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Should I Buy Aftermarket Spa Parts?

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In this post, we will discuss the pros and cons of buying aftermarket spa parts. Aftermarket spa parts can help you save some money and be a great solution to your spa issue. But, if you aren’t careful, they can also become a huge headache and cost you even more money.

aftermarket spa parts

Do Your Research

One thing we want to say upfront is that it is important to do your research when you are buying parts for your spa. Read reviews on the seller of the parts. Read reviews on the parts themselves. You can also contact our Technical Support team and we can answer any questions you may have.

The “Up-Side” of Buying Aftermarket Spa Parts

Buying aftermarket spa parts can have some great benefits! Some of the main “pros” include:

  • Cheaper Pricing
  • More Selections
  • Good Performance (most of the time)

From our experience, we have seen aftermarket parts cost around 10-15% less than the OEM parts. In some cases, we’ve seen parts that were sold for less than half the price of the OEM version.

As far as quality goes, we haven’t seen a lot of returns on the aftermarket parts. They seem to last and perform just as well as the OEM parts…Most of the time. All-in-all aftermarket parts are a great solution.

The “Down-Side” of Buying Aftermarket Parts

Before you go spending all your hard-earned money on aftermarket parts, make sure you are aware of some possible down-sides. The down-sides of buying aftermarket spa parts include:

  • Possible Warranty Issues (or no warranty at all)
  • Compatibility Issues
  • Unreliable Service and Customer Support
  • Possibly Low Performance
  • Too Many Options

As we stated above, it is vital that you do your research before buying parts online. You need to know if the seller is trustworthy, if the product is used or new, and if the product is compatible with the rest of the components in your spa. For example, if you own a HotSpring Spa and you purchase a random aftermarket topside control panel, it will not plug into the control box.

A good rule of thumb is to stay away from generic circuit boards. Stick to simple parts like Heaters, Circ Pumps, Jet Pumps, and Ozonators. If you are unsure if the parts you are looking to buy are compatible with your spa, call the company you are ordering from. If they aren’t able to tell you if the part is compatible…that is a sign that you should not buy from them.

Warranty issues you say? Yes. In some cases, aftermarket parts do not come with a warranty of any kind. It is also possible that adding an aftermarket part to your spa can void the warranty from the original spa manufacturer.

So…Should I Buy Aftermarket Parts or Not?

Overall we would say Yes. If you do not have the budget to buy the OEM parts and you don’t mind the risk, the aftermarket (aka generic) parts can be a great solution for you. If you don’t like risk and want the security of warranty and brand reputation, we would suggest going with the OEM parts. We hope this info helps you make your next purchasing decision.

Thanks for reading “Should I Buy Aftermarket Spa Parts?”


Backyard Plus is Here to Help You Be the Hero.

Questions about your spa? Contact us! We are the top Hotspring spa parts retailer on the web.

Call us at (805)541-9000

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In addition to “Should I Buy Aftermarket Spa Parts?” we offer:

  • Our Parts Finder which allows you to find exact-match replacements for your hot tub
  • Free technical support that will allow you to maintain and repair your own spa accordingly
  • Information regarding your products and their usage through our blog posts.
  • Tutorials and assistance through our videos
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Our goal here at Backyard Plus is to help save you money by avoiding costly service calls for repairs that you can easily do yourself!