Fafco Solar Bear Economy Heating System for Above-Ground Pools

Now that everything is working and NOT leaking - I love this solar panel. Just keep in mind this is NOT a complete system. You'll need connectors and hoses that will vary depending on your setup. Expect to spend another 100$ or more. I spent closer to 300$ But I made some missteps along the way.I have an intex above ground pool 12ft x 24ft x 52in. At first I tried to use various plastic cements to connect the Intex parts to the 50 ft Alpine Ultra-flexible PVC hoses (with 1.5" tall inside diameter) I purchased (I wanted the solar panel up on my hill away from the pool). Unfortunately none of the cements I tried created a leak proof bond. What worked for me was purchasing a 3d printed part on ebay "Intex pool pump to PVC 2 inch connector + 1 L ring compatible" (make sure to get the rubber o ring). I also purchased a 2 in. Schedule 40 PVC Female Adapter and a 2in x 1 1/2in schedule 40 reducer bushing. Those adapters plus some purple primer and "red hot blue glue" and I was able to make a seal that does not leak.I'm a pretty handy guy and it took me 5 different attempts at buying adapters (official intex ones and generic ones from home depot) to get it right. Probably 8 hours of working on this project, since each set of adapters needed to set for 24 hours before testing.One last bad thing. The original item shipped without ANY adapters at all. I thought I had been shipped the wrong product entirely. But since I had cut the tension cord holding the solar panel together shipping it back was a huge hassle. Luckily Amazon repaid me for the larger box that was needed. Unfortunately fafco support had not noticed that the product they sent was the correct panel it just lacked the bag of accessories. Either way they made good and sent me a new one. So if you get a huge box with ONLY a single solar panel in there, ask them to send the bag of accessories.On to the good stuff! I run my pump 8 hours a day. I moved the run times to start at 9am and the pool went from ice cold to warm. If you stand next to the water inflow it comes out hot! This thing works for sure. I imagine if I bought (and used) a solar cover that I would have to turn the heat off occasionally or it would become a giant hot tub. Granted it is currently summer and I live in where we get plenty of sunlight.Overall:Expect this to be a lot of work.I'm a handy guy and this was not easy. But if you have an intex pool, I've done all the hard work for you, buy the adapters and ultra flexible hose I listed above.Expect to spend another 100$ in hoses, adapters and glue.Enjoy a pool that isn't always ice cold!I would give this 5 stars if they sold a kit for Intex pools. The added 100$ was worth it, but when it's that high of an unexpected cost it made me drop a star. Yes they mention you will need additional materials - but I did not expect to spend that much.

This thing is pretty big and cumbersome to handle. I ended up building a mounting platform at about 30 degrees and faced it south. I put mulch under the platform and use it for storage for pool stuff. If you leave it laying flat it wont work as well, and it will turn the grass under it into a mushy mess. I used the included roof mount straps and some plumbers strap to mount it.It uses standard 1 1/2" NPT threads, so it is pretty easy to use PVC to pipe to where your pump is. A couple of NPT to Metric adapters will let you plug it into your Bestway/Intex pool hoses and pumps. I rigged some additional valves so I could stop flow to it if I need to.It works really good. On the first sunny/hot day that this was mounted and running for about 8 hours it helped raise 6,000 gallons of water from 68 degrees to 78 degrees.

Bought this product to see if I could get the pool warm enough to get my wife to use the pool. I have experience with two of these now. The first one I bought last year is in service. It was really straight forward to install using the guidelines provided and the directions for building a support frame are right in the manual, so quite easy for setup.Does it heat the pool? Well I have an 18' half in and half out of the ground pool. It will raise the temp about 4 degrees F in a sunny day. When the weather is consistent, combined with a good solar cover it all adds up after a few days and the pool is nice and warm. Also a good point to note is that when we get a sudden two day chilly but sunny spell, it generates enough heat to maintain the temperature nice and warm. So yes it works well for heating. Happy with that.My only gripe is quality control. The second unit I bought this year came with several holes in it already which I didn't realize until its fully assembled and spraying water everywhere. Too many holes to fix and they were between the tubes, not in the tubes so obviously a mfg defect there. Had to return it and lost faith a bit there so didn't replace it. (Thx Amazon for being fair and great customer service). The second defect is that its impossible to stop the end caps and the water line connections from leaking even with Teflon tape. Water seems to appear from no where out of the capped fittings which has a ring holes around it in the pipe itself. Also decided to stop cranking down on the fittings as I was afraid I was going to split the PVC. So it leaks from 4 spots but I will be honest and say its negligible amount of water, I just hope that the frame underneath does not rot out too quickly from being constantly wet.If this one survives the summer then I will be happy. Of course with the money invested $330 for unit, $65 for hoses, $15 fittings, $40 for frame, it better last much longer than 1 year. I will be very carefully stowing this away in the winter being careful not to stress the plastic or put holes in it!So would I get it again. Yes! Just beware of the defects and replace if needed. Great unit if cared for and care taken. I will update temp gains in the summer.P.s. last thing to note is this item was re-posted for this year with all the feed back from previous years deleted soooo.... not sure what that might mean!!!!!

We have one and it heats up the 19000 gallon pool. It works better with a couple 100 ft black hoses running along the hot concrete. We probably need another mat but can’t afford it right now. lol