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elkski

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  1. well its gaining about 5 degrees per hour 375 gallon. always seems so slow even with a 5.5 KW heater. that is only 6 months old. To bad the wife and kids cant use it after sking today. PFM it be but the wife will get a 100 bill
  2. Well I cant explain it but I just cracked a cold one. If finally warmed above 35 and the sun came out so I ventured out for some more serious troubleshooting. I pulled the 3 fuses and they tested closed. I remade all the pump and blower connections and then turned on the power once again to test for voltage but this time it powered up. 45 degrees is what our tap water measures. Not sure if the little blower heater dried something out or what. I am happy not to have to call a pro but a little worried to explain what happened. This is not a problem you want to have when the high is 22 degrees for the week but I hope that weather is behind us now.
  3. Not really up on whats available in 09 but the wife sure would like to be able to call home and raise the spas temp to 102 on her 25 min commute so it is ready if she has a chill. I know this is available as a whole house system but any spa specific add on you can call from a cell phone? How about an adjustable seat where you can sit in each chair and custom fit the seat position so your neck is just where you want the water level and then some movable jet arms to give you a more 3D massage instead of just the backs of everything. Adjustable In the seat lighting to highlight some important things. Any folks want to hire me for my design ideas just get in line.
  4. if your going to keep it for over 7 years expect to have to factor in a new pump and or motor every few years and a few leaks and your jets wont last over 7 years before they will get sticky and not spin. dont forget a bill for spare and new filters. And also figure in 450 for a new cover because you will need one in under 10 years. OF course a few nights where the tub warm up your cold tired body is nice and you might also make some memories of a different kind for when you are 80 and in the rocking chair.
  5. Well I dont even get the control panel to light up and there is usually a lag of a few seconds until the pump is turned on. I know this as one time when my circ pump was going bad the panel would power up and then you would hear the relay go and then trip the power when it tried to fire up the pump. I more suspect a fuse was taken out when I pulled the disconnect?
  6. I have a old coleman spa and we recently decided to keep it for a few more years. I have fixed several minor leaks new pumps etc over the years . We even had a lighting strike take out the coleman controller several years ago and went to Balboa as a replacement. Not real happy with that decision as the balboa board wont power the perimeter lights. any way we just purchased and have a new RH cover arriving Monday so we decided to change the water this weekend. The spa has been working fine for many months so today I pulled the quick disconnect and drained the water out cleaned the filters and spare and we refilled it. then it wont power on at all. I have taken off the side and we seem to have power to the controller although I measure 132 Volts on one leg and 122 on the other?? Power seems to be on both sides of the major fuses. I did not pull the fuses and ohm them out. It is dark and cold out so I put in a heater in the cabinet and shut it up for the night. It will get down to low 20's tonight. The wife said she made sure not to get any water on the topside as it can leak down and drip on the pump connectors and trip the GFCI. Everything looks dry inside the spa. The only other thing I can think of is that as she dumped out the last 10 gallons onto the frozen ground maybe it puddled up and went into the 240 J box ?. I did check and the cover was loose. This would trip the GFCIi if the insulation is cracked or it bothered the nutral leg that is got a twisty on it there but I dont see how it could affect the controller not powering on without tripping breaker. I put a shop vac on it and sucked the 20' to the disconnect box. no liquid came out but maybe some mist.? It just seems like to much of a coincidence.? I don't think there was any chance that the pump froze up as it was near 35 today when the wife first tried it on. and just 30 when I got home and tried. I hate to have things like this broken and of course I will have to wait till Monday to put in a service call. I usually do all my spa work like pumps and heater replacements and even major valve replacements but I might have to call in a pro unless you guys have an idea or the light of day sheds something new. I can do some trouble shooting on circuits but not controller chips. I guess I am asking if just pulling the disconnect can damage the balboa board? I will check the fuses in the am and hope to find something there but not real excited about working with the forecast as cloudy and highs at 35.
