The Main Components of A Spa

Purchasing a spa or hot tub is a matter of personal, just like choosing an automobile or mobile phone. Yet, all spas still have a few things in common, and by knowing these, it will become much easier to choose a spa from a show room.

Spa, essentially composed of a shell that holds water, a cabinet that surrounds the shell, some jets that provide hydrotherapy, a circulating system to filter the water, and some controls include temperature control.

Here is the breakdown of the crucial component of a spa:

The Shell

The vessel that holds the spa water inside is the shell. Although some traditional spa is made of wood, most of today’s prefabricated spas are made from acrylic, thermoplastic, fiberglass, tile, etc.

Custom concrete spas are also popular and can be installed alone or in combination with swimming pool. So far, the most popular material for pre-fabricated spas is acrylic which comes in an array of colors to choose from.

The Jets

The jets of a spa is used for hydrotherapy purposes. It is as important as shell. Spa without hydrotherapy is merely a hot water tub. Jets come in many styles and new ones keep being introduced every year. Some popular jet types include neck jets, foot jets, stationary jets, cluster jets, directional jets, handheld jets and whirlpool jets.

The Pump

Pump is the main heart of a spa. The pump is the one that pump the water for circulation and also for creating the jets effect. Many people make mistakes by assuming bigger pump will be better. However, a pump that is oversized will only waste energy and create harm to the spa plumbing system.

The Heater

Spa heater function to heat up the water inside the spa until it reach the desired temperature and then maintain it at that particular temperature. Spa heater is a vulnerable component, due to the contact of the spa heating element with the spa water which can be corrosive. One most efficient way to prevent this is to maintain the spa water properly balanced.

Some other types of heater don’t allow the water to physically contact with the heating element by wrapping around the heating element with stainless-steel tube. But this type of heater waste more energy as only 60% of heat generated is transferred to the water.

Filter

The spa filter function to screens the fine particles and debris out of the spa water. Prefabricated spas typically use cartridge filter to screen the particles out of the water. Not all the cartridge filter are created equal. Some contain more filtering material than others. This cartridge filter need to be cleaned every few months or whenever the flow of the water is interrupted.