i found a free tub on craigslist. jumped on it and found out the people bought the house with it there and it quit working on them so they didn't want to deal with fixing it. thats all they new. its a 7'x7' hexagon. i moved it then looked it over and found that the pump was froze up. ordered a new unit and then found out that the heater housing had a hole in it. so i ordered a replacement and had to replumb the whole manifold. heres the specs that i know.
from the filter local spa told me its a Santanna spa(no longer in bussiness)
heater is a Brett Aqualine style(housing is now the element says something else but was manufactured on 1/18/05 so pretty new).
blower is a santanna blower.
control box says Malibu Hydro Systems it has 2 switches on it one for heater that is thermostat controlled or timed controlled. the other switch is for 240v or 120v. i have it set at 240v as thats whats run and thats the way it was when i got it. when i replaced the heater housing i made sure to mark things like the wires to the thermostat but maybe i got them switched? i've had this now for over a month and we really want to use it. tried last night by making the kids get in and see how it felt(hehehe) of course they said fine then we found it to be a bit cold when its only 33 outside. i'd like to take a pic or 2 later this afternoon but right now its still dark out. if this is a simple fix please let me know. thanks
aaron

Typically on a 120/240 switchable spa, you have to remove a jumper and connect it to the L2 connection for the heater. This is assuming it was set up for 120 previously. Flipping the switch isn't going to do the trick, as that will likely just set the control transformer to the proper voltage. In a convertable spa like that, everything runs off 120V, except the heater, which can be set for either 120 or 240. If that jumper wire is set wrong and you don't have the other side of the heater going to L2, that would explain the lack of heat... it's not getting the voltage to turn on.

Something to check, anyway.

well i'm trying to picture what you said but theres so many wires (LOL) that figuring out whats what is a challange. the heater has 2 posts one with a red wire and the other with a black wire, theres a jumper wire on the black post that goes to the little indicator light on housing. theres also a green ground, grounded to the bolt on housing and going back into the control box. the thermostat has 2 posts. 1 with a blue wire and the other post has 2 yellow wires connected. i'll try to upload some pics. the temp is gradually droping its now at 82 and the outside temp today is 58. seems like maybe the heater is bad to me. the local spa store told me rarley does a heater just partially work.

another pic

pic of heater type

Your heater probably isn't partially working at all, it's probably not working totally. The heat generated from your pumps can heat a tub, but barely. Could you take a photo of where your line power enters the buss bar inside the control cabinet? That is where the jumper would be, if you have one.

heres what i hope your asking for

Sort of... the lower left quadrant in the pic is what I was most interested in, and isn't really all that visible in that pic.

But I did notice one thing in your photo that is of serious concern, and quite possibly the cause of your problem. That black contactor in the middle has serious pitting/burning, and so are the wires going to it. When you energize the heater, does that pull in? If so, I would definentally do a voltage check across both red and black wires on the left, and again on the right, while it is pulled in. I'll bet you have 240 volts on one side, but not the other.

Most likely you will have to repair the wires (cut back about an inch, strip, reattach) and maybe even have to replace that contactor.

Let me know what you find.

ya know it could be it makes a lot of noise. and i read on spa babes that it should be replaced. i have a buddie that works for a large electric co. just need to get him over here. thanks for the advice.

A noisy contactor (buzzing) doesn't indicate that it is bad, only that the armature isn't completely seating against the frame of the contactor. As long as the contacts are still being made, you are ok. Just annoying. What you can do, if you are impatient (like me) is to unhook the wires from one side, and attach them directly to the other side, bypassing the contactor. Now, you won't have thermostat contol at all, and you will need to run the pump right away so you don't overheat and burn out the element from no water flow. But you can do this for testing purposes to see if that is what is wrong. Run it that way for a couple hours and see if your heat starts to go up. If so, replace the contactor. I would anyway, simply because it looks horrible.

Remember to disconnect power before moving the wires (duh right?) and disconnect them when you are done testing, since if that pump shuts off for any reason, you will dryfire, or your tub will keep going up in temp until you can make stew in it.