  7. I just read nearly all the famous cosco new hot tub thread and the thread really got off track and never answered my question. How much does it cost to build a spa and how much is the markup on a spa from these nearly always empty spa showrooms that abound. I ahve read where the markup is 40% or so. If this is ture you can see where costco and Strong think that there is room for a new deployment strategy. My 40% number comes from some links I read but how much does it really cost for 2 pumps a blower, a heater pac, topside, frame, cover, and jets? I mean the system is simple and compared to something like a 5k 60" plasma tv or even an ATV it is not very high tech. I have never really considered buying a spa from a traveling display and have just glances at the ones at Costco over the years thinking they must be cheap but now with all I read I might just look at the Costco offerings if I decide my Old Coleman spa is to old to keep repairing. I do however wonder about the spa experience of the folks buying the Costco spas and if they would be able to tell what good jets feel like. I am not sure I know what a real good jetted tub feels like. I do have 2 5 Hp pumps but cant imagine a single pump being very nice like on some models.
  8. that much water a week is going to be more than a drip every few seconds. if 2-3 inches is 20 gals that is about 4 drops per second if my math is correct.
  9. 2-3 inches is a big leak/week. adding that much water all winter is not the correct solution. you may get to low and the pump turns off or burns up and things could freeze. You need to get more light and/or get in there further and find out where the leak is either yourself or with a professional. Just because the water pools near the pumps doesn't mean it is the pumps. Just start looking around. you might want to cycle through all the pumps and blower to find out if it only leaks when one feature is on. I would imagine you could see a pump shaft seal leak if that is it. Look where the shaft goes into the pump head. These go out every 5 years or more. Maybe the pump head is cracked? Feel all the nearby lines with a dry paper towel in case the water is running down one of those. you may have to dig into the foam around the bottom to trace to the source. then you will still need to fix it but finding it is part of the job and you might be able to tell a technician what parts he will need so he can save some service time and lower your bill. Maybe it is just a loose pump water line fitting?
  10. http://www.aqua-man.com/row_num.asp?Ic=54594 this is all I could find on the PAC. I cant find a trouble shooting guide that you refer to that says anything about the transformer. It looks like it is the thing below and left of the Audio visual jumper in that figure. I guess it is a board mounted so you will have to get motivated and break out the soldering gun or call a pro. But first I would like to know what the .3 fuse does and either get a schematic or maybe call Balboa.
  11. well it now sounds like it is unrelated to the rats. The two weeks it ran fine after the ozone bite tripped the breaker. Maybe it wasn't the ozone bite that tripped it the first time? Is there a separate off board transformer in the control box. maybe that is just bad and shorting to ground.
  12. 1kw is 5 times smaller than mine and we have a similar problem. When its below 20 f and we open the cover all the way the heater has trouble keeping up if it is windy.
  13. So you had Ratatuie tubby going on. Are the flow switch and wires enclosed in the pac? the joint between the pac and heater is not rat dung and dirt proof. What about perimeter lighting? If every thing is off the board and the power is in a conduit and it still trips it seems like it is a board problem. It does seem like you are a troubleshooter of sorts. probably as good as me. It is perplexing that removing the .3 a fuse changes the outcome. Maybe it shuts off the bad part of the board. You dont even have the ground wires hooked up from the pumps to the ground block? Not that this will solve anything but you say you have the board/pac totally isolated?? How big of nest was it and was it all over the pumps/pac? You have the wires off the board so even if the unplugged connectors were dirty or wet things should be ok there. Are you sayin the GFI trips a few seconds after you get power to the pac or the GFI never sets? and the .3 amp fuse out allows the GFI to set and you have power at the PAC?
  14. Well about half of the jets were closed and opening them stopped the problem. This problem still has me stumped as even if you close all the jets there should be some sort of check valve or something to stop this from happening. For now I can live with this issue and should be able to survive the winter. We do need to start looking for a newer spa but I think the sticker shock will be bad like 8k or something.
  15. could it be that to many of the jets are closed? I dont see how a jet could be bad or any worse than a closed one. I understand the venture action. I will go see how many jets are open or closed?
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