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Would like to buy a used heat pump for a small in-ground pool. Only 8000 gallons. I just don't want to pay the $2500 that I am seeing for a new one. Cost doesn't justify the means. Any ideas? I saw a few on craigslist a few months ago, but now they are gone. We live in Newport News, Va.

Hi, We have a 10 year old Wailea Coast Spa that is not heating properly. We set the temp to 101 and it only gets up to 93/95. Should we change the heater element? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Recently I purchased a used Balboa 2000 spa with the controller # 52761-01 ( the PCB # is 52762). The seller told me the spa runs but the heater does not work. After I made the power connection and turned the spa on, I found the topeside panel showed 8888 and then within a few seconds it turned to blank . The background light of the panel is on. The SPA runs on the economic mode at least once a day. However, SPA can't be operated intentionally and it can neither be checked out because the panel is not displaying. So the first step of my repair is to make the panel work so I can get all the message about the unit from the panel. But I have not being successful on it so far. Hope someone can help me. Here are all the information I have observed and measured: Current Operation Status: When the panel plug is put in the top socket, the spa does not run, but the unit seems cycling because I can hear the click sound and the economic mode runs at least once a day. When the economic mode starts, the spa runs first on the high speed for about one min. and them on the slow speed for about 2-3 min. The blower is also working during running of the mode. Panel Plug Connections: I have cleaned the phone plug of the panel wire. Since the panel shows digits 8888 at first a few senconds after the power is on and the panel background light is on, so I assume the plug is connected to PCB in some degree. Voltages on PCB: 1. Whether spa is running or not, the volts between two hot input terminals (black and red) is 240, between black and white is 240, and between red to white is 0. 2. When spa is not running, J20 (pump2-low), J13 (pump2-high), j28 (pump1-low), j29 (pump1-high), J14 (Ozone), J41, and J27 are all zero volt. When spa runs on slow speed, J20 (pump2-low), J29 (pump1-low), and J14 (ozone) are changed to 240v, and J13 (pump2-high), J29 (pump1-high), J41, and J27 are stay on 0 volt. 3. Whether spa is running or not, all fuses are meastured 240v. 4. Thansformer: Whether spa is running or not, all 4 solder spots which are visible on one side of the transformer on PCB, to neutral are 0v. (This might be the problem!) Heater: The resistance between the two terminals is 10 ohms, and between each terminal to ground is 0 ohms. When spa is not running, the volts between two terminals is 0v, between each terminal to neutral is 0v, and between each terminal to ground is 120v. When spa is running on low-speed, the volt between two terminals is changed to 240v, between the left side terminal to neutral is 0v, and between the right side terminal to neutral is changed to 240v. The volt between each terminal to ground is a little less than 120v. Hope this time I have provided more accurate information, and I desperately need anyone to help. Thanks, Victor

I need some help, I recently just replaced the heating element for my hot tub. it was a balboa 50071 heater. After replacing the element, The spa takes a very long time to get to temperature, and the temp does not go over a 100 now for some reason. When i had the heater out, my son turned the pressure switch dial. Does that have anything to do with the spa not getting to the right temp now? Any help is apreciated Thanks Mike

Hi All Ive recently inherited a spa which has added a significant amount to my electricity bill (4x up). Im from New Zealand and the spa controller is a spaquip 500 (see link) http://www.spa-quip.co.nz/shop/Controllers/Spa+Power+500/Spa+Power+500+Touch+Pad.html So the controller is basic and the whole system will not run without both the heater and the motor going at the same time. We are using a slow release silver compound to keep the pool clear which is working great but means we have to keep the spa on 24/7 in what can only be described as a temp maintenance mode ie the spa flicks on for what seems like a 45 min period every couple of hours to keep the temp steady. The silver requires 75,000 litres of water over it per day to be effective. My Question is two fold. A - Is the more costly of the two system pieces the heater element to run? And if so are there any products that I can run inline in the ribbon cable to bypass the thermostat and keep the element off while the pump goes? Reason being is that I can then just run an old school timer on the plug limiting the pump operation to the min hours per day required to keep the silver working. B - Is there any truth to the fact that shutting the power off at the wall on a spa will decrease the heater elements life? By the way its a 2KW heater and a 0.75kw (280l/min) pump... if it makes a difference.

