Hot Tub Spa Pack Survival Guide: Master the Controls Like a Pro!

Your spa pack is the most essential part of your hot tub setup. It’s the brains behind the entire system, controlling all the different parts to make them work together. 

Navigating a spa pack can be complicated, especially if you’re new to it. 

If you get lost among the spa pack’s buttons and dials, don’t worry—I’ve got you covered!

Let’s review a spa pack, how it works, and how to troubleshoot it. By the end of this article and the video, you’ll be a hot tub spa pack master. 

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What is a Spa Pack

As mentioned above, a Spa pack is the brains of the system. It controls the jets, blowers, filter cycles, purge cycles, temperature, and other essential aspects. 

The picture below shows the inside of an average spa pack (this one is a Balboa). Of course, different manufacturers have different designs, but I’ll keep this article as generic as possible. 

Different Components of a Spa Pack

Let’s examine the different parts of a Spa pack and how they all come together. I’ll explain using the diagram below, so you might have to return to it. 

Power Input

We’ll first examine the electrical input marked in the picture below. If you’re in the UK, you will have two wires, the live and neutral coming in and an earth wire on the outside. 

On the contrary, models in the US have 3 or even 4 wires for live, neutral, and earth. If you’re running on 115V, you’ll have 3 wires, a hot, a common, and a ground. If you’re running 230V, you’ll have 4, including 2 hots. 

The power comes from the breaker and goes into your main block. Each model has its own circuit diagram. This diagram will allow you to understand the board and what and where to plug in. 

Fuses

Moving on, we come to the different fuses in the spa pack. These are all around the circuit board. As a rule of thumb, the bigger the fuse, the larger the item it is connected to. 

Be sure to use the circuit diagram to understand which fuse is which. 

Connectors

As you can see, significant wiring is used within the Spa pack to integrate the different parts. The most common type of connector is the white one in the picture. It’s called an AMP connector.

Suppose you’re upgrading your spa pack from an older one. In that case, you will probably need to reconfigure the wiring for the pumps and other equipment accordingly. Check out my article here regarding this. 

As you can see, each of these connectors has a wire attached to it that goes to a separate group in the spa pack. It would help if you reviewed the circuit diagram to know which corresponds to which group. 

This will enable you to set different voltages. For example, different equipment pieces are rated for other voltages in the States. If you’re using a 230V system but a 

115V circulation pump, you’ll need to connect the pump to the 115V group. 

This is one great thing about Spa packs. They Are designed to work in many different types of configurations. 

Expander Board

This particular model includes an expander board at the bottom of the circuit, which will allow me to add additional equipment to my setup. 

The type of equipment depends on what the board is rated for, so once again, read the circuit diagram for your Spa pack. 

Settings

In terms of settings, older Spa packs were mostly controlled by the dip switches on the top right-hand side. 

In modern spa packs, the dip switches don’t control much; they just control how much current everything can draw. 

To configure your settings, check out my video here. 

Top Side Control 

You’ll have to plug in a topside control in your hot tub. In the picture above, you can see I have these marked on this Balboa model. 

The rule of connecting the top side is to kill the power and breaker before you attach the topside. You can add multiple top sides on most spa pack models. 

Older styles have a different connector. If you’re replacing a top side, make sure you’re replacing it with the power cut-off when you’re doing so.  

Heater

This model has a flow-through heater with multiple sensors installed. The heating element is connected to the board via the big wires that you can see – older packs have big copper lugs connecting the heater to the PCB. 

Replacing heaters is very straightforward. They easily clip out and back again, so replacing the entire spa pack is unnecessary if you have a faulty heater. 

Relays

The whole purpose of a Spa pack is to control and switch on or off the different elements connected to it. It is a collection of relays that control the spa pack’s other components like pumps, blowers and lights.

Can You Repair a Spa Pack?

It depends on what exactly your issue is. Fuses, sensors, and the heater can easily be replaced. 

Repairing a circuit is usually not worth the time or effort. The best strategy is to get a new circuit board. Some brands sell replacement boards, but others do not, and you’ll have to replace your entire spa pack. 

Final Thoughts

A Spa pack is one of the most essential parts of your hot tub, and I hope you now have a better idea of how it works.

If you want to make your own DIY hot tub or need any help or parts, contact me at buildahottub.com. 

Can I Help You?

If I can help you in any way I would love to hear from you. You can get in touch using the form below.

Thanks - Andi

 

Hi, Andi here. I own Buildahottub.com and also write all of the articles and info pages on the site. Some years back now, I built my own hot tub but struggled to find the information I needed. So, once my tub was complete, I started this website to help others in their own pursuit of hot tub and plunge pools DIY building information.

Today, I've helped over 1000 DIY customers just like you all over the world build hot tubs and pools. Have a good look around the site, there are lots of resources here. Please do get in touch if I can help you. - Cheers, Andi