Built Right XW Series Pool Heat Pumps

Why homeowners consider it

• Five years of parts and on-site labor: one of the strongest straightforward parts-and-labor warranty programs in the category. Many heat pump warranties pair a longer parts term with a shorter labor term; Built Right's current warranty page covers both for the same five years.
• It is built and serviced in Punta Gorda, about an hour south of Sarasota. Built Right states that most service work in Florida is performed by its own factory technicians and advertises a 24-48 hour warranty response time — which, in a category where the wait for a board can decide your February, is the specification that actually matters.
• The exchanger is titanium and the housing is a corrosion-free UV-resistant polymer, which is the right construction for salt pools, salt air and the barrier islands. The manual's own maintenance advice tells owners near the ocean or the Gulf to rinse the evaporator coil, which is the kind of guidance a Florida manufacturer writes.
• Published efficiency is strong for a fixed-speed unit: 6.0 COP at the 80/80/80 test point on the BR135XW and 6.5 on the smaller BR115XW, all AHRI certified to AHRI Standard 1160, and the XW page carries Intertek ETL listing marks.
• There is a heat and cool version in the same family. The BR135XW H/C is rated 130,000 BTU/hr at 80/80/80 with a 5.8 COP, so an owner who wants to chill an unscreened pool in August does not have to leave the line.

What to know before buying

• The service story is the strongest part of this brand and the thing to check hardest if you are outside Florida. Built Right's own language is that most service work in the state of Florida will be provided by factory technicians; there is no national dealer-service network comparable to the big pro-channel brands, and the warranty sheet bound into the 2017-2018 owner's manual actually limits coverage to units installed within the State of Florida, while the current warranty page says the 50 United States. Ask which document applies to the unit you are quoted.
• You cannot buy one directly. Built Right sells to licensed contractors only, with no direct sales to the public or to property managers, so the unit reaches you through whoever installs it.
• The warranty has real conditions, and they come from two different documents. The current warranty page requires installation by a licensed and qualified contractor and maintained water chemistry, excludes damage from improper bonding, limits coverage to the first retail purchaser in the 50 United States, excludes refrigerant and other expendables, and gives commercial applications one year rather than five. The warranty sheet bound into the 2017-2018 owner's manual adds the conditions people actually get caught by: a warranty form submitted within thirty days of purchase, prior authorization for every claim, work performed by a Factory Authorized Service Agent — and its own opening line, that the warranty applies to models installed within the State of Florida. Ask in writing which document governs your unit.
• There is no app. Automation is a two-wire external controller connection for a pool/spa remote or a remote thermostat. If your pad is built around Pentair IntelliCenter, Hayward Omni or Jandy iAquaLink, the heater will be switched by the system rather than appearing in it.
• Built Right publishes very little electrical detail online — the manual tells the installer to read the required breaker size off the unit's data label. Have the electrician size the circuit from the nameplate rather than from a web page, and confirm the service can carry it.
• It is a fixed-speed heat pump with published limits. The control enters a defrost cycle below 48°F ambient and displays FS, and the manual says operating below 45°F is not advisable because there is not enough heat in the air. On the Gulf Coast that is a handful of mornings a year, but it is not a cold-climate machine.

Warranty, term by term

The warranty only matters on the parts that actually fail. Here is how this one splits up.

Why the heat exchanger matters

How we scored it

Real Modern Pool Heating installations

We have not published a job-site photo for this exact model yet. Installation photos on this site are only ever our own work, and we label each one as the exact model or as a representative install.