I have a balboa el8000 mach 2 circuit board that has sparked and semi melted the board around 1 of the 2 contacts for the heating element. Can it be repaired or do I need to replace? And what would have caused this. Everything is still intact but you can see where it fried a little

H, I have a Jandy LX heater, about 5 years old. When I turn on the heater, it sounds like it's trying to start but the blower never kicks in, and it eventually the system shuts down. I manually rotated the fan inside the blower so I can get the blower to turn on, but the first cycle should run at the highest speed, then cycle into a lower fan speed when the igniters kick in. The blower though, never reaches that high rate of speed, and it idles for about 1-2 mins then the system shuts down. We had the pool guy out, who wants to replace the blower for around $575, but after reading on this forum about obstructions (especially during seasons of disuse), I want to explore that first. I would like to pull the blower, but the pool guy said that there are two blowers, one on the other side of the unit, which is too hard to get to without breaking things. What do you make of this? Do you think it's worth pulling the blower at the entrance of the heater at least? Or does it just sound like a blower that's simply trying its hardest to die? C Crawford

I have the Pentair Easy Touch. When I want to turn my pool heater on, I use my easy touch buttons and my pool heater will turn on, however, since my filter is scheduled to shut off at 8pm, the pool heater will shut off at 8pm. How do I make my filter to stay on as long as my pool heater?

I've got a Sta-Rite Max-E-Therm 400 and it won't start. When I power it up, the display shows 888 with the "Pool On" light green, then the "Pool On" light goes off and and the display changes to 128, then the display reads r=8, then E06 and the "Service Heater" lights up red. On the back of the panel, all the LEDs flash, then turn out, then the SFS and LED 11 light and stay lit. I've checked my hoses, which look good, and the gas valve is new. I tried uplugging the ribbon cable to the touch pad with the power off, then powering it up, but get the same thing. I'm suspecting some kind of failed sensor, but don't know which one to test or replace. This heater worked fine at the end of last season, and started a few times early this season, but now won't do anything. I replaced the thermo bypass and gas valve, but nada. Same errors, no progress.

Hello all, this is my first post to this forum. Have a bit of a problem. My wife and I have a 2005 Hot Springs Prodigy (Model H) hot tub that has been working great for almost 2 years. Recently I started hearing a clicking noise coming from within the components compartment. At the same time our tub wasn't hot anymore, but only warm. The circulation pump and jets were working fine at that time. I opened the IQ2020 panel and heard the clicking coming from the heater board. I noticed that the white heater wire also was darkened, like it had shorted out and fried the wire & board. I did some testing with a multimeter and found that the black & white leads on the heater board weren't giving any volts. This heater board was the original 73355 board. Finding there was a newer heater board (74618), I ordered that and just received it yesterday. I installed the new board (old board had a burned circuit on backside) and hooked up all the wires as directed by the instructions. This included using the same white wire from the heater that was darkened, but I had cut the old connectors off. I got everything installed and in place, turned on the circ pump breaker and then the heater breaker, but unfortunately there is still a clicking noise... the same as before. The really bad thing now is that where the jets were working before I changed the heater board, now when I turn on the jets there is just a click and now the jets do not come on at all. This circ pump also is not pushing bubbles up. FYI - I did fill the tub before all of this through the ozone standpipe filter to ensure there wouldn't be any airlocks. Also, during all the testing I did not have any filters on. On the main circuit board, the LIM OK light is on and green and the HEATER ON light is also on and red. When I used the multimeter and tested voltage on the new heater board, I'm getting about 130v (where I was getting 0 on old board). When I tested the white and black wires coming from the heater, I am getting a sound from the multimeter. I'm at wits end with this... the heater is a Watkins No Fault. I'm not sure if a bad heater would cause all this, but as I mentioned earlier, the HEATER ON light is on and red, which I think means the tub is getting a good signal from the heater and thinks it's heating, but I could be wrong. Does anyone have any ideas of other things to try? My issues are: 1) the clicking noise when the heater breaker is turned on 2) the circ pump and jets are no longer working (multimeter is not getting any signal when tested on the main circuit board - I'm no genius on how to test circuits/electricity, but I will definitely test anything anyone has ideas on). Thank you for your time in reading this and any help you can provide.

I have a Jandy LX 250, about 8 years old. It is connected throught the fireman's switch to a Jandy RS6 control center. Both thermostats (pool & Spa) on the heater are set to max. The heater will come on and bring the water up to the temperature set on the control center. When the water temperature drops, the control center activates, however the heater doesn't come one. I hear the blower fan for maybe a minute. then nothing. No error lights, and the spa or heater light remain solid. Rather than start blinking when the burns are light. I hear no ignition clicks. It seems after it sits for a while, the heater will come on, and the process will start all over again. I have replaced the temperature sensor, and cleaned the flame sensor. Any thought on what the problem may be? Thanks,

Hi everyone, I refilled my tub today (2008 Viking Eclipse Balboa spapack) water and air temp was 40deg. I was adding chemicals with the pump on high and on the second cycle of high the breaker tripped. I reset it and it immediatly tripped again. after reading on this fatastic forum I disconnected the heater and the breaker did not trip! I tested the heater posts and I have 120v on each and 240v on both. My question is: I just want to make sure that that is the problem. The tub is only 5 years old. What is the life expectacy of heaters? I keep close tabs on the ph so it won't get scale build up. Thanks for looking!

