A Proven Design

Modern Plastics magazine ran a feature story about the design, development and engineering of the Solar Industries solar collector back in 1980. Three article excerpts highlight major strengths of the Solar Industries collector.

On the tube-and-web design:
“The use of a web rather than direct connections between the tubular sections reduces the stress imposed on the tube, preventing premature stress failure. The size, shape, and spacing of the tubes contributes to the thermal efficiency of the collector.

“…Tests have confirmed that [this design] offsets the advantages that can be cited for a fully water-wetted system, and provide the advantage of inherently greater durability.”

On multi-plate construction:
“it was desirable to limit the width of individual plate sections so as to permit release of fabrication stresses while the product is in service. Extruded plastic solar collectors of one-piece plate design buckle as the fabrication stresses are relieved, causing hollows to form; these depressions have a tendency to become stained and unsightly after the collectors have been in use for a few months. By limiting the extrusion width to six inches and providing an intermittent bond between the individual extrusions, they adjust and lie flat as the stresses are released, solving the problem.”

On the absorber-to-header bond:
“The bond between the plate and the header must provide a totally leakproof seal between 104 individual tubular water passages and the surface of the header, while allowing the heat-transfer fluid to flow unimpeded from the tubular plate section through drilled holes in the header wall. Furthermore, it must be mechanically strong and the bonding process must not significantly reduce the resistance of the material to degradation by exposure to the elements.”

The Solar Industries thermal weld process has been so successful that field failure rates, evidenced by product returns for any reason—including shipping damage—average only about half of one percent of shipments.

“High-efficiency solar collector system”
Modern Plastics, February 1980

When this article was written 29 years ago, Solar Industries had already manufactured almost three million square feet of solar pool heating collectors. Today, the company remains one of the world’s largest solar collector manufacturers.

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Solar Industries:
The original innovator in solar pool heating

Solar Industries pioneered development of the first solar collector designed and mass-produced specifically for swimming pool heating over three decades ago. Before this time, solar swimming pool heaters used copper-based solar collectors designed for hot water heating. Unfortunately, copper presents two major weaknesses when used for solar swimming pool heating:

• The copper fluid passageways in solar collectors used for hot water heating have a tendency to react chemically with the chlorine in swimming pools under certain conditions, producing copper chloride, a black granular substance that stains pool finishes.
• Pool heating requires a very large solar collector surface area (typically 50 to 80 percent of the swimming pool surface) and copper-based collectors are not economical for swimming pool heating at such large solar energy collection surface areas.

Polypropylene collectors deliver excellent heating performance at the flow rates and relatively low temperature requirements (76–90°F) associated with swimming pool heating.

A long string of industry firsts

Naturally, when you start out as the industry leader, you have an opportunity to benefit from greater experience. Since leading the shift from copper to polypropylene plastic solar collectors during the early 1970s, Solar Industries has introduced several “firsts” in solar pool heater collector design and manufacturing:

• First sun-tracking tube and web design. The Solar Industries collector has a unique tube and web design that maximizes heat gain earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon… even on windy days! This allows the collector to deliver significantly more heat to your swimming pool than third party “snapshot” thermal performance ratings suggest.
• First thermally welded construction. The Solar Industries manufacturing process creates a seamless bond between each solar collector’s individual flow tubes and the collector’s headers. Years of field experience have proven that this bonding technique withstands the stresses of thermal expansion and contraction better than “over-moulding” separate strips of plastic to connect the solar collector absorber surface to the headers.
• First stabilized polypropylene. Our solar panels are formulated to withstand extreme exposure to the sun, weather and pool chemicals. Thousands of our Solar Industries solar pool heaters have delivered trouble-free performance for over 32 years.
• First Lifetime Warranty. Naturally, when you have more field experience, you have more warranty experience. Solar Industries solar collectors have very low failure rates, which gave us confidence to offer the industry’s first lifetime warranty.
• First 1,000 Btu performance rating. In addition to its rugged design, the Solar Industries solar collector also has excellent heating performance. Solar Industries produced the first polypropylene solar collector to achieve an independent third party testing agency rating of 1,000 Btus per square foot per day.
• First multi-plate construction. The tube-and-web absorber surface of the Solar Industries collector actually consist of several six-inch wide sections. This “multi-plate” approach prevents solar collector buckling during thermal expansion and contraction and allows the sections to separate during extreme wind conditions. This separation during high winds allows air pressure to be relieved between the sections, even though the roof fastening system is engineered to withstand hurricane-force winds without the multi-plate feature. Your benefit is a double margin of safety.
• First stainless steel mounting hardware. And speaking of the roof fastening system, Solar Industries pioneered the use of marine-grade stainless steel roof fastening hardware and solar collector hold-down straps. Even today, most of the solar pool heating industry continues to use nylon strapping and plastic or rubber clips. While the nylon strapping has more than adequate design strength to withstand hurricane-force winds, moisture exposure causes nylon straps to weaken and rot over time.

The Solar Industries collector design and construction was awarded U.S. Patent No. 4,060,070 and other U.S. and foreign patents. Today, with over three decades of manufacturing and field experience, Solar Industries collectors are operating trouble-free in in tens of thousands of installations worldwide. You can swim comfortably knowing your Solar Industries system is the best built, best backed solar pool heating system in the world.

Seeing, holding and touching is believing

The durability and design strengths of the Solar Industries solar collector are plainly obvious when you have the opportunity to hold a section of an actual collector in your hands and compare it with samples of competing collector products. When you compare the real thing, Solar Industries becomes the obvious choice for heating your pool.

So call us at 941-924-3016 or complete our short free estimate form, and one of our experienced design consultants will make it possible for you to see, hold and touch the solar industry’s leading product for performance, durability and field-tested reliability. Demand the original innovator for your swimming pool: Solar Industries!