Side by Side Comparison of: SmartPool vs Hayward vs Pentair

OK, here is a great invention with a product handled by a terrific company. Smart Pool.THE FACTS: I live in Miami Florida and yes it is hot here in the summer however my pool has a lot of landscape and palms around it which provides shade to about 2/3 of the pool so my pool water rarely gets to the desirable temperature it normally stays between 82 to 85 in the summer while the temperature outside is 91 to 95. we like the water in between 88 and 90 especially those days when we use it in the evening and into the night.THE PROCESS: My pool holds about 12,000 gals of water so as per their chart I needed two boxes (4 panels) but I went ahead and ordered 3 boxes (6 panels). I installed it myself with the help of my two sons and took us a few hours. I ran the piping myself as well. at the first try it didn't work - there was too much pressure on the pump and there was not enough flow to run the jets so I contacted the Company directly (Smart pool) and this is the part that gets really good.THE COMPANY: Their customer service was great; it exceeded my expectations. They took all the necessary time on the phone to review the installation I had done, the layout, etc. we even traded pictures over the email so they consulted with their experts and came back with recommendations including changing the configuration of the piping connecting to the pool pump and worked with me all the way through until it was resolved. Kudos to this company for their superb Customer Service.THE PRODUCT: I am Completely satisfied with this product. it is a great invention and works well - easy to install. I was expecting to raise the temperature of my pool water by 4 to 5 degrees and to my surprise it went from 86 to 93 by the the second day. I hope I can extend my summer a month or two here in Florida with this Sunheater. BTW: the water stays warm at night as well it only cools down 1 to 2 degrees through the night.We are enjoying it!

So far it's awesome. Less than a year though so hopefully the other reviews won't come true

Love this product. I live in south Florida so we get a lot of sun. This product gave us earlier swim time in April and will extend our swim time in October. We got 4 degrees in the first week we installed it.

We received our order as scheduled with no problems. Couldn't have asked for more.

My husband has been very pleased with this. He's been able to bring the temp up about 3 degrees by just running this for a day.

The heater exceded my expectations we are in the tropics but the improved temperaturature is as advertized, pretty soon I will be ordering aditional unit to increase even more the temperature

I've opened it since early Aug with smart solar heater on the roof and water fall in pool. As water flows fast, it doens't seem to have enough time to be heated on the roof. How can I adjust the flow so that solar heater is worth it.

Great heaters I bought 2 for a 20x40 pool only had space to install 3 of the 4 panels works great.

a little expensive. i do find that the two (photo shows four) does increase the pool temp, i did not measure the temp, but they work. i placed them on a timer, the timer is a cheap one, 15 minutes on then 15 off. the water feels warm. i suspect making it more formal with temp sensors and timers would be better, but the quality is good.

