Coming and Going (the Pool Heater)

The construction of my workshop was estimated to take four months to complete. It took eight. We were told it would take three months to install our pool. It took six. So in October, when we were told by plumbers that our pool’s heater would be “ready to go” in 24 hours… you’ll have to forgive me for taking that estimate with a gain of salt.

Our pool came with a heater, but installation did not include the price of running a line from our gas meter to the heater itself — that part was on us. My gas meter is connected to the side of my house. If you were to draw a straight line between it and the pool’s heater, all you would find between the two is concrete and my workshop. I knew installing a gas line would take money, but I did not realize it would also require a jackhammer. It was decided the best path for the gas line was to run down the side of my house, dip down underneath the concrete, emerge next to my workshop, run inside the length of the workshop, and then pop out through the back wall, connecting to the heater. One of the pool guys told us off the cuff it would cost “a couple hundred bucks” to run the gas line. The total bill was $4,500, and most of the work was completed in a single day. I haven’t figured out their hourly rate yet, but if you are looking for a lucrative career, you might look into plumbing.

Not for nothing, a big part of construction work is doing things in the right order. When we had our workshop built, I had to pay for 30 loads of dirt to be brought in for leveling. Six months later as the hole for the pool was being dug, not only did I have more dirt than I could ever want, but they wanted to charge me to haul it away. The term “they getcha both coming and going” makes more sense now. When we had the workshop built, I spent thousands of dollars on concrete. When we had had the pool built, we spent more thousands on more concrete. When we had the gas line installed, I paid a guy to tear it up with a jackhammer.

After the plumbers finished running the gas line they informed us that they wouldn’t connect it to the heater — that was the pool company’s job. The following week (the second week of October the pool guys returned, said there was no pressure in the gas line, and told us to call the plumber back. On week three, the plumbers returned, checked the line, said everything was fine, and that we should call the pool people back. I don’t know why it took a week between each visit, but it did.

On week four, the last week of October, the pool guys returned and still could not get the heater to turn on. After giving it their best “turn it off / turn it on” treatment, Tier 1 pool guy escalated the issue to Tier 2 pool guy, who spent the next two weeks changing out the ignitor, the fan, and the motherboard. After throwing his hands up, he escalated the problem to Tier 3, who happened to be the president of the company. In roughly an hour, he was able to diagnose the issue and replace the faulty part — a mechanical fail switch was stuck in the off position and was preventing the fan from starting, which disabled the entire system.

So while it wasn’t entirely the plumber’s fault, perhaps you can see why I snickered at his one-day estimate. It took about six weeks.

Having a heater on your pool serves more functions than just allowing you to swim when it’s cold outside. By keeping the water’s temperature above 50F, the salt system continues to work, which means you never have to winterize and close the pool down.

The heater is a win for everybody, especially the gas company. Two days ago, we received a personal phone call from OG&E, informing us that our gas bill was so high this month that we might want to check for a gas leak. “No, no,” we assured them, we actually did this intentionally. Based on last month’s bill, our gas bill has gone up 500% — an unsustainable number.

And that’s how they getcha… both coming and going.

The steam we’ve seen coming off of our pool the past couple of weeks turned out to be money. Over the weekend we’ve added another addition to the pool — a bubble pool cover. Hopefully this well trap the heat in and give the heater (and our pocketbook) a well-deserved break.