For customers who only use their pools occasionally and are looking for a fast way to heat their pool, a gas or propane heater might be the way to go. However, if you and your family enjoy your pool at different points of the week, hours of the day, then a heat pump is a much greater addition because it maintains the temperature of your pool at the temperature you desire all the time and a much lower cost of operation than any other method.
Many folks in the market for a natural gas or propane heater do not realize the sheer amount of fuel burned to achieve a warm pool. Most in-home boiler systems average between 75,000-125,000 BTUs for the entire house. Most natural gas and propane heaters are between 250,000-350,000 BTUs alone. Add in the fact that boilers are operating indoors in an insulated room with no wind to cool the unit, and you have a pool heater that requires exponentially more fuel to operate, and in turn, raises your bill even more. Because of advances in efficiency, AquaComfort heat pumps can turn every Dollar you spent into $4-5 of heat. With the natural gas and propane heater, you only get back .80¢ on that Dollar.