I just replaced the heating element, and the heater light comes on indicating the heater is working and it is heating about 1 degree every two hours. It is a 230 V spa. Proper voltage is reaching the element, so I have no idea what to do next. PLEASE HELP!

If you checked for voltage across the two terminals at the heater (not from one to ground and the other to ground, that is improper) and you have adequate voltage there, your new element is defective. You can verify this by removing power and wires to the element, and using the Ohm's scale, check resistance across those same two terminals. Should be under 50 ohms. Most heaters run around 10 ohms. Infinite reading indicates an open element.

I will try the ohms test tonight, thanks, and hopefully i don't have to buy a new element.

I didn't try across the terminals, I went from terminal to ground. How do i measure across the terminals without frying something. Thanks.

are you using a volt meter or just a test light? You will need to obtain a volt meter capable of testing 300V AC and all you do is just place one lead on one terminal and the other lead on the other terminal. You won't burn anything up doing a volt check unless you cross a wire or allow it to touch something it shouldn't.

Actually i have the light meter that has 110v, 220v, and up until 500v. I didn't get a reading at any level, so not sure what to do next. Any suggestions? And would it matter if i didn't have a 230v reading on the meter?

It's always better to have a voltmeter, but your light not indicating anything across the two terminals shows that you have no power. Check to ensure your flow switch is sensing water flow. You can jump it out temporarily to see if that gets power to the heater. Don't run it this way though as it is a safety device intended to prevent your element from "dry fire" which in turn will burn out the element. If the flow switch isn't the problem, check to see if you have power on the coil of the heater contactor. This would of course depend on what type of control you have. Is it a digital control or mechanical (do you have a knob you must turn to adjust the temperature?) Digital controls often use 2 relays soldered to the main board to control the heater.

i will get a voltmeter tommorow, when I use a simple light tester to see if it has some voltage it shows a light, but it's not much voltage at all. I'll try the flow switch method also. Thanks so much for your help!!

Well i checked across the heater terminals and the leads that come from the circuit board (it is digital) with the mulitmeter and i didn't get any reading, so next step is to try and figure out why no voltage is getting to the heating leads. You mentioned to jumper out the flow switch, could you give me some instructions on how i would go about doing that? I've never done that before. Thanks so much.

just take the two wires off the switch and jump them together to bypass it.

Just jump them together with any sort of wire? And thank you very much for all your help.

Yup, that's it

Ok, i did try to jumper it, and all it did was give me a FL error code. So i don't think that's the problem. I did notice today a small burn spot on the circuit board above the heater lead? Could i possibly need an entire new circuit board? Thanks.

Ok, we know the flow switch is working in that you got an error when you jumped it. The burn on the circuit board may be the culprit. Can you take a detailed photo of the burn and the surrounding area?

here is a picture of the suspected burn spot

Please post a larger picture. If you have troubles with the size limit, you can email the picture directly to me

one other pic

Yes that very well could be the whole problem. With the heater on, put your voltmeter probe on the nut with the burned spot on the circuit board. Then place the other other probe on the black wire comming in to the circuit board. If you read voltage, the burned spot is your problem.

Thanks i'll give that a try, but at this point it's probably pretty safe to say i need a new circuit board. I really appreciate all your help.

What size element did you go with? The Balboa system uses 4K only. If you had/have a larger element, that would be a possible reason why the circuit board burned. Most of the time it is due to a bad or loose connection, but where it burned I am thinking perhaps too much current. If you would like, once you get your replacement board, send me your old one, as a tech, I might be able to repair it for a backup unit for ya

Thank you very much, I will probably order a new board today. Have a good day.

Kevin

Actually the last element was s 5.5 heater, and the new one is 4 so that probably did fry the board in that spot. so we'll see if everything is ok when i get the new board.

yup, that would do it. Good luck!