Description
Hot Tub elements are a vital part of any spa heater and one of the components on your hot tub most likely to fail. 3kw replacement spa heater elements are the most popular, with the element that suit the Balboa M7 systems being the typical spa heater element most often required. This is all due to the wide use of Balboa equipment on many imported and domestically made portable spas, hot tub and Jacuzzis.
New elements for hot tub heaters are available in several versions; standard, to be avoided, incoloy that used to be the best choice, and now Titanium, that have really made all other types of replacement element redundant. When you consider the time taken to replace a heater element it is a false economy to try and save a few pounds on a cheaper one out of communist China that will be a low grade copy of a western, usually American made, quality product.
The benefits of Titanium are well described elsewhere on this website in a fact sheet, but suffice it to say they are quite the best option for performance and longevity in the varying conditions experienced in hot tub water across the British Isles.
A worrying trend in spa water care has been the irresponsible recommendations by various rogue internet suppliers that tri Clor tablets are suitable for hot tubs, they are not; while the way these chlorine tablets are supplied via the Post Office by many e retailers are actually illegal, but this is for discussion elsewhere on this website. The point regards Tri Clor tablets is they destroy heater elements or the seals around and the probes that control your heater, as well as all associated seals. Acidic, over dosed spa water causes thousands of pounds of damage to British owners each year all caused by the corrosive action and low pH caused by the incorrect use of chlorine tablets in hot tubs, and this probably explains while you are having to look for a new heater element for your hot tub
A sign that a spa heater element has failed can be the RCD covering the supply to your portable hot tub tripping. For those that don’t know, and without going into too much detail, a heater based on an element like this relies on a current being able to flow through and create heat that efficiency transfers to the water flowing past. If this electrical flow stops, the heating stops and your hot tub is no longer hot.
The element on most hot tubs is found in a stainless steel tube mounted next to, or under the control box, that in turn houses the PCB that controls the switching and cycles of your hot tub equipment. Most heater housings have probes in, while older heaters have a pressure switch mounted on them. Spa Save only specialises in the supply titanium 3kw elements to suit M7 units, so be sure you know what you want as we do not accept back elements that have been incorrectly ordered as we do not know what they have been subjected to before it has been realised they are wrong, and they these are electrical components so cannot be supplied second hand. Although many rogue suppliers and service techs do so!
Do be aware that control equipment failure can be the problem, rather than element failure and an advantage of using a competent individual, (you hope), is he will be able to “test through” and get readings across your equipment, but do be aware many so called hot tub engineers have no idea what they are doing and will flam you with a intake of breath, line of nonsense, and then huge price for fitting an element or heater, this seem a particular problem with some “companies” working out of East Anglia and Northants
Most quality spas have safety cut outs, flow cut outs, high limit stats etc., while your RCD and a correct supply fuse also helps, but despite this, so called dry fire damage to elements is a serious occurrence when systems or flow fail, this can cause serious damage to your heater and general equipment, even resulting in fire.
It is most important to ensure your water is balanced as low pH causes corrosion and the lower it goes the more damage is caused to your element, especially in association with Tri Clor tablets, you also have to beware of surface and water line films appearing in the hot tub as these are a sign of poor water sanitation and / or balance that could lead to heater failure.
Poor flow caused by the use of the wrong filters for your hot tub, systems that quickly block up your filters, and / or air locks in a pump, pipework or even your heater, can be quick to cause element and heater damage if systems do not shut down. Always fill via your tub filtration unit and if in doubt over an air lock open a pump union to bleed air, but only do this if you know what you are doing and can re fix it without a leak.
Short circuits are also caused by pin holes in element sheaths that in turn are caused by corrosion, this allows water in and causes the RCD to trip, any visible holes mean your element has, in technical terms, had it!
Many on line retailers really do try and rip off spa owners with pseudo advice given in a technical manner, that is really just there to convince you they know what they are talking about so as to gain your trust, so you will then purchase either a complete new heater or overpriced heater element, (usually one with just a standard coating) without checking out longer established genuine low cost spa component sites like spa save, do be aware of prices on other sites that can be 150% more than spa save prices for exactly the same thing.
You must always be very aware that water and electricity do not mix and hot tubs must be isolated or turned off when being worked on and any work you do is at your own risk. So don’t do anything unless you know what you are doing as anything on line, including this site , is just for information and does not serve as guidance or instructions for undertaking the fitting. We are discount suppliers not educators, although we do our best to be responsible suppliers, but as the population does contain a percentage of people you just can’t help being challenged by tasks, but still attempt them, there will always be those that then try and get someone else to take the blame and cost for their mistakes, if you come into this category, (and you will know if you are), go and buy elsewhere. We know all we can ever do is our best and act in good faith, so if attempt to fit an element or do anything else with your spa heater don’t hold us responsible if anything happens, you are doing this at your own risk, so always use the services of a competent individual.
Incidentally the reason for the failure of a new spa element is typically heavy handling leading to damage to seal or terminal nut, as with all these types of fixings, dextrous knowledgeable use of the right tools is needed by a competent person when fitting a hot tub heater element to a portable spas who must avoid twisting or bending the fittings or forcing.
The only certainty when buying hot tub elements is, that if you are sure you are ordering what suits the spa heater fitted on your portable hot tub, and you are ordering from spa save, you will be getting the lowest price there is in Britain for a hot tub 3kw heater element that suits M7 systems and we welcome you checking this out via the search engines or a hot tub element search on eBay, we are sure you will find spa save has the highest specified spa elements at the lowest price.
Fits 15” Tube length Flow Thru heaters and Balboa heaters
Product Information All 2010 manufacture
Element kW :3.0 Volts: 230 Hz: 50 Amps: 12.0
Element is used on the following
Balboa M7 Heaters
Balboa 58107 / 58061 / 50145 / 58046 / 58118
Gecko – HydroQuip – AquaTemp – Spa Builders
Measurements Element length: 244mm Element height: 50mm
Correct length with curved tip designed not to come into contact with sensor probes.
From Europe’s longest established specialist spa and hot tub specialists
