If you are going to spend some extra money for absolutley no reason, then let it go to your local economy, not the mystery place in the computer. You answered your own qu
estion , if you want it, why are you asking us?

The ASME means a thicker CU heat exchanger and metal
headers. Neither is required on a residential pool. In fact most commercial pools dont need this, except by law. If you maintain your chemistry, the residential parts will last longer then the rest of the heater, which are IDENTICAL to the ASME heater.

I, on the other hand, will be happy to sell you one. But only because it costs more. Why would someone talk you out of it?

In fact I reccommmend two.

Why am I asking you?

Because when I read up on heaters on this forum, I found a couple of threads from way back when where pool equipment installers said that if they were going to replace their own heater, they'd install an ASME heater.

That got me interested.

The only Raypak guy around me won't even talk about it. No pro's, no con's, nothing. Zero conversation. Just "you don't need it." It almost leads me to believe that I don't need it because he doesn't carry them.

Since I can't get any reasonable conversation going with him, I thought I'd ask for advice here.

On the pool forum.

If I get positive reinforcement it would lead me to believe that the ASME would be a worthy upgrade, and if he won't sell it to me I'll purchase it elsewhere. If negative, then I might stick with the non-ASME version and get it through him.

The bottom line is ALL pool equipment has a shorter lifespan that it did 30 years ago. Bronze pumps last 30 years, Stainless steel filters never cracked or had to deal with a "leaking bulkhead" and a lot of those old heaters still running are old RAYPAK, LAARS and PUREX with cast iron or bronze headers.

Salt systems and the cost of steel did away with the Stainless filter to a point where the most popular, will no longer be produced as of this year after what, 50 years or so? The need for lighter and smaller heaters and emission standards forced out the metal headers. More water flow required more technology and plastic pumps. The result is less lifespan.

A Raypak ASME may not be needed but it will last much longer than any plastic header heater which I guarantee you won't last 10 years. The Raypak has maintained the same general design for all of these years and others have changed constantly which makes more stuff obsolete and much faster.

Keep good chemistry and this heater will last longer than you own the house and right now, it's $200 bucks more than the leading Pentair brand. It costs nothing more to install so don't be sold a bill of godds on that simply because you are buying a more expensive heater.

Buy it from a local tech, not an online supplier.

Well, I talked to his wife who handles the phones in the office.

She said the Raypak ASME is a great heater. It's what they have on their own pool. It's what they put on their daughter's pool.

He doesn't like to sell and install them because they are about 50 pounds heavier than the non-ASME heater and he has a "twitchy back".

Go figure.

Thanks for the feedback repair guy. Durability is exactly what I'm looking for.

Yeah well, the heater that you can carry into the yard on your own is a relatively new thing. Us old school guys have no issue with hard work.....

Why is it that ever Hi-e2 we do, is double stacked and down a million stairs?

Honsely I don't notice the difference when carrying an ASME heater. I think the real difference is like 20 lbs, not 50.