Calorex Variheat Unit - 8 years of problems; Please help!

[layman]

Hello all,

I had an indoor pool built at my house 6 years ago and a variheat 3 unit was specified to heat the pool water, heat the air, and dehumidify.

I have never experienced a period longer than 3 months when it has worked without having to call out one of several calorex recomended engineers, all of whom have sigularly failed to establish the root cause of the problems (note the s), yet have been happy to invoice me each and every time.

Basically, the general problem is that the humidity level just keeps on increasing (even after we fitted fresh air ducting 2 years ago), and the current issue is that whilst hot water is going to it from my combi boiler, the water isnt getting hotter and neither is the air) - Basically the blasted thing continues not to work, and my pool is v cold. The reading on the control panel do not remotely match reality. I have tens and tens of invoices for engineers over the years and the system still will not work correctly.

I do not intend recalling any of the Calorex people back to my home, as they clearly do not understand the system as well as perhaps they should.

Can anyone please recommend a really decent engineer with Calorex experience in the North West (I am based in Merseyside)

Most appreciated!

[mad fridgie]

May I suggest, that you give more details of your pool set up and a list of the faults that you have had.
and what your exceptions are.

[2979markb]

Hi I would be very keen to try and help, if you can send me some more detail I will do what I can.

Downlaod my vCard to contact me

[judi24]

Dear Layman

I am experiencing the same fault with my Calorex Vari heat not heating the pool water .Can you tell me if you got yours fixed.
Thanks

[layman]

Hi Judi
Thanks for message - no I have not yet managed to find a calorex "engineer" (I use the term lightly) with enough knowldge to fix the problems. I worked out yesterday that to date I have spent over £5k on calorex engineers - and the result being that I cant swim because my pool is freezing, and humidity is too high etc. They all seem quite content to come and "have a go" and then when they think its working (because they remain on site for 10 minutes), the next day is starts malfunctioning again. Of course they still willingly cash the cheques that I send them every time - they appear to have no conscience!

I wish I had bought a Heatstar.

I have invited one final different engineer to take a look at it next week and if he doesnt do so, I will contact Clorex directly with my deep audit trail of continuous problems since I bought the machine. If this engineer manages to get anywhere I will post same on this thread, so that you could contact them too.

A message for Mark Baldwin - thanks for your assistance offer Mark - Calorex themselves are fully aware of the litany of issues that I have experienced - I will be willing to contact you in due course if things do not improve.

Layman

[judi24]

Hi
Thanks for reply it seams quite common these days to find so called engineers who come and tinker for a while say they have fixed it take the money and run.
Good luck with your next guy.

[The Viking]

OK Judi,
Why do you think that is?

I can tell you, it stems from the fact that endusers rarely are willing to ask the right questions and never to pay a fair price.

Whenever someone (at least here in UK) get quotes in for something, they will always go for the cheapest quote, regardless of who it is giving it to them and what they quoted for.
When you had your system installed did you ask what qualifications the installer had? How many of these units he installed? What success rate he had? Why his specification was better than the other 2?(I do assume you got at least 3 quotes in) If you could visit any of his previous installations? How experienced he was in troubleshooting them when they fail? What the most common faults with them were? If money wasn't an issue, what unit he would recommend?

The training and experience needed to install and service these type of system costs both time and money, it is only when the endusers isn't willing to pay for that that the cowboys get a chance to enter the playing field.

In one of the posts above (no3) you have the service manager from the actual manufacturer of these units willing to help you and he even posted his full contact details.
Use it, call him and see what solution he can come up with.

[da ginge]

if any help ive had loads of expereance with thease as i used to work for a main agent for said compony if no joy then please dont be affraid to ask although i am in essex we could pos sort something out they are very good units when working correctly

[judi24]

if any help ive had loads of expereance with thease as i used to work for a main agent for said compony if no joy then please dont be affraid to ask although i am in essex we could pos sort something out they are very good units when working correctly

The problem is no matter how high I set the water temperature it will not go above 28 degrees cent.There is plenty of heat going into the unit from the boiler it is just not transferring to the pool water.

The unit was installed January 2008 and as worked OK in the past, maintaining a pool temp.of 31 degrees and an air temp of 33degrees.

Any help in this matter would be much appreciated.

[da ginge]

judi24
i need to know what model number you have and serial no. it could be a number of things where abouts in the uk are you pm if youd prefer

[judi24]

Hi The Model is AW570 AVHF. I live in Warwickshire.

[jdunc2301]

......did you get this sorted...?