what I found - when shipping was included no one was really cheaper online. My pool guy got me one at his cost + 10% and it turned out to be cheaper than I could get online. They are expensive to ship, and my pool guy brought it to the house in his pickup for no additional charge.

Thanks tfons1219. Well I would like to meet your "pool guy" b/c mine could not beat the price of H20 by several hundred dollars. Also, besides price, I am looking for a company that has been reliable and will get me the product timely as promised.

For cost + 10% I'd rather have someone buy it online, the second I have to provide any support for the heater (which heaters can be problematic) I've lost money.

so u gave up on the heat pump?

I wanted an ASME heater and couldn't get one through the local dealers.

I bought online. There were three places I found that advertised the Raypak propane ASME, I called all three. talked to two. Went with the one that gave me the warm fuzzy, which was A1poolparts. They were more expensive than the other place.

Positives? I got the heater two days ago, set it and plumbed it yesterday. It's an excellent heater.

Negatives? They said they had it in stock. They didn't. They stocked the regular, but not the ASME. Took two weeks from order to delivery. One week for them to get it from the manufacturer, another to ship it from CA to CT.

Second negative? A couple of days after I ordered it I got an email telling me that the heater I ordered was on sale, $50 less. I called, they wouldn't give me the lower price. Not a huge deal, but they hadn't even shipped it yet.

Third? The front removable panel was slightly dinged. The shipping box was fine, no dent/dings/rips/tears in the cardboard. I took it off and popped it back into it's proper shape. No scratches in the metal, just a deformation.

You'z payz your money and you'z takes your chances.

"The front removable panel was slightly dinged. The shipping box was fine, no dent/dings/rips/tears in the cardboard. I took it off and popped it back into it's proper shape. No scratches in the metal, just a deformation. "

I don't know what it is about Raypak, but their heaters always have a little bit of freight damage.

It was sort of depressing to pop open the box and see the ding.

But a little work from the backside of the panel and it looks fine.

They could use some metal vertical reinforcement in the four corners of the box for sure.

racket, et al
I don't get, nor did I expect, help from my guy for service, etc. And yes, my last pool heater (Pentaire) was a p.i.t.a.
You are right - if my guy thought I'd come back to him for problems, he wouldn't do it either! But he made it clear, and I understood - so all is well that ends well. I got what I wanted for cheap - and if I need service, I know that is my problem.

T

You're the exception not the rule.

Most people these days will create a situation where you lose money and expect you to treat them like you could retire you made off the profit on them

Duly noted - I'm in sales and and usually on the other side of the table, so I have plenty of empathy. I did O/B twice, and have told others maybe they should not try it - cause I know they would not be reasonable with the subs resulting in headaches for both...I usually explain it this way - Owner/Builder, or odering stuff online, etc may be cheaper, but a significant chunk of the savings should be put aside for mistakes, service, repairs, errors, etc. Then if you don't need those things due to luck or skill - woohoo...