Attribute Schema Library
Attribute schemapool, spa & irrigation

Pool Heater Attributes

Pool heaters raise and hold water temperature in pools and spas. Four technologies share the shelf — gas-fired (natural gas or propane), air-source heat pump, electric resistance, and solar — sized against pool volume, surface area, wind exposure and target temperature rise. Buyers are pool builders, service contractors and commercial aquatic facilities.

The data is hard because the model number is the spec sheet. Raypak's P-R406A-EN-C #51 encodes header material, rated input, ignition, fuel, tube material and burner orifice in one string — six attribute axes, one field. Change the tube material and the rating changes with it: the cupronickel 406A is 360,000 BTU/h input, not the 399,000 of its copper twin. Distributor listings for that same -X part show 399K on one site and 406,000 on another.

Then the standards move underneath the catalog. DOE swaps thermal efficiency for integrated thermal efficiency (TEi) on 30 May 2028. The AIM Act's 700-GWP cap pushed heat pumps off R-410A in 2025. Those invalidate fields, not just values.

Core

Every SKU needs these. Without them the record is not a product, it is a row.

Heater Type
enum
Gas-Fired

Sets the whole install: gas heaters need a gas line and vent, heat pumps need a dedicated circuit and ambient air. Never interchangeable at quote.

Fuel Type
enum
Propane (LP)

Natural gas and propane are different SKUs with different orifices, and efficiency differs — Pentair's ETi 250 is 94% on gas, 96% on propane.

Rated Heat Input
number · BTU/h
399,000

The primary sizing filter. Buyers match input against pool volume and target rise; every gas heater family is indexed on it.

Thermal Efficiency
number · %
84

Separates 82% atmospheric from 84% forced-draft from 96% condensing, and drives rebate eligibility. DOE minimum is 82% under 10 CFR 430.32(k).

Heat Exchanger Material
enum
Cupronickel

Cupronickel resists low pH, high flow and salt; copper is cheaper. It also changes the rated input, so it is not a cosmetic option.

Water Connection Size
number · in
2 (CPVC slip union)

Gates whether it drops into existing plumbing. Raypak's 206A-406A all take 2 in CPVC slip unions; smaller models run 1-1/2 in.

Electrical Supply
enum
240 VAC / 1 Ph / 60 Hz

Raypak digital units are factory-wired 120 or 240 VAC 1 Ph 60 Hz and must not run at 208 VAC. Heat pumps split 1-phase and 3-phase at the same BTU.

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
identifier
P-R406A-EN-C #51

The model string is the spec sheet — P-R406A-EN-C #51 encodes header, input, ignition, fuel, tube material and orifice. Must be exact to order.

GTIN-14 / UPC
identifier
UPC-A on unit carton; GTIN-14 on case

Marketplace listings and scan-based receiving both reject without it. Case-level GTIN differs from the unit UPC on palletised heaters.

Country of Origin
enum
United States

Required for customs, for federal and state procurement on municipal aquatic jobs, and for Amazon Business listing.

Differentiating

What buyers actually compare on. This is where catalogs win or lose the filter.

Header Material
enum
Bronze

Bronze headers are ASME-certified and legal on commercial pools; polymer headers are not. This single field gates the commercial channel.

Elevation Rating
range · ft
2,000–6,000

Rated input holds to 2,000 ft, then derates 4% per 1,000 ft. Above that it is a different orifice and a different SKU, not a setting.

Heating Capacity @ AHRI 1160 Rating Condition
number · BTU/h
120,000 @ 80/63/80

A heat pump capacity is meaningless without its condition. The same UltraTemp 120 is 127,000 at 80/80/80 and 82,000 at 50/63/80.

COP @ AHRI 1160 Rating Condition
number
5.5 @ 80/63/80

The operating-cost number buyers compare, and it collapses with ambient — 5.7 at 80/80/80 down to 4.0 at 50/63/80 on the same unit.

Vent Category & Vent Material
enum
Category I, metal drafthood (indoor)

Atmospheric Category I units need metal vent and an indoor drafthood; 96% condensing models vent in PVC. Wrong vent kit fails inspection.

