How Often Should I Turn On My Pool Heater?

Pool heaters are a must-have for any pool owner who wants to be able to swim regardless of the weather outside. Figuring out how best to use this item is another matter. Running your pool heater too often can be hard on both the environment and your wallet. So when should you turn it on, and for how long? That depends on your lifestyle and goals.

If You Want Consistently Warm Water

If your goal is to keep your pool’s water warm enough to swim in comfortably at all times, you’ll need to run the heater pretty often. However, it’s still not a good idea to leave it on permanently. Doing this wastes electricity and can quickly become expensive.

Instead, it’s best to turn the heater on only when the temperature drops too low. Most people prefer to swim in water that is between 78 and 82 degrees F, so you would want to heat your pool when it hits 77 degrees or below. This will happen frequently at night, but there should still be plenty of time in which the heater does not need to be running.

Newer pool heaters include digital controls that can be programmed to turn the heat on at specific times or temperature thresholds. Set yours to the correct threshold and you’ll have a perpetually warm pool at minimal cost.

If You Want Warm Water for an Occasional Swim

However convenient a perpetually heated pool might be, most people don’t use their pool at all hours of the day and night. If you’re willing to only enjoy heated swims when you’ve planned for them, you can save even more on electricity.

Start your heater around 2 hours before you plan to swim. This will give it enough time to warm up the pool to that critical 78-degree level. You’ll enjoy the same warm water that those with 24/7 heating receive, but you’ll only need a fraction of the energy to do it. If you use a solar cover to trap some of the heat from the sun’s rays, you can get away with even shorter heating times.

Get Top-of-the-Line Pool Heaters at Our Pool Store

Heating your pool enough to meet your needs without wasting energy is tricky, but it can be done. Getting a programmable pool heater will help immensely. At Our Pool Store, we carry several different pool heater models with digital control systems. Check them out online today to get the equipment you need to heat your pool more efficiently.