1. Written by Richflocker, on 27-12-2007 09:03
Spa Crafters 2730 N Loop 1604 East, San Antonio TX 78232
How many spa companies can stay in business doing repairs if they never get their bench set up properly? This company apparently is not set up to do temperature calibrations for hot tub units brought in to their shop for repair. I've had my hot tub heating unit in their shop three times now in the last month. It started out as a $250 estimate to fix it, but ~$600 from me and a bunch of excuses from them it still doesn't work. I'm a very patient and understanding consumer, but enough is enough.
Here's some history on this spa heater repair problem:
I brought my spa heater in for repair at this place about a year ago and told them the heater element was bad (it shorted to ground fault- I'm an electrical engineer by trade, perhaps I should have shown this technician how to use an ohm meter like I had already done?). They replaced the heater element after keeping it for two weeks and finally "troubleshooting it" to a bad heater element. I should have known this was a sign, but I'm a bit naive at times. Less than a year later, the housing around the heater element cracked and started gushing water during routine flushing of the system while getting it turned on for the winter. This is a very rare problem (this housing cracking) but low and behold, Spa Crafters just happened to have the housing in stock for my 10 year old, obsolete unit they had serviced less than a year earlier. This would only cost me $ 190 in parts and a $65 service fee to repair (estimate was $250), so I was very impressed and happy. Until I went to pick up the unit. Repair dude insisted that I needed a new Thermostat (the old one would get too hot and damage the parts). Also, the GFCI was faulty, so for safety reasons he had to replace the GFCI and the thermostat. I wonder if this has anything to do with the last posting where the temp was out of control? Anyway, about $600 later I took My rebuilt hot tub heater unit home and installed it.
New thermostat he sold me only got up to 99 degrees. MAXIMUM. The old thermostat worked just fine, I could adjust it up to 104 at Max, but I keep my tub at about 101.5, so I just cranked the knob down to about 80% and it worked perfectly. Imagine that - an adjustable thermostat that goes higher and lower than the comfort range of 98-103 degrees?
So, for Thanksgiving I tolerated a lukewarm tub. Heck, for $600 I might have found a whole new heater and pump assembly with new controls and all. I called this guy up and let him know the thermostat only went to 99 degrees. He went on about a tolerance of so many percent and Blah Blah Blah. I told him I need it to go to 104 degrees, and finally got him to say he'd adjust it if I bring it back in, warranty repair on him.
Time to do surgery (again) on my hot tub - it is not easy to remove/install. What a Pain. I put up with tepid water till the weather got really cold. Tub water only got up to 96 degrees with a freeze going on. On the Saturday before Christmas, I took the heater assembly back out and hauled it in to Spa Crafters, left a note to please calibrate the heater so it gets to at least 104 degrees before shutting off. A good bench tech should be able to do figure out how to test this on the bench. He said he took care of it for me. He says he did all he could to make the thermostat click on but cant adjust it more cause the set screw will fall out. This is a new thermostat - remember? I shrugged and carried my unit out of their establishment biting my tongue. "It better work this time" I said to myself.
I finally got the unit back in and everything tightened up with no leaks (that's another story, but I won't bore you with that plumbing adventure). I turned it on and adjusted the thermometer. It kicked the pump on and I thought "Hiot tub in three hours!". But wait - the heater light did not come on.
Now the heater doesn't come on at all. Everything else seems to work fine. I've exceeded my quota for unfortunate events with Spa Crafters. I'm giving them One last chance to come clean. I'll return to let y'all know how it goes.
I'm giving this company one last chance to come clean...I should make them come out here and climb under the deck and contort themselves to unscrew/unplumb and remove 220V power from the unit...and get it out in the daylight so it can be worked on. They seem to think it's as easy to work on when it's installed as it is on the bench. Maybe if they had to go thru *** to get it in and out of the tub they would be a little more careful when it was sitting on the bench?
My name is Richard, too - not the same as the one who posted earlier.
|
![]("http://www.pissedconsumer.com/templates/pc2/images/spacer.gif){kind=spacer}
Comments
Comments (1)