I bought two of these heaters. I thought the quality was very good. They were a bit of a challenge to unroll. I used a torpedo heater to soften the plastic so I could lay them flat on my garage floor so I could tell what I was working with. The roof on my small barn work shop is 20 feet long and I wanted to be sure these would fit. They measure just short of 20 feet so they fit fine. Each heater comes with 2 solar panels, 4 rubber connectors with hose clamps and a bunch of metal pieces about four inches long that have a right angle bend on one end and a screw hole on the other end. Each panel has small slots in the plastic near the top and bottom edge that I assume these "hooks" are suppose to grip as you screw them down. I saw no way to use these with strap of any kind. I can understand the problems and confusion some people have had with these because they came with zero instructions. No suggestions on how to plumb or fasten these down or together. The most important thing to understand about these is that you can not run the full flow of water from your pool pump through these. They can not handle that much pressure. You have to install valves in the line that control how much water flows to the heater and how much goes straight back to the pool. The people that have leaks at the connectors or the connectors rupture must be trying to run all the flow through their heater. Complaints that the rubber connectors won't work because the ends of the pipe are threaded are unfounded because the pipe ends are designed to use with either threaded fittings or hose clamped fittings. The rubber connectors slide past the threads and on to a wide groove made to seal with a clamp. If you plan to run water through one panel and then back through the next you will have to buy four 1 1/2" threaded pvc pipe caps and thread sealer tape. To connect the input and output water lines I used the rubber connectors and inserted a 1 1/2" slip to 1" female thread reducer. Then I threaded in a male 1" threaded to black plastic pipe barbed adapter. I also used unions in a couple places so I could easily disconnect the water lines if needed. My system worked great on the first try with no leaks or problems. To hold my system down to the roof I used five pieces of 1/2" metal conduit. I laid each piece down across the assembled heater and marked the conduit just below each panel then drilled a screw hole through the conduit at each mark. I cut a 3/4" piece of 3/8" rubber gas line type hose to use as a spacer and seal between the conduit and the roof. I filled the short piece of hose with silicone, put it under the conduit and ran a galvanized screw through the conduit and spacer into the shingled roof. The hose will squash down and force the silicone to squeeze out a little so you can be sure you have a good seal on the roof. Other than lack of instructions the only quality issue I had was one of the heater panels had been trimmed too close to the last tube and that tube would have leaked. Be sure to look for this before installing so you can fix it easily. I cut out a small piece of that last tube at both ends and ran a small screw into where it connects to both pipes. On a sunny day these warm the water by several degrees. How much it heats your pool depends on how much water is in your pool, how much sun you get and how cold it gets overnight. These only raise the water temp a little so if the water in your pool is 50 degrees the return from the heater may be 55 to 60. If your pool is 80 degrees the return maybe be 90. Also, temp is relative to flow. If the water trickles through it may come out very hot. If it flows through fast you may not be able to feel much difference. Either way you may be adding the same amount of heat to your pool. I hope this review helps a few of you. I thought the product was worth buying and I may buy one more to add to what I have next year.

We have an 18'x36', 26,000 gallon inground pool so we bought the recommended 3 boxes of these solar panels (which is actually 6x20' long panels). We had just enough room to install them on our south facing roof slope by the pool. We live right near the NY/Canada borderline so we really wanted to extend our swimming season as long as possible. This is our first good warm, sunny day (77 degrees) with them hooked up and the pool went from 70 degrees this morning to 77 degrees by sundown. Without these panels we might have achieved a maximum of 72 or 73 degrees. A friend nearby has a similar set-up and says his pool stays in the mid-80s from May-Oct, and sometimes swimming in April.On the recommendation of other reviewers, we didn't bother buying the installation kit and instead bought our own connectors, hoses and clamps at the local Home Depot.We also bought the Hayward 3-way automated actuator which (using sensors in the water lines) will automatically feed the warm solar-heated water to the pool whenever that water is warmer than the pool, and then turn off to just circulate the pool water at night or on cooler days. On start-up, everything is working great and I must say I'm impressed so far, but I'll update our review in a few weeks after a longer period of evaluation.

I had this system installed last year. Wanted to wait a year before I gave an actual review. First of all, yes it works. My pool was 76 yesterday and is 80 today. I get a rise daily between 3 and 6 degrees on average. I do not have mine in direct sunlight all day, only gets about 5 to 5.5 hours of sun a day. I mounted 5 of the 6 panels I ordered and plumbed into my pool plumbing. We figured there is about a mile of tubing water is flowing through on my patio roof.First thing to do, take the valves in the installation kit and throw them as far as you can. They are a waste. All they will do is restrict water flow. Secnd thing, take careful consideration as to where you mount these and how they will plumb into your system. We spent the better part of 2 days designing the plumbing layout (see menagerie of pipe in pic). Since mine is up so high, we have a significant amount of head pressure which I resolved with a more powerful pump (needed it anyway) What made mine a tough install was due to the fact I wanted to be able to bypass the solar panels anytime I wanted, once the pool reached the desired temp level or to bypass in the winter and drain so they do not freeze. We got around this with a one way valve and two more valves to make the bypass.Would I buy again, absolutely. Do I recommend this product, absolutely. If you are a novice, I suggest you get your favorite pool company out to help you design and install your system. Please keep in mind, putting these at any height will create head pressure and you do have to take that into consideration if you have a waterfall or any other water decor that requires pressure to function.

