| Heater Element Replacement, Flow-Through
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Note that this section is intended for replacement of a standard flow
through heater element that is contained within a stainless steel housing. In this particular example, we are demonstrating the
procedure as done on a 1996 model Hawkeye spa, with a Balboa-Instruments digital spa control
system.
While most spas that have stainless steel flow
through heaters are almost identical, your heater and/or control system may not be, so, this
procedure used may not work for your unit. Your particular heater element may require more
effort and technical knowledge to replace. If this displayed procedure is inconsistent with
your system design, then do not use this information to service your spa. This is page 1 of
this procedure.
Safety Warnings!
| Remove Power from the spa/hot tub BEFORE performing this
procedure. Failure to comply with this requirement, can lead to
electrical shock and/or electrocution! |
Disclaimer
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| The
instructions here are intended for general reference only. Many hot tubs and spas
are different from the one depicted here, and may require more or less
mechanical effort or knowledge in order to achieve the desired
results. |
READ FIRST BEFORE YOU
CONTINUE
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First things first... You MUST remove
all sources of power to the spa to prevent electrical shock. In these two pictures we see
the shut off valves that are used to service the equipment without draining the spa.
You'll need to push these valve handles in as far as possible to prevent leakage from the spa while
you are working on the heater. If your spa does not have shut off valves, then you'll need to
drain the spa or find some other way to plug the lines while you work on the heater.
Our next step in removal is to loosen the black heater
union 'collars' and remove the plumbing from the stainless steel tube..
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| Most of the time these collars can be removed
simply by turning them, however, sometimes it will help to loosen the phillips head screws that
hold the two piece clamp together if yours uses one, or by lightly tapping the collar with a
screwdriver and the palm of your hand, if yours uses the single piece
version. |
| Inside the spa control pack, locate the heater
element studs protruding through the aluminum case. It may help to move some of the control
cables out of the way in order to see the element here. |
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| Now this is one part that I enjoy about installing
a new heater element in a system using a standard Balboa-Instruments control system. In most
cases, there's no need to bother with trying to stop the rotation of the heater element stud,
because Balboa uses a solid copper strap that attaches to the high current bus strip to the
element, negating physical rotation of the connection. Simply use a pair of pliers, a nut
driver, or a socket wrench to loosen and remove the nuts that attach the strips to the element
studs. |
| With both heater element nuts removed, now remove
the straps from the high current bus by using a screw driver. Remember to only remove the
screws that hold the straps, not the ones that hold the circuit board. While you're at it
though, now is a good time to ensure that all of the other screws that hold the circuit board to
the bus strip are good and tight. (A loose connection here can cause the circuit board traces
to burn up). |
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| This is what the whole thing looks like with the
electrical "business end" removed from the heater element.Now, you're at a turning point
as to how to remove the element from the heater tube. I've seen a few of these where using a
pair of pliers on the heater element retaining nuts is enough to remove
them. |
| But this will vary with the size of the hole cut
into the aluminum case, and the mounted position of the heater tube. The odds of performing
this task with the heater tube attached to the case is slim, but try it once anyway, you may get
lucky. Using a pair of pliers, remove the large nuts that attach the element to the heater
tube. |
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| Since that didn't
work for us, we're now faced with the task of removing the spa control box to take the heater tube
off to gain full access to the element retaining nuts. Here I'm using a socket wrench to remove the
mounting bolts that are holding the spa pack to the spa base. |
| With the spa pack removed from the base, this is
what you should see. The round looking device on the left with two wires attached to it is
the pressure switch. The captive flange attached in the middle is a receptacle for the
high-limit sensor (and sometimes the temperature sensor, it's why you'll probably find two
indentations in the heater tube, and only one used). |
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| Loosen the retaining nut on the captive flange,
and the high limit sensor should slide right out. |
| Next, remove the two wires from the pressure
switch. Be sure that you pull on the quick disconnect lugs, not the wires! |
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