Maytag Pool to replace heater before swim season

Maytag Pool is about one month away from opening for the 2022 season, and when it does staff will now be able to heat the water in about half the time.

Newton City Council on April 4 approved the more than $132,000 heater system upgrade, which will outright replace the current system, which has only been replaced once before. The current system is highly unreliable and inefficient leaving the pool unheated numerous times, city documents stated.

Technical evaluations of the pool completed in 2020 — the same year staff found a leak in the basin, forcing the facility to close prematurely — identified a new pool heater as a priority. Pleva Mechanical, of Woodward, was awarded the project for $132,425 and is expected to finish by May 11.

Newton Community Services Director Brian Laube noted Pleva Mechanical is one of only a few dealers authorized to install the patented heater system from Sentry Valve Company, also of Woodward, which is what will now be operating at Maytag Pool. However, that means no other competitive quotes were secured.

The city made note of that in the agenda and was further questioned by Newton Mayor Mike Hansen, who asked Laube to explain the situation.

“We’re getting a price that we would get if they (weren’t) exclusive,” Hansen said.

Laube worried about it, too. The aquatics engineer who conducted the technical evaluations recommended the city upgrade the old heating system to a tankless pool heating system. The system manufactured by Sentry Valve Company is prevalent all across the country.

Compared to the current heater, the new system is 98 percent efficient rather than 80 percent efficient. It also has a 12-year life expectancy and heats the entire pool in 24 hours. City documents state it takes three to four days to heat the pool with the current model.

In addition, the new system can heat the pool more often and as-needed, using less natural gas in the process. If one of the individual heaters in the system fails or is down for any reason, the pool can still be heated. The current heater will not function at all if any component fails.

“Having not had heated pool water for quite a while this is really exciting for staff, the lifeguards and the general public that do not like to swim in cold water,” Laube said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext 6560 or at cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com