Want to ask about inground pool heaters. I have a small fiberglass pool. 23' x 14' oval. Like to add a heater. Questions are: Should I go with propane or gas? Electric would be to crazy expensive. What is the cost to run? How much more enjoyment would I get out of the pool? We live in Newport News Va. (Williamsburg/Yorktown area)

Our heater will get incredible corrosion in a very short time, causing it to short to ground. This last time was less than 5 months. Our circ pump runs 24/7 and we never use the big jets. We use chlorine but must be missing other chemicals that is causing the corrosion? We have used our tub every day for over 15 years, a morning routine. Current tub is 5/6 years old. Or could this be cheap heaters? I finally ordered a special(green) coated heater element hoping that will help. Any help is much appreciated.

I'm going to use Dr. Spa's handy-dandy "how to test your element / how power works" guide to confirm my suspicions, but I'm 95% sure my heater element is dead. I was shipped off overseas for 6 weeks and came back to relax ... in my 82 degreee tub (which was a huge disappointment). The controls appear to be heating, and as well, I never see my TED (power consumption monitoring device) say I get up to 5-8 kva like I normally do. Since I believe the element is bad, my question is whether or not any of you have a recommended replacement element? I've seen some that are titanium - does this really make a difference? The hype says that corrosive stuff won't stick to it. I'm wondering though if it heats as well?

I have a Hot Springs Landmark hot tub, bought new in 2002. Not getting power to the heater. Well, first the heater relay board shorted out and blew. I bought a new heater board and installed it today, but the heater is still not working. The no fault heater seems ok, tested it with meter and got about 10 ohms between wires. The circulation pump is running. On the main board the green light is on and the red light is on. Still getting no voltage to the heater though. Could the new board be bad or maybe a relay on main board. Anyone have any ideas on what could be the problem. Thanks.

I have three problems that all happened together concerning my spa equipment. 1) The blower will not start. I suspect it is an electrical problem, as when I turn the switch absolutely nothing happens. I have reset the breaker in the panel board and checked the wiring inside the blower. What seemed odd is that the switch only had a red wire hooked up to it (as well as the green ground). The black was not connected to anything. See picture below. Did something happen internally? 2) My spa pump is will not start. For the past two days, it had been working but at an extremely loud noise, which I suspected was the bearing. Just today, it fails to turn on and only makes a humming noise. After 10 seconds, the humming noise stops (no breaker was tripped). See link to video below. 3) My heater will not turn on. Is this because the pump is not turned on, and no water is flowing through it? Or are they completely independent? I have ensured that power is getting to the panel board next to my equipment, as my pool light works (same panel) as well as another outlet. My equipment is 8 years old. Pump: 2 HP Hayward Bay North Star Blower: Silencer 1HP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMDEf-qnx0A

Any real difference between these? The Sundance Optima has titanium while the Chelsee has Stainless Steel/incalloy 825 Heater. Both come with 5 year warranty.

We are new to hot tub ownership. Bought a used 2002 Hot Springs Vanguard. It took a couple weeks for the electrician to get to us and wire in the 20 and 30 amp box for power. We have noticed the tub is not heating, seems like it did early on, but it could have been the honeymoon stage we were in. We did the restart where you shut both amps off, the 20 first then the 30, let it sit for about 25 min and then turned on the 30, the jets would not work unless the 20 was on also. So now we are thinking the electrician maybe wired it wrong? Our outside temps have been 100 or higher, right now the tub water is 90. Not sure if there is anything we can check ourselves? Looks like maybe the heater is different, we found no reset button on it and there are extra screw holes on the floor of the base where the pump is. Also I am thinking the board may have been upgraded a year or two ago. Thanks for any help or suggestions you can offer. Happy 4th of July.

