Spa Tip: Upgrading Spa Lighting

By Adrian Lacy

Older portable spas often have a low intensity 12W, 12V incandescent lamp with a coloured lens cover. These lamps generally have a limited colour choice of red, blue or white and are often dull once the coloured lens is in place.

How to access these lamps varies – most are rear-access from under the spa only, in some cases making them difficult to get to. Others are front-access from within the spa, making it relatively easy to replace the lamp once the water is drained.

An upgrade can be easily made by replacing the lamp with a new universal design multicolour LED lamp with options for different colours and transition effects, helping to bring an old spa back to life.

Some lamps have the ability to add limited additional string lighting for handrails and water features or pin lighting around the waterline.

Larger lighting control systems drive 100 LEDs throughout the spa and are perfect for replacing unreliable imported string lighting systems. These are capable of illuminating jets, air injectors, diverters and other features. These universal systems support any transformer or spa control system with 12V AC/DC output – but care must be taken to not overload the maximum spa control output rating – usually 1A/12W.

These tips are supplied by Adrian Lacy of Spatex. For more information call 1300 772 839.

Image: Spa World showroom in Melbourne