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Balboa Heater Element Bulkhead O-Ring Question


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Hi Everybody!

This is my first post on the forum and am excited to have discussions with pool and spa professionals from across the country! I hope that I can share my knowledge though limited at this point, and hopefully help a few fellow spa owners.  I manage a maintenance department for a cabin business that is my user name and we services about 50+ hot tubs of many brands including Nordic, Strong Spa, Premium Leisure, Coleman, Viking, Gulf Coast among others. I look forward to adding this forum as an information tool in keeping our equipment top notch. Now on to my question.

 

I have been searching for the O-rings that are used on the Balboa Thru-pipe style heating elements that seal the electrical terminals as the pass through the tube. They call them ''bulkhead O-rings'' but there is no part number to order just these o-rings when they wear out.

Does anyone out there have a good replacement O-ring for this as I have been unsuccessful in my search. Additionally, does anyone have the measurements for the o-rings when they are new? I want to order a bunch of Viton O-rings but could use the specs to ensure I get the right ones.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Dan

 

 

 

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danthespaman316 - Thank you very much for the dimensions. Using the ID, and OD sizing guide I can find a few Viton O-rings that are very close matches and one perfect match. Do you or anyone happen to know if the size #10 mean that it is a  3/32'' thickness? The reason I ask is because when I do a search by "#10" I get results for Hillman and Danco o-rings, and those are 'rubber' and neoprene o-rings.  3/32'' is the size of the match that has the same ID and OD that you kindly provided.

Thanks again for all of the help.

 

Dan

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I don't think I've ever seen a "worn out" O-Ring on a balboa heater, where the electrical connections weren't corroded as well.  Might as well replace the element, since you're going to the trouble of removing it to replace the o-rings.  If the o-ring has been in there long enough to deteriorate, the element's got to be near the end of its useful lifespan.  You'd be doing your customer a favor by avoiding a service call in the near future for a new heater.

Dave

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Hey All,

I just got a few sets of Viton O-Rings from Mcmaster-Carr (https://www.mcmaster.com/#1288N143) linked here and I do have to say the diameter is just a touch small and the cross section a touch thicker than the ones removed, but I threw them back together anyway, torqued them and seem to be holding a seal just fine. I checked to see if they squeezed out or pinched and they look just fine.

One last question relating to this topic, does anyone know what kind of thread paste is being used on the threads? I took apart a brand new heater and saw that the threads and oring seat were coated with a layer of white paste looking material.

Jersey Hot Tub Repair: Thank you for the input. The elements I am replacing the O-rings on are because of the corrosion. I thought if I could catch the corrosion early, I could save the elements and control boards from undue stress and premature failure. I did a resistance check and the measurements are within range so I assumed that was a measurement of the 'health' of the element. I have seen the evolution in process Balboa has progressively been adapting to improve the corrosion and leaking in this area up until they did away from the copper tongue depressor shaped attachment bands and went to a plug type connection. I cannot figure out why they did not do from the beginning. I clean the corrosion from the terminals, replace the rings and ultimately the thread paste, re-attach, center, torque and applying a generous portion of dielectric grease over the bare copper and where the corrosion was. Balboa appears to be applying a sort of polyurethane or conformal coating over these exposed connections which seems to have pretty much solved the corrosion problem. The tub in question is one of the few wholly owned cabins we have in our program.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Dan

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Element corrosion is usually due to water quality.  Using Chlorine (or salt generators) will corrode the elements more quickly than non-chlorine disinfection.  I had one fail after only one month in a salt generator this season.

I've heard that Balboa privately admits the copper attachment bands cause premature failure, but that's more frequently circuit board burn-ups than element corrosion.  I've installed 3 new Balboa packs this August and they are still coming from the factory with the copper attachment bands.

Dave

 

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Hey Dave,

We Just added a Cabin to our program in which the owner opted to buy a saltwater tub and initially it sounded great, but after research, I decided we were not going to retrofit any more tubs to this configuration and that was one of the reasons.

As far as the copper bands still coming from Balboa, they used that system for a long time so it will be around for a while as thousands of tubs new and old still have the old system and guys like us will still need part support, but the new system is out and seems like it should be a great solution to the problem.

 

Now back to the heater assemblies, can you or anyone advise as to what type of thread paste is being used on the bulkhead nuts? It is a white looking paste that is kind of flaky when removed. It looks like they use this thread paste I assume, but do not know what type, and then if the heater tube is being installed in a control box, they coat it in polyurethane or maybe conformal coating after attaching the copper bands. This is guess based on what I see, so if anyone can say for sure please let me know as I want to repair these using the exact same process they use.

 

Thanks for the help thus far. Long term I am looking to build a testing fixture to do anything from run control boards, heaters, pressure leak checks of the heaters and pumps, etc. Will start a thread if anything useful comes of it that I feel might be worth sharing.

 

Dan

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