So far working ok.

Used this for a 14000 gallon in ground pool but I think it puts too much of a drain on my pump.

I have had this on my roof now for a couple of months and it does heat the water. I have 4 on my roof for a 16X30 oval inground pool. It will push out noticeably warm water. We got to use our pool much more at the start of the season than last year. However, I'm not sure the trouble of installing/maintaining and the damage it does to the roof to install it is worth it.When you take these out of the box they are coiled up so tight it will take two people a lot of work to get them unrolled. We did this early spring when the temps were in the 50s and they did not want to flatten out at all, even in direct sun! We had to weave them through a plastic fence so the bends would start to smooth out over the course of a couple days. It wasnt until they installed on the roof in warm temps that they flattened out.Obviously you will have to put holes in your roof to install the brackets for this, so be sure to seal them up good. I did not buy their installation kit based off of the reviews. I bough everything from home depot. What is lousy is that they give you almost all the brackets you need with the solar panels, but leave out some to force you to buy more. I have yet to find where I can purchase just the missing brackets.Since the only thing securing the panels is nylon rope over the panels themselves, the pipes can move around. I have noticed that this is causing them to wear through my shingles either from wind or expansion/contraction when hot and cold. Either way, it is something I now have to fix.Mine has a section of one of the panels that will not flow water. Because of this that sections stays hot while the sections around it become cool when water flows through. So the hot sections becomes warped and unsightly. I contacted their support who told me to disconnect the panel and look for baffles that could have been installed on accident. This is not easy to do once it is installed obviously, and there were no baffles in it. Depending on what they do when I call them back will determine the final rating of this review.

I have 4 panels for a 10K gallon pool. It seems to warm the pool a few degrees, not near the level I expected. The install parts are a waste, plan on buying your own fittings at your local hardware store.

item came with holes in part of the heater....had to plug them with epoxy

Kit is missing: Tie down straps, pipe end covers to seal the unused openings. You can not use the plastic caps that come with the kit of course. I tried a screw on end cap but it leaked because I didn't use teflon tape. I ended up using rubber end caps with clamps and I filled the threads with plumbers putty. I only did it this way because it is what I had on-hand. Teflon and a 1.5" screw cap are the way to go I think.Missing the tie-down straps so I had to use paracord. Hopefully it holds up to the South Florida sunshine.The hardest part about the installation was getting the dang things unrolled. If you have a backyard you can put this out in before you try installing it, it's best to get them flat before you go up onto the abrasive roof shingles. The plastic is stiff and needs to be warmed up to roll out flat.I can't speak to the longevity yet as I just installed them but I will say, get more than you think you need. I have a similar system installed on my home and it pushes out HOT water into the pool in direct sunlight but this one I installed on my mother's pool is a single kit and you can barely discern a temperature difference.Also keep in mind that the experts out there state that you do not want to feel hot water coming out of the system because that means you're leaving some of the heat on the roof and you need to increase the water flow to ensure you are pulling all of the heat out of the collector.UPDATE Oct 5, 2015: I installed a second system on my mother's house and she is getting hot water out of the jets on sunny days now. The initial single unit system wasn't adequate and I needed two. Still only 3 stars though because I think the instructions could be more clear and the missing hardware should've been supplied.

2 of the 8 panels I bought were defective with leaks at the header pipes. Same location on both.

not as good as the heater we had before. Doesn't raise pool water as much as I would have expected.

