SunHeater S120U Universal Sun Heater, 2 Feet by 20-Feet

Over all its a great panel. I have a 18' x 48" intex pool. I use the Intex solar cover. I hung the solar on the side of my house vertically which isn't the best position but for my yard I did not have tons of options. It faces due south but has some shade in the morning and late afternoon. When I filled it the temp was 59 degrees. I set up a secondary intex pump that pumps about 600 gph through the solar. I added on thermometers at the input and output of the solar array as well. I have the pump set up on a cheap wifi plug so I can start the secondary pump from my phone. Using the second pump for the solar means I don't need to use diverter valves or have the solar pumping when no sun. It also means I can turn on and off remotely from my phone. I feel getting a wifi plug and second pump to use with this solar heater is the best setup. I normally run it for 5 min in questionable sun and check the thermometers to see if there is a temp gain.When I first set it up i had some problems with it leaking. it comes with pvc adapters that will fit intex hoses. From reading, pipe tape is not the best way to secure a threaded pvc fitting, but it is what they include. With a single wrap of tape the fitting did leak badly. The second time I tried with 3 layers of tape over all the treads and did not over tighten like the first time. All the leaks stopped. So, use a lot of tape and don't over tighten.As I mentioned it does fit intex 1.25 inch hose but does not have the gasket needed. I took the gasket off an intex T and used a screw driver to push it into the grove in the intex hose. Once the gaskets were in and the included hose clamp was used there were no leaks.With the wifi plug I bought for the second pump that feeds the solar, I tuned on the pump when ever the sun was on it. I could confirm it was working by looking at the thermometers on the input and output of the solar. If there was at least a 1 degree difference I would run the pump. If not, I'd turn it off. In full mid day sun there was a 4-5 degree difference. When used with a intex solar cover, my pool went from 59-77 in 4 days. I would loose about 1 degree every night which would be more without cover.So in summery, it definitely helps expedite heating of your pool. To keep the heat you have I recommend a solar cover as well. I recommend 3 layers of pipe tape to prevent leaks and no over tightening. I also recommend a separate pump and wifi plug so you can turn it on and off easily without changing you main pump schedule or having to turn diverter valves (not included) It is compatible with intex 1.25 inch plumbing but will need a gasket.Update: my pool is now 83 degrees and has been open for 1 week!

Only lasted one season. We drained and stored in garage for the winter and when we connected this week the plastic had cracked and leaks in several spots.

We used this for a week before deciding that we needed to upgrade to an electric pool heater.Positives:1- Seems relatively well built and sturdy material.2- Works reasonably well on sunny days in sunny locations. Likely raised the temperature by a degree an hour for the 6 hours we could keep it in full sun. Had little to no effect on the average days of mixed sun/clouds and overcast situations.Negatives:1- Required a separate set of adapters to attach to our Intex 15’ pool equipment. It seems like this targets the above ground pool market, and at this price the set should include adapters to match the sizing of the dominant pools in their target market.2- It needs to be in full sun to be effective. Partially cloudy days or a yard with any type of tree/home coverage kills the effectiveness and likely makes it not worth the investment.3- To get maximum sun, you need to lay it either in the grass (kills the grass in a few days), build a stand (no instructions), or place it on the roof (requires large hoses, mounting equipment, no instructions). All of those options make this really a pain or expensive to install/maintain. Unless you are very handy or can lay it flat on stone/concrete I wouldn’t purchase it.

We have a small 12' round 30" deep Intex pool that we setup around mid-May and take down at the end of September. May and September tend to be a bit on the cold side in the pool so we were looking for a way to help keep the temps of the pool up. We got a single SunHeater S120U per their recommendations for this pool size and It has been well worth it!Before the solar heater on an 80* day we could expect water temps around 85* by the end of the day with the pool in full sun and using our solar cover. After the solar heater was installed on a similar 80* day the pool gets to about 90* by midday now without the solar cover! This heater works great to steadily raise the temp of the pool. The outlet temp is not 100+ degrees but it is noticeably warmer than the temp of the overall pool water. Throughout the day, that temperature difference raises the overall temp of the pool and the cycle continues. I did not use any sort of bypass tubing or anything, I just connected the inlet of the solar heater to the outlet on the pool pump. Then the outlet on the solar heater goes to the jet on the side of the pool. The pump I have is the Intex 637R which is a 1000 GPH pump. This is slightly bigger than the pump that comes with the 12' pool which I think was a 600 GPH pump. It should go without saying, but you do need to run your pool pump for this thing to work.I built a angled stand out of treated 2x4's and then zip-tied the heater to it through the built in slots in the solar heater. The heater is relatively rigid plastic so I didn't feel the need to put a full solid surface underneath it and just strung 2x4's every 3-4 feet down the length of it. We put the solar heater in a place that gets sun all day.I used plenty of teflon tape on the threads for the caps and elbows that are included with the kit. I have some very small leaks from where the pool's flexible hoses connect to the elbows. I'm not really sure how you could/can avoid it but it's such a small amount I just don't care. If it's a half gallon a day I'd be surprised. Rain fills up the pool more than will ever leak out of these connections.Very happy with the purchase and it's been well worth it!