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Thanks PoolClown. I suspect when the pool company installed the new heater they simply wired it to the leads from the old heater. Since the old heater was "dumb", we never had this problem before. The old one was wired "correctly", in that it performed as expected. It had the ability to detect when flow had been restored, and restart itself without human input. This model, with the digital controls, seems to not have that ability...at least in it's present power supply configuration. I'll try to find the time to call the pool company again tomorrow. These folks are supposed to be the most reputable in the area, but my experience with them has not been particularly good. I posted here because I was hopeful someone had had a similar issue and knew a workaround solution for it. The pool heater manual doesn't really offer any guidance for this error code other than "backwash the filter"...which is a solution for a low flow problem not related to cycling of the pool pump on a daily basis. Thanks again.

Thanks in advance. We just had a Rheem heat pump replaced under warranty after it worked about four weeks last year. This model had analog controls for temperature. It was replaced with a Rheem 6350 with digital controls. I like the digital controls much better, and it's nice to have a water temperature display on the heat pump. Here's the problem. The heat pump is wired so that it is on even when the pool pump is off. I'm currently running the pool pump about twelve hours/day. The electronic "brain" in the heat pump shuts the unit down when it detects inadequate flow (as it should). Unfortunately, per the manual and my experience, after three attempts to detect flow, the heat pump produces an error code (HP3, if I recall correctly) in order to prevent damage to the unit. Unfortunately, the heat pump is not smart enough to turn itself back on once the pool pump starts itself again in the morning. As a result, I have to manually go out and clear the error code every single day to get the heat pump to run. This is impractical. Has anyone else had a similar issue, and if so, what was the corrective action? I really don't have time, or desire, to go out and restart the heat pump every single day...or alternatively run the pool pump 24 hours/day to keep the heat pump happy. The only thought I have for this is to have the electrician come out again and rewire the heat pump to operate through the pool pump timer switch, if that is possible. This seems excessive to correct what appears to be a thoughtless engineering effort. Thanks again.

Thanks LinerMFGr...sorry for the delay in responding. Looks like the project will run about $35k less to do it in vinyl. Cost is not the only consideration, but I already know we're throwing money away on this project. Gunite doesn't seem to have an overwhelming advantage for our application, and in keeping with my desire to not own the most expensive property in the neighborhood, seems like overkill. Our potential pool contractor has been in business for thirty five years, is well known in the area, and has great BBB ratings. They do gunite and vinyl construction, so I was able to ask questions from someone who would profit regardless which route I decided. The salesperson did not really come up with any compelling reasons to go with gunite for our particular application. The step installation prior to liner installation is something included in the vinyl pool quote we recently got. I hadn't thought of that before, which seems much nicer than those white steps placed in the water. I measured it out and found we're going to have a little over 1400 sqare feet in patio area....that gets expensive quickly!

Thanks for the detailed reply. We do intend to use concrete coping with track underneath for the automatic cover. I'll check out your tutorial for more information. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Hello all...thanks in advance for your opinions and expertise. Home is in the greater Cincinnati area. Lot is one acre, wooded, with lots of space for pool and patio. Home values in our subdivision vary from about $250,000 on the low end, to about $500,000 on the upper end. Ours is near the upper end of that range. I include this information only to help gauge the level of investment in a pool a property such as ours warrants. Wife wants to swim laps. I'm more interested in having enough width for multiple family members and guests to splash around in. Thought we'd look into fiberglass with a swim jet, but to be honest, after staking out a 16X40 space in the backyard adjacent to the house, it looks ridiculously small (I know...nice problem to have). It seems fiberglass is out of the equation as a result. We plan to stay in this home for another ten to maybe twenty years. We would like a rectangular shape, as low maintenance is a very high priority for us, and an automatic pool cover is mandatory to get me to sign off on this. A couple of years ago we had a 20x60 vinyl pool quoted at about $75k with a large patio area, cover, etc. We were surprised at the cost, as we had expected it to come in at closer to $55k, so we let that plan lie dormant. A month or so back, we got an estimate from a gunite builder for 18x50, with features comparable to the original 20x60. Excluding water features, the rough estimate came back at about $100k. I've searched this and another pool forum to educate myself as best I can. I am concerned with throwing $100k into a project that may crack, may be more maintenance intensive (acid washing, re-plastering), rougher on the feet (?), and perhaps too large an investment for a property in our location (I'm not interested in owning the most expensive property in the area). On the other hand, would a 20X60 pool in vinyl be "too cheap" for the property? I hope that makes sense. It seems like fiberglass wins hands down in the maintenance aspect...assuming it is installed correctly...though we can't get the size we'd like in fiberglass. Vinyl seems to win in the "cost-effective" category if one can expect to get 7-10 years out of a liner, and assumning gunite needs to be replastered every ten years as well. Given the above, and assuming cost isn't an obstacle, what are your thoughts on gunite vs. vinyl? Do either construction method seem to do better with property resale value? It seems there may be more "prestige" with gunite, but I really don't care much about that. The frost line here is about thirty inches deep. What is the probability a gunite pool will crack...and crack beyond economical repair? I'd strongly prefer to not spend more than a few minutes each week maintaining the pool. Which of the two should I expect to be lower maintenance? How often does this acid washing need to be done to a gunite pool on average assuming chemistries are reasonably well controlled? Is ten years a reasonable expectation for lifespan of plaster on a gunite pool? Once a gunite pool is replastered, will it look "brand new", as a vinyl pool with a new liner would? I know there are a lot of questions there, but the more I read these forums, the more questions I have. Thanks again in advance for any thoughts/opinions/suggestions you have to share. For those who own, or have owned either gunite or vinyl pools, I'd love to read about your experiences.