Holy smokes.
Man, this thing is now like a whole new hot tub. The old heating element must have added a real restriction to the volumetric water flow rate. I always noticed one half of the tub had reduced pressure at the jets. Not any damned more.
It's also heating up MUCH faster. The old one was around 5-6° per hour in heating up a fresh water fill. This one has to be over 10° per hour... possibly around 12° per hour. Next time I'm going to calculate the hourly temperature rise.
The new controller also has some features the old one didn't have. I can operate both pumps completely independent of one another. With the old one, you were always using both or neither, period.
The display is much bigger and brighter, making it much easier to read. There is no keypad lockout function, for which I always had to get the manual to figure out how to disable every time the power was cycled. Every plug has its own neon bulb inside the connector so you can see it's getting power without having to get a voltmeter or voltage-present tester... and every fuse has a blown fuse light indicator on the outside of the control box. if I ever have to troubleshoot, it will be much easier.
The connectors for the pumps, ozonator, etc. were all color coded and have different pin outs, making it impossible to plug an item into the wrong location. Very handy after a few years when all the sticker labels have fallen off the aluminum case. Makes it easier to get to plumbing connections when you know you can just disconnect everything and move wiring out of the way, knowing you won't have any issues getting it all reconnected.
If I had known how much better the new controller was going to be I might not have chosen to suffer with the old LCD readout getting progressively dimmer and dimmer the last few years.
I might also go ahead and replace the incandescent bulb for the internal spa light with one of those multicolored 28 LED lights. By cycling the old spa light power switch on and off you advance through all the programmed color pattern displays. It has steady colors, alternating flashing colors, a color fade option where it cycles through all the colors, and some annoying disco flashing mode for those who are into that sort of thing. It's a very inexpensive way to upgrade the ten year old old tub to the styling of the current tubs.