Don't waste your money. I installed this product and the water coming out is the same temperature as the water going in. My fingers are crossed that when the weather gets a lot hotter it does raise the temperature.

I never leave reviews but had to for this thing. One week of my life of pure aggravation. First off they say this a 30" panel when actually its two 15" panels coupled together. Even worse the 15" panels are split into two so a single system is actually (4) panels which is unbelievably difficult to handle. Laying them flat is near impossible. Additionally they are made of cheap material and I ripped two of the couplings off trying to make it tight and secure and I was trying too hard. The wind guards I bought are also of poor quality and this leaks at all the couplings. A little leak but enough to see.The only reason I gave this two stars was because Amazon was amazing and replacing 1 defective panel...With all that being said, this does do an efficient job of heating the pool. I had to buy one more system than what was recommended for my pool to effectively heat well but I don't think this will last through next season so I plan to buy a more expensive system next year that I know will lay flat. Good I have all the plumbing done.

One of the water cells was ripped could not use one section basically half of the product was on usable

Works as advertised...however DO NOT buy that extra kit that they sell. I used only about 1/4th of that kit and it was not a great value.Be ready for about 3-4 trips to the hardware/plumbing store because they do NOT give you the parts you need to easily hook this up to your pool. Also be sure to buy lots of plumber's putty for any potential leaks. That being said after about 6 hours of working with this thing I finally got it shooting out super hot water. Next year I will have the setup down to a quick maybe 1 hour to get it perfect. I am hoping to extend my pool season until maybe October. We shall see.....so yeah we did see. This is a POS! AVOID IT LIKE DEATH ITSELF!

Below is my original 3 star review, which I now have to supplement and give this product only one star. The reason is that certain components they supply with the system have proved weak and inadequate in just a few weeks of operation, and they refuse to replace them with sturdier components, and even told me the defective components are not covered by the warranty; they went on to say that even if they were covered by the warranty, they would not replace them because even tho they fail in a couple weeks, they are not "defective".Therefore, my review goes down to 1 star. Here's the problem:The panels connect with a length of large diameter rubber hose. This looks a bit like the black cooling system hose on a car, except this hose is flimsy, weak, soft rubber, with no reinforcement at all. After running the new system for 1 week, one of those hoses ruptured. This caused water to pour off the roof, and nearly drained the pool. I was not home at the time, and I lost maybe 1000 gal of water. I replaced the ruptured hose section from an extra that was in the box. Two days later another hose section ruptured. Luckily I was home at the time, and shut off the system immediately.I contacted the seller and they sent replacements, but the same flimsy, soft rubber hose sections. I explained to them these are not adequate to withstand the pressure in a normal professional pool filter system, but they then responded that they had "determined" that my system was not installed properly, because I had not purchased the separate installation kit, and thus did not install a "pressure regulating valve".The separate installation kit costs a hundred bucks, and has a variety of items that are duplicative or not needed, like extra hose clamps, a diverter valve (which my system already has), an anti-siphon valve (which I bought locally for $10), etc., and nowhere in the listing description nor in the installation manual does it say that there is anything in the separate installation kit that is REQUIRED for the system to operate correctly. They just want you to spend an extra hundred bucks on overpriced unnecessary parts. The seller told me the kit is required for each 4 panels, when the listing says it is used (not required) for each 8 panels. Importantly, the installation kit does not contain a "pressure regulating valve" nor does the installation manual mention one. So the seller was just making excuses.Then I called the manufacturer in New Jersey to file a warranty claim. They did not say that a "pressure regulating valve" was needed (proving the seller was wrong) nor that the installation kit was required. After describing the installation the representative said my system was installed properly. But she said the rubber connecting hoses are NOT covered under the warranty--only the panels themselves are covered; and the rubber hoses would not be replaced even if they were warranted because they are not "defective in manufacture"-- instead they are just too weak to do the job. (Amazing!). Besides those weak hoses are the only ones they have anyway so they would have nothing to send me.So the bottom line is I am SOL. I now have a $1500 solar panel heating system that I have to turn off every time I run an errand because I dare not run it if I leave the house. This is completely unacceptable.I may try to rig some other connection between the panels, at my expense, with no help from the seller or manufacturer. Otherwise, I will have no alternative but to dismantle the entire system, box it up and return it to Amazon.Under the circumstances, one star is generous.Original review:There is good and not so good. This seems to generally be a good product, and the price is cheap; but 3 caveats:1) it is much harder to install this system than one would think. I am a very experienced do it yourselfer, and working alone, it was a HUGE project. Two people working would have been much easier. The panels come rolled up, and don't like to be unrolled--literally fighting the curl in the panels, trying to get them to lay flat out in the sunlight--was an effort that delayed the installation by 2 days. Even after installation and operation for a month, the panels have retained some curl at the ends.2) The supply/return tubing is 1 1/2 inch; most in-ground pools use 2 inch pipe (my old solar system did), and reducing the 2 inch diameter down to 1 1/2 inch diameter is easy, but it does reduce the flow in the pool. So far this is not a problem, just a concern.3) The biggest issue is that after installing and using the panels for a month in the fall, I am disappointed in the amount of heat they produce in the pool. I ordered TWICE as much surface area as my old panels (which were professional grade) and this new system seems to produce about HALF the heat of my old system--in other words, 1/4 the efficiency. I think the reason is: these are thin, plastic panels, whereas my old system used thick rubberized panels, which absorbed much more heat from sunlight. Now, in winter, we can't expect too much from a solar system as the days are short and the sun is lower in the sky. However, this new DOUBLE SIZE system only heats the pool from 69 Deg in the morning to 72 deg after running all day--not even close to the high eighties I am looking for. And I am in South Florida! My old system produced about an 8 degree rise in winter. With double the surface area I expected a 10-12 degree rise. I expect this system will produce adequate heat as summer approaches, when the sun is much hotter and more direct, but ironically that is when we don't need it--we need the heat in the cooler months.So, in conclusion, this is generally a well made product, and it is cheap, so I'm giving it 3 stars, but I caution that however many panels you think you will need, you had better double or triple the number. Otherwise, you will end up disappointed like me.