Compliance & identifiers

Standards, regulatory data, and the identifiers channels reject you for missing.

ANSI Z21.56 / CSA 4.7 Design Certification
text
ANSI Z21.56:19 / CSA 4.7:19 (Section 5.10)

Every gas-fired pool heater sold in the US and Canada is design-certified to it, and thermal efficiency is tested to its Section 5.10.

ASME Section IV Part HLW Stamp
boolean
true — NB-registered, bronze header

Commercial pool code generally requires an ASME-stamped, National Board-registered heat exchanger above 200,000 BTU/h. Bronze-header units carry it.

Low-NOx Compliance
enum
Low-NOx certified

Required in South Coast AQMD counties and on Texas commercial jobs. Rule 1146.2 phases in a zero-NOx replacement standard from 2026.

The fields that aren't in the schema at all

What most pool heaters catalogs are missing.

The table above is the schema most catalogs already have. These are the attributes that usually aren't in it — each one surfaced by a signal from the live market rather than by an audit of what's already there. This is what Anglera's Schema Foundry does on a real catalog, in this category.

Supplier signal
+ Heat-Exchanger-Specific Rated Input

Raypak's own manual rates P-406A-EN-X (cupronickel) at 360,000 BTU/h input and P-406A-EN-C (copper) at 399,000. Distributor listings for the -X part show 399K on one site and 406,000 on another.

A heater sized on the copper number underperforms. The contractor blames the unit, not the spec, and it returns as 'defective, won't hold temp'.

Supplier signal
+ AHRI 1160 Rating Condition

Pentair's UltraTemp ordering table publishes three capacities per SKU — 127,000/5.7 at 80/80/80, 120,000/5.5 at 80/63/80, 82,000/4.0 at 50/63/80. Catalogs carry one number, unlabelled.

Buyers compare an 80/80/80 number against a rival's 80/63/80 and pick wrong. Shoulder-season complaints follow, because the 50°F capacity was never shown.

Competitor signal
+ Elevation Rating

Leslie's and Pool Supply Unlimited push "2,000'-6,000' Elevation" into the product title because there is no field for it. Buyers above 2,000 ft cannot filter on it at all.

Wrong burner orifice ships to a mountain-region job. Rated input is only valid to 2,000 ft, so the unit underfires and comes back as a warranty claim.

Supplier signal
+ Refrigerant Type and GWP

Heat pump listings still read 'R-410A' or say nothing. The AIM Act capped new residential and light-commercial equipment at 700 GWP from 1 Jan 2025; R-454B (466) and R-32 (675) are A2L.

Counter staff cannot tell pre-2025 R-410A stock from A2L stock. A2L needs different service practice, and the wrong unit gets quoted against code.

Search signal
+ Rated Heat Output

Buyers search BTU to size against pool volume; every catalog publishes input. At 84% thermal efficiency a 399,000 BTU/h input heater delivers roughly 335,000 to the water.

A pool sized on input is undersized by the efficiency gap — about 72,000 BTU/h on an 82% unit. It surfaces as slow heat-up, never as a spec dispute.

How Schema Foundry finds these

Messy in, governed out.

The same value, spelled every way pool, spa & irrigation suppliers spell it. A filter only works once they agree.

Heat Exchanger Material
Cupro-NickelCuproNickelCupro NickelCu-NiCopper-NickelX
Cupronickel

'X' is Raypak's tube-material suffix (C = copper). Not cosmetic: the -X SKU carries a lower rated input than its -C twin.

Rated Heat Input
399,000 BTU399K BTU399 MBTUH406,000 BTU116.9 kW399000
399000 BTU/h

MBTUH is thousands of BTU/h and gets read as millions. '406,000' is the family name 406A mistaken for a rating.

Elevation Rating
0-1999 FtSea LevelStandard#50Low Elevation0-2000 ft
0–1,999 ft

#50 and #51 are burner orifice codes, not elevations. #51 is the 2,000–6,000 ft configuration.

Fuel Type
NGNat GasNat. GasENNaturalGas
Natural Gas

EN/EP are model-string codes, NAT/LP appear on the rating plate. 'Gas' alone loses the natural/propane split buyers filter on.

