Q: I bought a Balboa spa controller from Aqua-Man.com in Oct
of 2008, and it appears to be having a problem (not heating).
Here's what happened...last week, while the spa was running, there was an
"electrical" noise, followed by a burn smell coming from the spa.
This resulted in the house circuit breaker for the spa to trip. After
letting the spa sit for 30 minutes (and the smell gone), I turned the spa back on.
The controller went thru its diagnostics, and the pump came
on. I tried cycling the pump, and it went from lo to hi back to lo.
I checked the temp, and it was 89 - which is OK, as I had the spa off for the
day. After a bit, the heater light on the panel came on. I thought
ok, things are working.
Well, after 2 hours, i went back out, and the temp was now
87 - normally, it would be up to about 100. So, I immediately turned the spa
off, and sent this e-mail.
A: If you
smelled an electrical problem then the problem might be visually evident, have
you looked inside the control box?
If
everything is working except the heater and you are getting no error messages
from the upper control then there is a pretty short list of potential trouble
makers. I will put the three most likely down below.
One is
that the element itself has failed, but it is unusual you would have smelled
the failure.
Two is
that one of the heater switching relays on the board has failed, but with the
way Balboa handles their relay timing, this does not happen much anymore.
The last
immediate thought I have is a loose connection on one of the incoming power
wires. Loose connections produce heat and can eventually burn the wires off at
the connection, this will be visually evident.
So take a
look inside and see if it all looks normal to start and check the upper display
for error codes. If you see nothing if you could get a voltmeter and give me a
call from near the unit we should be able to resolve it pretty quickly.
Q: Well, I
think I know what's not working - the heater, removed the cover, and what I
found was that the contacts on the heater element were seriously rusted and
corroded - to the point that the right one (as you're looking at the unit head
on) was broken from the rust. So, no
more troubleshooting, I think. No other
signs of burns or damage to the controller. The fact that the controller would
run the pump, and try to run the heater, kind of would indicate that it's ok.
Would it
be safe to assume that the heater is shot?
If so, where do we go from here? I
wouldn't have thought that this would have happened in a little over a year. To
me, that's poor quality on the part of the manufacturer.
In any case,
I would like to get whatever "replacement" needs to take place
"in the works". If you need me to do more diagnostics and/or troubleshooting,
let me know. Also, if you want me to
send the old heater to you so that you can send it to Balboa, let me know, as
well.
And, just
so that you know, the end of the spa is NOT directly exposed to the
elements. The spa is under a covered
porch, and the end of the spa is enclosed behind a sheet of plywood. So,
basically, it's a dry area.
A: Rusty
heater terminals makes me first think of spa water chemistry imbalances, so we
should have a discussion about how you keep your chemistry.
I start by
asking what chemicals do you use and what do you use to test the water? A
discussion can often find an overlooked problem, so let me know as much as you
can.
As for the
heater you can order the replacement at the link below:
Balboa VS Replacement Heater Assembly
Make sure
you do a thorough job cleaning any oxidation off the jumpers that go from the
board to the heater terminals, we do not want a bad connection there for sure.
Q: To test
the water, I use a standard spa chlorine/acid test kit. i use the same chemicals as I use in the pool
- liquid chlorine and acid, but at a seriously lower level. In addition, I use very small pieces of
chlorine tabs to stabilize the chlorine.
I would
like to open a discussion with Balboa about the failure of this part. I spent almost $500 a year and a half ago,
and now I have to spend about $175 on a replacement heater unit. If I had know this would happen, I would have
either gone with a different brand, or kept trying to fix the old unit.
A: Balboa
and all other manufactures use essentially the same heater assemblies, the
choice of brand is not very significant if we a purely talking heater elements.
The way
that you are handling your spa’s chemistry is very non-standard for a portable
spa, and is likely to be the main factor in the early demise of your heater.
Liquid
chlorine and liquid acid are formulated for swimming pools, and would be very
difficult to use correctly in a few hundred gallons of water. You would need
precise measurements (most likely measurements down to fractional ounces) to
dose a spa correctly with those chemicals.
This means that the likelihood of large swings in pH and alkalinity is
very high.
Chlorine
tablets are a significant problem when used in a portable spa. Chlorine tablets
(unlike bromine tablets and granular or liquid chlorine) have a stabilizer in
them called cyanuric acid, this is a particular acid used for swimming pools as
a supplement and is not something desirable in a portable. Cyanuric acid levels
will be on the rise in your spa every time you add a chlorine tablet, and will
remain in the water until the spa is drained.
All of
these factors are bound to add to an erosion of the alkalinity levels in your
spa making the water very corrosive. I see no mention of monitoring the
alkalinity in your spa, and it is one of the most important items to monitor in
a spa for the long term health of the equipment.
With low
alkalinity, the metal parts of the spa take the worst of the stress followed by
other parts.
The
unfortunate truth is that unless you change your chemistry practices no heater
from any manufacturer is going to have a long life in your spa. The part of your new pack that failed is not
one of the complicated electronic parts, but it was the part that was directly
exposed to your spa water.
I would
highly recommend that you drain your spa and thoroughly clean or replace the
filter cartridges, and refill with fresh water. Then switch to bromine tablets
and dry acid formulated at spa strengths.
I would
also recommend a test kit that can measure bromine, ph and Alkalinity to use
for weekly monitoring. You will likely
find that you will be using an alkalinity increaser rather than an acid to
control your alkalinity.
Q: Thanks,
Dave....
Makes
sense. Will get a new heater unit, drain the spa, refill, and start over - with
SPA chemicals.