I didn't buy these from Amazon but I thought that reviewing them on this site as well as the site I bought them on would be a help to others. I purchased these in the summer of 2012. This first summer they worked well and raised my water temperature to a comfortable level. My pool is an indoor inground pool and we usually heat with propane but I thought "why pay for propane when the sun can do the same thing for me in the summer?" So I purchased these. They were very unsightly on the roof of my pool house. When the sun was beating on them, even with the mounting kit installed, the panels became wavy and ugly looking.In the fall we blew out the panels of all water, removed them from the roof, rolled them back up, put them back in the box and stored them inside my house in a storage room of our heated basement.We reinstalled them in the Spring of 2013. However, as other reviewers mentioned on the Doheny website, there were tiny pin holes that developed over storage that caused the panels to leak water. This was a couple of days of repair work to get these panels in working order. Again, they did the job.In the fall, we blew them out, removed them from the roof, rolled them back up, put them in the box and stored them in the basement again.This Spring 2014, we reinstalled again but the holes were worse. Finally after only two weeks on the roof, the panels started to split and burst apart. We weren't home so we lost a lot of water from the pool.I paid $350 for these panels and kit from Doheny water warehouse. They now sell for $499 for the same set up that I purchased in 2012.These are disposable and not worth $50 in my opinion. My conclusion is that the plastic that they are constructed of is cheap and doesn't hold up to the intense heat of the sun causing the tiny holes that turn into big holes that turn into splits.We recently purchased four 100' heavy duty commercial black garden hoses and wound them in a coil on a piece of black truck bedliner, ran the in and out lines from these panels and it works just as well if not better and it is not unsightly like the panels.