How do we get our newly replaced electronic ignition pool heater to work with our existing remote system.?

Question

We just replaced our pool/spa heater. We used a pool company that we weren't familiar with, but they were recommending the same pool heater as our regular pool guy, but could do it quicker and a few hundred bucks cheaper. Both recommened the Raypac 1200 266 BTU Electronic Ignition (the old one was a millivolt with a pilot light.) We have a remote control panel in our house that turns the heater on and off, as well as jets and light. Now that our heater is installed, the pool guy says the remote system won't work with the heater. You have to turn the heater on at the heater, but no longer at the spa or the remote. I find this a little hard to believe a new heater can't work to remotely turn on and off. Help.

Answer 1

He probably doesn't know how to do it. In my experience if it has a switch it can be wired to be switched on from anywhere. What I would do is to check where the old switch was used and where the wires went. Then look where the new heater's switch is. The only problem might be that the new switch uses a different voltage so you need to wire both ends of the new heater switch and run both those wires to a switch in your house without other connections.

Just take care to trace everything and switch it off while working on it.

Answer 2

Newer Raypaks have a circuit board. On the circuit board is a wire harness to connect your remote system. They will work with either a two or three wire connection.  After you make the connection you will probably have to program the heater for remote use. With the Raypaks that I install, you just press and hold the UP and Down arrows and the MODE button at the same time. Hold them down for at least five seconds. Then you will see REM displayed on the digital readout on the front panel. I am not familiar with the model 1200 but I wouldn't think they would differ that much from one region to another.  All of this info should be in the manual that comes with the heater. Also make sure you set the thermostat all the way up before you program it into remote operation.