Hello, I am having an issue with a Max-e therm heater. Some mice got inside and chewed up some wires so I reconnected what seemed to be all of them but I am still getting error code R-9 which I read in this forum is a boot up message. I opened the display to reveal the motherboard and I am seeing a red light on what appears to be CR15. A tiny little connection on the board that doesnt look fried or anything. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Maybe I am misreading the label but its hard to tell what number is for what connection. It could also be U11 but cr15 looks closer. PS there is another red light and a green light on but they are showing through from the otherside of the display. Thanks for any and all help

I have started a new thread, so I apologize if I have duplicated what I have said in other threads, but here is the problem: After turning on the breakers at the sub-panel, with or without jets running, the unit shuts down and the ready light flashes on the main display panel. This happens with and without filters. The breaker doesn't trip, but the only way to restart the spa is to turn the breaker off and back on again. There is a slight hum coming from the circ pump. I dont' know if this is normal, but a small stream of water shoots back into the filter compartment, so I'm not sure if this is from the ozonator or an overflow of the circ pump. We had a technician look at it (when it was wired wrong) but he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't heat. He thought it was wired wrong but my husband kept insisting that there are only supposed to be 3 wires hooked up, so that didn't help the technician (especially since my husband was wrong). Without the heater hooked up, the jets run fine and everything seems to be working (except the heater, since it wasn't wired). I don't know if you can normally see water coming out of the heater return/drain, but we don't see anything, and as mentioned before, the only movement we can see is in the filter compartment (even when jets aren't running). We have hard water, and based on what was mentioned in another thread, the sizzling in the heater sounds like there is little or no flow. This is what the technician did: Took off one end of the pump to see if there was an air lock, none, then checked the opposite end of the heater for an air lock, and again none. He opened both drains, nothing there either. He checked the suction where the grey standpipe is, and there is suction there, so does that mean the pump is working? Also, he checked the voltage of the heater (none because it was wired wrong), and he also took off the heater relay board to see if anything was fried behind it. We also put a plastic bag over the drain but nothing, so my guess is a blockage. I will call him back, to check the suggestions made by PreservedSwine, but wonder if there's something that I can do in the meantime. Note that after he left, I put a garden hose down the grey standpipe in case there was an air lock somewhere else and nothing happened, the spa still shuts off after about 30 seconds. Thanks.

Hi everyone: We just moved a hot tub, ran new wires, filled it up and thought it was working fine, until it didn't heat up. I have been reading posts online about what to do and I am completely lost. One thread I read says to press the red reset button on the heater but I can't find one. Also, the electrician isn't completely sure if it's hooked up correctly because what is in the panel doesn't exactly match what's in the manual and the cover of the panel is a little confusing. All jets as well as the light work. There are also lights on the circuit board. The power light is green and the heater light is red (nothing is flashing). We cleaned the filters, the weir gate is working fine, and the circulation pump seems to be working as there is a slight vibration on it and on the heater. The water just doesn't seem to be moving around in the tub. When it first had power, some cloudy water poured out of the drain and it seemed to be circulating. What can I try to narrow down what the problem is? I have a picture but don't know how to paste it on here. If this helps, there are 3 wires coming out of the deck, black wire is hot and is in #2, red wire is hot and is in #4, and blue wire is neutral and is in #5...is this right? Note that this spa is in Canada so I think the wire colours are slightly different for hot and neutral. I am extremely clueless when it comes to this spa so I would really appreciate anyone's help!! Thank you.

Ok a little back story. Heated the spa about 2 weeks ago. Everything worked fine and the spa heated nicely. Then last weekend put the filter pump on and the pool heater and left to do some things. When i got back home the pool wasnt warm. Go to the heater and the service AGS light is on. Turn it off to try again. Runs about 3 times and then service AGS light comes on again. I can smell gas when it comes on and starts blowing air through the vent so i know its getting gas. So i switch to spa and see if that will heat. But instead of service AGS light coming on, I'm getting the pressure switch light flashing and the heater wont kick on. Anybody have ideas? I want to try and do this myself because I can't really afford to have a technician do it. Ive done some searching but because i dont know what's what I'm not really sure what im suppose to be checking. Here's some pictures of my setup for reference and maybe you can tell me what i should check and where it is in the pictures.

Hey guys, I finally got my Vita Spa Vintage LH hooked up and filled up but have a few problems. First no heat, no heat indicator lights and the high limit switch isnt tripped (checked to see if the lil red button had popped) Secondly, when i flipped the breaker the bubbler kicked in automatically, but the pump for the jets wasnt running. It only runs when I hit the Jet button on the control panel, and the jets arent working. Tried the 3 valves but no luck. My control panel has the old style temp dial with a button for jets,blower,and light. They all have indicator lights at the top. Any ideas?

For somebody who is pretty handy and use to fixing most everying around the home, is installing a new pool heater doable or something left to the professionals?