Pool pump or heater failed? Repair or replace in the GTA

Swimpool 360, which installs and services pool heaters across Toronto and York Region, publishes six tests. The first is age. Gas heaters last 7 to 12 years and heat pumps 10 to 15 years in Ontario, so an older heater facing a major repair is usually a replacement candidate. A young one is worth fixing. The second is cost: if a single repair exceeds roughly half the price of a new unit, replacement is usually the smarter spend.

The third is a corroded heat exchanger on an ageing unit. The fourth is a heater that struggles to reach temperature or burns more fuel than it used to. The fifth is the chance to switch an old gas heater for a more efficient heat pump, and the sixth is parts that are no longer made. When a common part for a discontinued model cannot be found, replacement is the only way forward.

Apex Electric Mechanical, a Toronto heating contractor, gives similar lifespans: 8 to 12 years for gas heaters and 10 to 15 for heat pumps. It says heaters that should last 10 to 15 years often fail at 6 to 8 years because of poor water chemistry, skipped service and bad winterization.

Apex Electric Mechanical publishes a repair price list for pool heaters in Toronto. A diagnostic service call is $150 to $300. Flame sensor cleaning is $200 to $400 and an igniter or pilot replacement is $300 to $600. A gas valve is $450 to $1,200 and a control board is $500 to $1,500. Descaling the heat exchanger, the part that passes heat into the water, is $300 to $800, and replacing it is $1,500 to $3,500.

Heat pumps have their own list. Apex prices a compressor replacement at $1,500 to $3,500 and a refrigerant leak repair at $500 to $2,500. It also says after-hours calls typically cost 1.5 to 2 times the standard rate, and weekend calls about twice.

Swimpool 360 publishes lower figures for some of the same jobs on its Markham repair page. It prices replacing a gas igniter or a thermocouple, the safety sensor that confirms the pilot flame is lit, at $200 to $400 and a heat exchanger replacement at $600 to $1,200, well under Apex's $1,500 to $3,500. The pages do not say which heaters the figures assume, so ask for a written price on your own unit. The leak and repair price guide lists more of these rows.

Apex Electric Mechanical sets out worked examples for Toronto in 2026. A like-for-like gas heater replacement typically totals $4,500 to $7,500, including a mid-tier unit, installation, plumbing, gas and electrical connections, with permits and inspections included. Swapping a gas heater for a heat pump totals $7,500 to $12,000, which includes $400 to remove the old heater and new electrical work.

Timing changes the bill. Apex says a heater that fails in peak summer typically costs $500 to $2,000 more than a planned replacement, because of equipment shortages and emergency labour. It recommends replacing heaters over 8 to 10 years old in the spring or fall, and says a like-for-like replacement usually takes one day.

Put next to those totals, a $1,500 to $3,500 heat exchanger is a large share of a new gas heater. On a heater past its expected life, that is the case Swimpool 360's half-the-price rule is written for. The gas heater and heat pump comparison covers the choice of replacement.

Many pump failures are small. Swimpool 360 says the most common pump service call is a failed capacitor, a small electrical part that helps the motor start. The motor hums but does not turn, and the fix usually costs $150 to $250. A full pump motor replacement costs $400 to $700.

GBI Pools, an Ottawa pool company, lists the repairs that can save a pump. They include new bearings for a noisy pump, new seals and gaskets for a leaking one, electrical checks and motor rebuilds. It says a pump that is loud, losing prime (drawing in air instead of water) or not moving water properly may not need replacing at all. It also warns that in some cases a squealing pump with corroded bearings uses twice the power.

If the pump does need replacing, the unit is the largest line. Pool Supplies Canada, an online retailer, listed the Hayward MaxFlo VS variable-speed pump at $1,959.00 and the Hayward TriStar VS at $2,279.00 when this guide was checked, before installation. None of the Ontario sources checked publishes an installed price for a pump swap, and PF Pools quotes equipment installation on request, so ask for the unit and the labour as separate lines.

Labour is part of every repair. PF Pools, a GTA service company, charges $200 plus HST for the first hour of a service call and $100 plus HST for each hour after that. HST is Ontario's 13 percent harmonized sales tax, so a two-hour call is $300 before tax and $339 with it, before parts.

A pump is also a running cost. GBI Pools says a single-speed pump can cost over $1,000 in electricity each summer in Ontario. It says many older pumps are oversized or run too long, turning over the whole pool 4 to 6 times a day when 2 to 3 is usually enough. It says a variable-speed pump can save up to $300 to $500 a season.

John C Young Design, a London, Ontario pool company, gives lower electricity figures for a 1.5 horsepower pump over a six-month season. It puts a single-speed pump at $300 to $480 and a variable-speed one at $90 to $180. It says a variable-speed pump on low speed for 12 to 14 hours a day uses about as much power as a kitchen fridge.

Swimpool 360 says variable-speed pumps save $600 to $1,200 a year and pay for themselves within 2 to 3 seasons. The three sources do not agree on the size of the saving, but all three say the variable-speed pump costs less to run. This guide's view: if an old single-speed pump needs a new motor at $400 to $700, get a price for a variable-speed pump at the same visit. On GBI Pools' and Swimpool 360's saving figures, the difference in price can come back in hydro within a few seasons, though neither source is independent of the sale.

Apex Electric Mechanical says consistent heater maintenance at $200 to $400 a year prevents the heat exchanger replacement that otherwise comes every 6 to 10 years. Its maintenance guide says scale in the heat exchanger cuts efficiency by 10 to 30 percent, and suggests descaling every 2 to 4 years depending on water chemistry.

Winter is a common cause of heater failure. Apex says incomplete winterization is a common cause of heat exchanger failure in Toronto, and that any water left in the heater will freeze and damage the exchanger. It prices a winterization service at $150 to $300. The pool closing guide covers what a full closing includes.

Keep records. Apex says manufacturers often deny heat exchanger warranty claims when water chemistry records show long periods outside the recommended ranges, so a log of test results protects the warranty.

Of the 442 companies in this index, 42 are filed under pool heating and 64 under pool repair. Google labels 17 of the heating companies as HVAC contractors, meaning heating, ventilation and air conditioning firms, and 45 of the repair companies as swimming pool repair services. The stored Google reviews of 39 companies across the index mention heater work, 24 mention pumps and filters, and 27 mention emergency help.

Weekend hours matter when equipment fails in July. Among the 42 heating companies, 29 post Saturday hours, 21 post Sunday hours and 11 list themselves as open 24 hours every day. Among the 64 repair companies, 33 post Saturday hours and 17 post Sunday hours. Posted hours are not a promise of a weekend visit, and Apex's weekend rate of about twice the standard price is worth remembering.

The heating companies are most common in Willowdale and Burlington, with 5 each, and area pages such as pool heating in Burlington narrow the list. The records hold a website for 41 of the 42 heating companies. You can reach a company through its own site, or send one request through the site's request form. Give the make and age of the unit, and describe the fault.

This guide is written by The Pool Trade Desk, the team that compiles PoolBuilderIndex. For this equipment guide, the desk read the repair prices, replacement costs and advice published by the Ontario pool and heating companies named above, and checked each page on 17 September 2026. Nearly every price source in this trade is a company that sells the work it prices. Each one is named in the sentence that uses its figure and linked in the source list below. Company counts come from the index's own records, and the methodology page explains how those records are built.

No listed company owns or funds PoolBuilderIndex, and no company can pay for a better position. The index earns nothing today. The request form passes a job to one of the highest-scoring companies listed in the area. The site is also building a paid route for work it passes on, which a company would have to agree to separately, as the page for contractors explains. Corrections go to corrections@poolbuilderindex.ca.