Breaking down a pool heater

**geravega77** · 10-16-2017, 08:24 AM

This is what you will find in a pool heater of course not all pool heaters were created equal so they might look different. They are hard to come by this is my first one hopefully I find more in the future. Enjoy

**mthomasdev** · 10-16-2017, 08:37 AM

Did one of those recently. Still have to cut the copper off of some other pieces.
I also have a heat pump pool heater in the shop that hopefully I will get around to this winter. Those are similar to the exterior portion of a whole house split air conditioner. They have the copper aluminum coils and a big compressor. Difference is there is a heat exchanger in the unit also. Should be a fun one to breakdown. Tag on the unit indicates over 7 pounds of R22 that needs to be recovered.

**geravega77** · 10-17-2017, 08:33 AM

Yes I took the whole piece with the copper out and cast steel and have to figure out how to separate them both then sell them. Is going to be a while since I have bunch of scrap that I have to sell.

**auminer** · 10-17-2017, 09:28 AM

I use a sawzall with a long metal blade.

Pool heaters are hard to come by... There aren't too many individual homeowners who will take on the challenge of replacing their own pool heater, I don't think, and any pool service company that installs one certainly knows that there's a big chunk of copper in them, so they'll scrap them themselves. (Probably after charging the customer a haul-off fee!!

)

I've been scrapping for year around DFW and only found three, and two of those were only because I was already at the customer's house for my day job. Only one was curbco.

**MattInTheHat** · 10-17-2017, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by auminer

I use a sawzall with a long metal blade.

you want a large tooth blade like a demolition blade or wood with nails. the aluminum and sometimes copper will jam up fine blades.

**geravega77** · 10-17-2017, 08:58 PM

Thanks for the tips guys I will try what y'all have suggested. And yes pool heaters are hard to come by guess I got lucky. Plus I got to make a video.