trisail02

Is there anyone who has any thoughts as to why the circuit boards keep dying? Or, if the circuit board was bad, is it possible for the hot tub to start once by the tech when he was out here (which it did) but then he could never get it started again? (I thought it would not be able to start at all with a bad board?) TIA!!

Does any one have any suggestions or ideas as to the possible problem? Again, we would appreciate help SO SO much!

Hi John - Thank you very much for your response!! I REALLY appreciate any help you can provide! Yes, I believe the tech did have some sort of test plug when he looked at the unit as he mentioned he was able to bypass certain things to determine the board was dead. (I was trying to keep my 11.5mo old entertained in the adjacent room so it was a little hard to see exactly what he was doing.) However, I did think it was strange that the hot tub was able to start up once while he was there if the board was dead??? Any other thoughts or ideas as to the problem?? The tech just kept saying the issue (whatever it is) is very rare since he's unable to see the "history" or really determine the problem. Again, ANY HELP is SO very much appreciated!!! Thank you!

Hello - We have a Sundance 850 series 'Marin' hot tub that had a few issues in the past (see post: http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26961&st=0) We resolved our previous problem by replacing the circuit board and all of the filters. After we did this in the spring last year, the hot tub worked for about 4-5 months but then just quit working. It gives us the awful "Watchdog" (----) error again. We did some tests and think the circuit board is bad again. So, recently we actually paid a Sundance hot tub tech to come out to diagnose the problem, as we did not want to keep replacing the expensive circuit board every 4-5 months just to get it to work. We figured there must be some underlying issue corrupting the boards. The tech determined that he wasn't really sure what the problem was but thought that we could start by replacing the circuit board and topside and then maybe the remote topside too if that didn't work. I gave him the old board we took out a few years ago (yes, I kept it!) in case that helped him diagnose and he said they both have the same issue. FYI - He did say that he thought one little spot in the topside might be getting a little warm. Also, when he was there, the hot tub was able to start ONCE, but then he couldn't get it to start again. I really don't want to pay to replace of those pieces as a trial and error type "solution" to the problem. He said the temp sensor is good. He looked at the capacitors on both boards, we kept the old circuit board too, and said they were not swollen and look fine. The tech was also unable to read the history/memory to get any other clues as to what could be the problem. So much for hiring someone to tell us what was wrong...ughh! (FYI - Also, in our previous problem - see link above-, we also had the breaker tripping and the tech that just came out said that was due to the ozenator so he just disconnected it since it's an option feature anyway and not required to make the spa work.) Before we buy a new circuit board or any other parts, do you have any idea if just replacing the circuit board will make it work? If it is going to cost A LOT to repair (we plan on doing the work ourselves) in parts, then we may just get rid of the tub completely. I've also seen some refurbished circuit boards online. Has anyone used a refurb board and do they work ok? I noticed some come with the Eprom and some don't. (I was told you can install your current Eprom into the refurb board fairly painlessly.) Any experience with this? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for any help, advice, experience, suggestions you can offer! Hot Tub: Sundance Marin 850 Series (year 2005) Circuit Board Part #: 6600-092 Eprom: Rev 9.50B

Thanks again to wuice and others who have posted on the topic. All of the info is extremely helpful, especially with all of of wuice's experience and knowledge! We really appreciate it! Unfortunately, our hot tub project has been on hold for a few weeks due to the busy holidays and having to go out of town to visit family, etc. So, it's still sitting empty for the moment but hope to tackle the project again in the next few weeks. Thanks again to all and I hope everyone had a great holiday! We'll be back in touch again soon!

Hi all - Thanks for all those who have tried to help with their responses - it is so very much appreciated! Spa Dude - The pump is not running in line with the heater so we're still not exactly sure what the problem is - but thx for the troubleshooting help. RFD100 - Thanks for sharing your personal experiences - It's great to know that others have replaced the pumps on their own and that it IS possible for motivated do-it-yourselfers! LOVE the idea about watching for an extra circulation pump on ebay and great to know that it's pretty simple to repair. david_bilton - We did check our manual and saw that the watchdog error 'deactivated' the hot tub but we weren't really sure what could cause that. So, we really appreciate you listing some of the possible reasons that could be the cause of this. I'm guessing our error is due to the 'blown F1 fuse/loose wire' since we disconnected the pump and turned the pump on and off. We tried to trick it by putting the pump back on and turning the hot tub on and off again but it still read the 'watchdog' (----) error. Since it's going to be so very cold here tonight, we decided our quick fix is to drain it and get all the water out as much as we possibly can. We're using the guidelines for 'winterizing' in the manual and are crossing our fingers that everything will be ok. We're pretty nervous about doing this at the last minute but we're hoping everything will be ok. We have a little heater running near the pipes now to make sure everything doesn't freeze before we're finished winterizing today. It also seems that it's pretty risky to refill the hot tub in winter again (which would obviously be ideal) and that it's best to wait until spring or call a professional. Does anyone have any experience with winterizing or refilling in cold weather months?

Hello! I'm really hoping someone here can help with our problem. We're first time hot tub owners so we're still learning. We have a Sundance 850 series 'Marin' hot tub (purchased by the owner 2005 - we're the 2nd owners) that worked great until recently when it had a tripped breaker issue but then that has turned to a 'Watchdog' ('----') error since I tried to diagnose why the breaker kept tripping. Below is the series of events leading up to the Watchdog error. I went to check on the hot tub and the breaker was tripped. When I turned the breaker on, it tripped again right away. I suspected that the heating element needed to be replaced so I disconnected the electric circuit for the heating element from the control panel and tried to turn on the hot tub to see if it would run. The breaker tripped right away again. So now I didn't think the heating element was the problem. Next, I disconnected the single-speed pump then turned on the hot tub again. Everything seemed to work (the two speed pump worked, the blower worked, and the heating element worked), except of course for the pump I disconnected. This led me to believe that the disconnected pump was bad and needed replacing. To confirm this, I turned off the hot tub and I reconnected the single-speed pump again. I then turned on the hot tub and nothing worked - which I thought confirmed my suspicion that the single-speed pump was broken. (and must've been causing the breaker to trip) Then, I shut down the hot tub again to put all of the covers back on, disconnected the 'broken' pump and left it with wire nuts on each wire. I put the cover pack on the panel, put the outside panels back on, then flipped the breaker again and after a few seconds, I got the "watchdog" "- - - - " error. Does anyone have any experience with anything similar? Or any thoughts? If I replace the single-speed pump myself, do you know if the 'Watchdog' error will go away on its own or do I need to call service tech. (Obviously, I'd rather try and fix it myself but I wasn't sure if it was even possible to 'reset' the computer on your own.) ANY help anyone could give us would be so very very much appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help! (Below are some specs we found on the single-speed pump/motor in case they help at all) Hot Tub: Sundance Marin 850 Series (year 2005) 'Broken' Pump: Emerson T55SWBNC-999 HP: 2.5 RPM: 3450 Volts: 230 Hz: 60 SFAmps: 10.0 Frame: 48Y InsClass: F 1081 Motor