an AVIA against rather than a product we would specify new.

The reason to take Raypak seriously in Florida is the warranty document. Its current pool heater warranty gives AVIA heaters three years for parts and labor in a single-family home — the same term Pentair publishes on its ETi 400 — and gives Crosswind V heat pumps two years labor, seven years parts, and ten years on the titanium tube of the heat exchanger. Both terms come with the same two conditions: the heater has to be bought from an authorized U.S. dealer, and labor cover does not extend to travel time, freight or fuel. Read them and then read the competition's: Hayward's standard gas term is three years parts and one year field labor, and Jandy's is one year on parts with no labor.