Pool owners go through a series of problems, and one of them is pool heater issues. Some of the heater problems are often related to mice, rats, and rodents. And that’s something you will want to get control of soon enough.
During the cold weather or season, these small animals change their habitat, and the best place they find is a pool heater. It’s one of the most tempting options for them.
That’s the reason why you want to protect your pool heater from them. The best way is to build an ideal rat-proofing kit for a pool heater. That way, you can defend it a year long.
What Damages can Mice and Rodent Cause?
Once the mice and the rodents find their way into the pool heater, they will start settling in, and when done, they start the fishy business. The small animals will start chewing the wiring, and anything soft they come across to finds room and food.
And the bad news is, you might not even notice until your pool heater stops working suddenly. Of course, you can prevent the pest from infesting the unit by checking it often, but there are more effective ways to discuss below.
What Do You Need?
The few methods and steps you need to mice-proof your pool heater requires you to run to the nearest hardware and grab some items necessary to pull it off. Here is what you need:
- Stainless Steel Rodent-Proof Woven Wire Mesh
- Good-sized Steel Wool
- Sizable Wood Panel
Extras:
- Mouse Busters Heater Protector
- Rubber Snakes
- Moth Balls
The first list gives you the easy to find items that will cost merely nothing. The second list gives you other things you will want to add to provide the project with an extra preventive layer. You can decide to use all three, but one of them will come in handy too.
What steps do you need to mice-proof your pool heater?
Now that you’ve gathered everything you need for the projects, it’s time to get your hands dirty. You will need to follow the following steps to make sure you mice proof your heater.
Remember, you can never cover the unit when operational as these open spaces offer the necessary ventilation.
That means you have to do this when closing your pool, especially during the winter or planning not to use the pool heater for quite some time.
Let’s get started.
Check for mice infestation.
Before you start covering the heater, you will want to make sure there is no infestation. If there is, you will need to take the following actions:
Turn off the pool heater and shut off its breaker in the control panel to ensure no risk of shock.
Call an exterminator to clean and dispose of the nest. You can do it if you’re a fan of DIYs.
When the nest cleaning is done, you can now work on the heater.
With mice and rats known to be fun of chewing power cables, you will want to check everything to make sure nothing is compromised carefully.
If you’re a DIYer, you can handle the repairs. But if DIYing isn’t your thing, or if the wire mess left there is too much for you, call a licensed heater repairer to do the job.
Cover the openings with steel wool
You see those small holes and entrances on the pool heater. It would be best to cover them all; they offer an express route to the heater interior. Use the steel wool you bought.
Why steel wool? The materials go harsh on rats, mice, and rodents’ mouths. When they try to eat it, it cuts them, and if they force it, the wool might even kill them.
So, it’s an excellent shield to close all those small entrances.
You can also use Copper Mesh for Mouse Rat Rodent Control. It’s more effective than steel wool, but of course, it will cost you some extra bucks.
Add an extra protection rodent-proof wire mesh.
Take a piece of a stainless steel rodent-proof woven wire mesh and cover those spots that you covered with the steel wool. It’s a way to provide additional protection.
The rodent-proof woven wire will work some magic in preventing the pool heater rodent from reaching the steel wool.
It will also keep everything neat and tidy. Screw it tightly to make sure the edges are flat; that will hold everything tight.
Cover everything with wood panels
At this point, the heater is protected from pool heater rodents. But it’s not yet mice-proof. It would be best if you covered the exterior, all four sides, with wood panels.
It’s a way to add more protection and cleaning everything to make your heater cool-looking. Another thing, the wood panels hold everything in place.
You can also try:
In line with the above steps, here are some additional ways to can try out to keep the mice, rats, and rodents away from your pool heater:
Mouse Busters Heater Protector
It’s a heater protector, easy to use, affordable and effective. It’s considered to be better than having a cat. The buster will help you prevent mice and rodents from settling in your pool heater and causing damages.
The best part is that the best Mouse Busters Heater Protector is all-natural that uses mice repellent to trigger an instinctive fear in them. It’s useful in protecting your heater from all types of rodents, including mice, rats, chipmunks, possums, moles, rabbits, and squirrels.
Rubber Snakes
Mice hate their eaters, including snakes. Placing rubber snakes around the heater could deter the rodents as they fear danger. It will offer a little extra protection.
Moth Balls
Rodents hate the strong smell and try their best to avoid them. You could also place mothballs inside the heater’s control panel. They produce a strong smell that could keep the mice away. However, you will need to put a lot for them to be effective.
Note:
It would be best if you never operated the pool heater when covered like this. Take everything off and power it on. The mice won’t take shelter there when operational.
And another thing, if you’re not a DIY person, you’re free to hire a professional for the job. But that will cost you some extras compared to if you did the job yourself.
Conclusion
Mice and other rodents can cause a lot of mess inside your pool heater, and the worst cause a failure that would cost you money to fix. It would be best to prevent it by following these tips on keeping mice out of your pool heater. The steps are easy to follow and do. You don’t have to go expensive. You can do this even when low budgeted.
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