I recently faced a small heat deterioration in my manual solar heater due to my roof heater cooling off few degree with water flow speed. I decided to automate the system and thanks to this KIT I’ve been able to position the temperature sensors in specific spots of the system to overcome the issue. Now when the roof heater reaches the set temperature (as set in the controller), the vale opens and enable warm water to flow into the pool. Once the pool water reaches the set point, the solar loop closes. If the pool water drops below 5 degrees from the set point, the solar loop opens to warm the pool again. This cycle goes on and on until the pool reaches the desired temperature! It really works. I powered the controller using 240 VAC from my pool pump timer, now when the pump is ON, the solar controller is ON. This controller has a great feature that enables you to power it with 110/120VAC or 220/240VAC based on whats available to you. Lastly, here is a list of items form you to be aware, note that this is not part of the description but it should be:

1. The two temperature sensors comes with 6″ of wire and fours wire nuts. You can extend the wire up tot 20′ without impacting the resistor/thermo couple accuracy. There is plenty of misinformation on the internet telling you that 20′ of wire will change the resistance of the sensor, please ignore it and extend the wire but do not exceed 20′. Another item is to use pipe insulation to cover the sensors top. Especially important if you are installing them inside the pipe. All you need to do is to insulate the top of the sensors with some foam and aluminum foil. This will enable the sensor to read the water temp as oppose to be influenced by the sun and give the controller erroneous temperature read outs.

2. As of 06/18/2018, the valve listed in the description as 2 way 1, 1/2. This is incorrect. The vale is a 3 way 2″. My system is mostly 1, 1/2 so I purchase 3 adapters at the Home Depot ($1.25 each) that reduced the vale to a 3 way 1, 1/2 as I needed it to be.

3. If you want to re-use or disassemble the valve down the road, I suggest you to purchase few PVC adapters that allow you to screw and unscrew the valve as opposed to glue it to your PVC pipes. You can do that by acquiring few coupler with o-rings, you will glue the screw on adapter and then with some Teflon tape you will connect the vale to your system.

I highly recommend this KIT if you want to automate your solar heater system!

This worked fantastic. Very happy with it. Tested this many times and if the sun goes behind the clouds, the sensor pick up the change and revert to normal operation instead of using the solar panels. The install wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t nearly as difficult as expected. All the parts I needed were in the box. Great setup.

The system works pretty good. I live in Ohio and my pool water was 89* by the 1st of June. The only thing I do not like is the incoming water temperature sensor. The directions tell you to drill a small hole and use a hose clamp to seal the temp sensor o-ring to the pvc pipe. I opted to purchase a sensor that threads into the drain hole of the pump instead. Wiring is fairly easy, however setting the limits on the valve adjustment takes some practice.

I’ve just purchased this pool heater to replace an original Hayward that was installed in 2004. As you can understand, having 10 years of service on the same heater, it’s obvious that I would be going back to the same brand. Very easy to install and works flawlessly. Very happy with my heater and would recommend it to anybody.

Works great for our 30 ft round above ground pool. Had the sensors missing in the kit. Called amazon super nice and had replacement the very next day. No more turn it on and off or asking the kids. Holds temp at 91

Installed per instructions and everything works as described. Can set my pool to maintain 100 degs!

Discarded the valve in favor of a Jandy. Controller needs some improvements such as relocation of terminal screws so that they are not
obstructed, and a means of displaying the LED indicator lights so that they can be seen from an angle and not just head-on

just installed it today and it seems to work good