What buyers ask

Every one of these should be answerable from the attributes above. If it isn't, that's a gap.

  • Is the cupro-nickel version the same BTU as the copper one, or does it derate?
  • I'm at 4,500 ft — do I order the standard unit or the high-elevation orifice?
  • Is that 120,000 BTU at 80 degrees or at 50? What does it do in October?
  • Can I put a polymer-header heater on a commercial pool, or do I need bronze?
  • Does this ship with R-410A or R-454B?
  • Is it Low-NOx certified? The job's in Riverside County.
  • What's the gas connection — 3/4 NPT? And what size line do I need to run?
  • Is that 399,000 the input, or what actually goes into the water?

What channels require

The same SKU, different mandatory fields per destination.

Distributor webstore and counter/quoting system
Heater TypeFuel TypeRated Heat InputHeat Exchanger MaterialElevation RatingManufacturer Part Number
Amazon Business
GTIN-14 / UPCManufacturer Part NumberCountry of OriginRated Heat InputFuel TypeElectrical Supply
AHRI Directory — Heat Pump Pool Heaters (HPPH)
Heating Capacity @ AHRI 1160 Rating ConditionCOP @ AHRI 1160 Rating ConditionElectrical SupplyManufacturer Part Number
Commercial pool submittal / spec package
ASME Section IV Part HLW StampHeader MaterialLow-NOx ComplianceNSF/ANSI 50 certificationRated Heat InputVent Category & Vent Material

Pool Heaters data, in practice

Why does the same model number show different BTU ratings across distributor sites?

Three reasons, and they compound. First, model families are named after a rating they may not carry — a Raypak 406A is a family; the copper unit is 399,000 BTU/h input, and some sites publish '406,000'. Second, tube material changes the rating: P-406A-EN-C (copper) is 399,000 input, P-406A-EN-X (cupronickel) is 360,000. Third, input and output get used interchangeably; at 84% thermal efficiency a 399,000 BTU/h input unit delivers roughly 335,000 to the water. Carry input, efficiency and heat exchanger material as separate governed fields and the ambiguity disappears.

How do I compare two heat pumps whose capacities look similar?

Get the rating condition before the number. AHRI 1160, verified by the ASHRAE 146 test method, expresses ratings as an air-temperature / relative-humidity / water-temperature triplet. Pentair's UltraTemp 120 publishes 127,000 BTU/h at COP 5.7 under 80/80/80, 120,000 at 5.5 under 80/63/80, and 82,000 at 4.0 under 50/63/80 — one SKU, three legitimate numbers. 80/63/80 is the standard rating condition; 50/63/80 is what matters for shoulder-season heating. Two units both advertising '120,000 BTU' may be quoting different conditions. Check the AHRI Directory listing under the Heat Pump Pool Heaters program rather than the marketing sheet.

When does a pool heater need an ASME stamp?

Commercial and public pool installations generally require an ASME-certified heat exchanger; the threshold most codes apply is 200,000 BTU/h. Raypak's bronze-header units carry heat exchangers certified to ASME BPV Section IV Part HLW and registered with the National Board; the polymer-header residential units do not, and Raypak states plainly that polymer-header units do not meet building code requirements for commercial installations. In practice header material is the gate: bronze headers ship with a pressure relief valve and the HLW stamp, polymer headers do not. The model prefix carries it — B-R and C-R are ASME, P-R is residential. Confirm against local code before quoting.

What does the 2028 DOE rule change about pool heater data?

DOE's final rule for consumer pool heaters (effective 31 July 2023, compliance 30 May 2028) replaces thermal efficiency (TE) with integrated thermal efficiency (TEi), which folds in standby and off-mode consumption. It also sets the first federal standard for electric pool heaters, at a level that effectively requires heat pump technology. For catalog data this is a schema change, not a value change: TE and TEi are different measurements, so a TE field cannot simply be relabelled. Expect a period where both appear on supplier documents — the 82% TE minimum under 10 CFR 430.32(k) and the incoming TEi figure — and plan to carry both.

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