The Laars story began in 1948 when Avy L. Miller formed Laars Engineering to manufacture and sell his new concept of a commercial boiler. This new design was based on the principle that water could be heated rapidly through a finned copper tube heat exchanger exposed to a gas flame. The technique virtually eliminates the scaling and electrolytic corrosion that shortens the life of the cast iron and steel tube boilers used for commercial heating and hot water supply.

In 1950, the swimming pool industry in Southern California started to develop. The Laars copper tube design was ideally suited to the task of heating a large volume of pool water quickly and economically. For the pool owner, a heated pool meant more comfortable swimming, a longer swimming season, and a better value on investment. Adapting the copper tube boiler to this water heating application, Laars grew and prospered.

Laars Engineering expanded to a North Hollywood, California location in 1955. The copper tube concept, now dominant in the pool heater market, was applied to large high volume water heating systems for industry, multiple housing, restaurants, car washes and commercial laundries.

Inside Laars

Component Testing

Lab Monitor

Paint Line

Test Station

Application Engineering

Product Training

The acquisition of Laars Engineering by Teledyne, Incorporated in 1966, provided further growth impetus with substantial investment in plant equipment and the adoption of automated and semi-automatic manufacturing techniques which allowed the company to respond rapidly to the demands of the marketplace. Although there were now a number of other copper tube boilers in the marketplace, Laars remained the dominant force, both in reputation and sales volume.

The company next expanded into residential hydronic heating with gas and oil boilers. Continued product innovation also resulted in the development of the Hi-E pool heater and Hi-E commercial water heater; these products represented a breakthrough in state-of-the-art technology, with the highest energy efficiency and lowest environmental emissions available. Research and development contracts with various universities, the Gas Research Institute, Battelle, and Southern California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District further advanced the company’s growth and diversification efforts.

After a number of plant enlargements over the years in the North Hollywood area, Teledyne Laars completed a major facilities move in 1988: a 200,000 sq. ft. plant and office was built in Moorpark, California. In 1989, Teledyne Laars further expanded by opening an 80,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Rochester, New Hampshire. This East Coast operation was built to facilitate better access to Eastern U.S. and Canadian markets and also to enhance growth in residential and commercial boilers and volume water heaters.

In 1996, Teledyne Laars acquired Jandy Industries, a company that dominates the valve, electronic controls and water features markets in the pool industry. The 1998 acquisition of Trianco-Heatmaker added high efficiency sealed combustion systems to their heating technology base of gas and oil-fired boilers and water heaters for residential and commercial use.

Laars Heating Systems was then acquired by Waterpik Technologies, Inc. in 1999, a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative personal health care products, pool products and water-heating systems.

In June of 2005, Laars was purchased by the Bradford White Corporation. The acquisition by Bradford White, an international corporation, greatly expanded Laar’s scope and marketplace. With a new distribution center in the Simi Valley area of California, Laars Heating Systems has begun to offer its good and services to an even greater audience of customers.

Laars’ high-efficiency, high-performance and condensing boiler lines, and their commercial water heater systems, are recognized industry-wide today as leading technology. The range of coverage is amazing — from 50,000 to 5 million Btu.

In the last three years, Laars has introduced 15 new high-performance products into the marketplace, including the fan-assisted copper tube Pennant line, and the low-mass Rheos and Rheos+ systems.