Intex 28685E Above Ground Swimming Pool Water Heater Solar Mat, Black (2 Pack)

One panel had a seam failure (lost 1,000 gallons and flooded my yard). They sent a replacement mat, and another one failed a week later. Again, lost 1,000 gallons and another flood. DO NOT BUY!!! I have a pump rated for these mats and they cannot handle the pressure. DO NOT BUY!!

I was very skeptical because of the negative reviews, but I gave it a shot because I always take online reviews with a grain of salt. Also, I felt like the information available on these was iffy at best, so I called Intex support to verify they'll work with my pump, and he said they would definitely work without any problems. My pump is an Intex SF70110 2150 GPH sand pump. Back I went to Amazon to order a six-pack of them.I wish I had heeded the warnings. Since I was skeptical, I got the first one of six out and hooked it up. It ran with no issues, so I hooked up more. (I have a 14,000-gallon pool so Intex recommends six of them) I got all six set up and aside from some little leaks that needed tightening, everything looked great. In under an hour of the first day of actual use with them all hooked up, one spring a pinhole leak. I figured that's not terrible and I'll get a patch kit, no problem. The next time I used them, one had a big blowout right under the valve connection. I removed it and used the remaining five. The next time, another blowout. At this point I figured I might as well keep going because half of them are damaged anyway. The next time, another blowout at the same place. I disconnected it and connected the remaining few. I let them run a while and everything seemed to be going well. About a half hour later, another blowout. I now have one left that hasn't blown, and it's completely useless because of its size. All of them are going back.I am very VERY unhappy with Intex and their support. This is a very crappy product. The valves that "bypass" the heater part of the mats don't work, partly because the valve doesn't work well, partly because the heater and bypass sections of the mat appear to be connected, so it's always going through both sides no matter which way the valve is turned. These are just a complete joke. Another mildly infuriating thing is when connecting one to the next, the curved hose makes the connection points want to bend, causing it to pinch off the water, which I'm sure is a big part of the problem too. It's nearly impossible to get these to sit right so they don't pinch. Oh, and I had to add a bunch of additional hoses, seals, and connectors because these can't be located close enough to the pool to use what's existing. Now I have a boatload of extra parts too. GRRR...When I try to do this again, I'll either add a separate pump, or take the water straight out of the drain, because that should be adequate to move it through whatever system I come up with. I'll most likely do a homemade thing with black pipe or garden hose. I have a lot of empty space, so I'm going to take my time and experiment. For the same price, a few hundred feet of garden hose ran out of the drain and back into the pool might be sufficient. I'll update with any progress.UPDATE:I contacted the seller to see if they could help before I pack it all up and return it. They were very nice and sent me a replacement right away. When it arrived, I hooked it up to a new pump that does1000 GPH instead of the 2000+ that my current pump does. I was hoping it would be sufficient to warm the pool on it's own and not blow up the heater mats. Well, it didn't blow them up, but it also didn't have enough power to do a decent job. I have no idea how this is supposed to work. It's very frustrating. I'll probably call them again next year when I open the pool again. If anything good comes of it, I'll update this again.

I had several issues setting up this system, some were expected, and others were not.I expected to have to swap out the plastic clamps for metal hose clamps.I didnt expect to have to add extra rubber washers to connector hoses to prevent leaking, but not a big deal.My big issue is that the mats cannot handle proper sized pump for the pool you would hook then up too.I have an 8000 gallon intex pool and pump, but when that is hooked up, the pressure caused two of the mats to rip.I have an old 530 gph pump that I had from a smaller pool. It is allowing the system to work, but much slower that it should, so I have to swap pumps and connections to properly filter the pool overnight.It's not ideal, but I'm trying to stick it out, because I can tell that the mats are heating the pool.

I went to set this up & again intex did not include the hose clamps. You need at least 4 per mat. I had the same trouble with the intex 14 x 42 ultra xtr pool. very frustrating

Save your money . Ordered as a new product , was used and put back in box. Within the first twelve hrs , first one of set of six sprung a leak , four hours later the next one sprung a leak. Very disappointed with the whole situation.