This unique service call comes to us from Richard Good in Virginia Beach and provides a lesson learned for all of us. Five days after Irene came up the east coast in August, Richard received a call that a solar pool heater he had installed several years earlier had <strong>“exploded.”</strong>

<em>Click on the photos to enlarge.</em>

<strong><a href="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010006.jpg"><img title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010006-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a> </strong><strong><img title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010003-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /> <a href="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010004.jpg"><img title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010004-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a></strong>

He gave us a call with the particulars:
<ul>
	<li>The pool has a one hp pump; Heliotrope control and valve and a Pentair salt system. The filter pump had been turned off since Irene because the pool was full of debris.</li>
	<li>This damage happened in the early morning, the air temperature was around 60 and any isolation valves were open.</li>
</ul>
We were all stumped, but we had a theory, so we turned to our old friend Barry Brunye’, formerly of Goldline/Hayward. His one-line response...

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<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>“Hydrogen go boom!”</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010016.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-426" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010016-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>Here’s his explanation; remember the filter pump had to be turned off because of debris in the pool, but look at the picture of the cell control to the right – the lights are on. It seems the builder had wired the cell to the line, not the load side of the time clock, so the cell had power all the time. The flow switch had jammed open with debris from the storm. With the pump turned off, electrolysis from the cell began to break the water in the lines into its two components – water and hydrogen. The hydrogen (being lighter than air) rose up into the collectors for <strong>five straight days</strong>.

<a href="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010005.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-432 alignleft" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.aquathermindustries.com/portal/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/P1010005-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>The hydrogen built up some pressure because it had nowhere to go after filling the collectors. Eventually it forced the water in the filter lines back into the pool and when the blades in the cell became exposed, the cell either over-heated or shorted <strong>igniting the hydrogen</strong>. A piece of one of the fittings even tore a hole through the side of a neighbor’s house 20 feet away!

<strong>Though two things had to go terribly wrong</strong> like an incorrectly wired cell and a jammed flow switch, it was a place for the gas to accumulate like the collectors that made the difference. While the odds of this “perfect storm” happening again may be slim, you’d be wise to check the wiring next time you install a solar system on a pool with a chlorine generator.

Since the siding is still being repaired, Richard hasn’t been able to fire the collectors back up, but we’re really curious to see if they were damaged or absorbed the shock.

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