Help With My Spa... Lost Water Won't Turn On

[johnny248]

Hello, I am thankful that I have found this forum.

I have an Emerald spa, with a Spabuilders M-Class spa system. Modlel number

mc-mp-p122-p212-b2-01-ne-ls-h4.0-rtc-ir-spw-fb-au1-amp-em3 12002-01b (at least that is what it says under the cover lol)

Long story short, at some point, on of the pipes from the heater element broke, and the spa lost all of its water. I had no idea, just found out today. I also noticed the spa control display was off. Opened the cover, repaired to pipe and spa will not turn on. I verified the breaker in the house was ok, the breaker box on the outside of the house has power to it, but when I turn the breaker on, it instantly trips. I checked all the fuses in the spa control box, they are all good. I did verified that there is power at the box for a second before the breaker trips. I disconnected the heater element thinking that it may have gone bad from lack of water? Did not help.

Can anyone offer any advice on where to go next? I am somewhat knowledgeable with electrical, but I'm just fearing the worst that either the control box is bad, or one or all of the pumps is bad. This is the only spa I've owned, and never had to do any trouble shooting. I suppose it is also possible that one of the pumps has burned up and shorting causing the breaker to trip?

Again, any help or advice is greatly appreciated. I really would like to have my spa back.

[THE SPA GUY]

Could be water in the pump motor still, i would unplug the pumps and ozone, flip breaker see if stays on. then plug in a pump and see what happens. process of elimination. but it could be that water from the pipe ran down over the pump. hope this helps.

[david_bilton]

undo the heater as well the heater maybe "dry fired" once everything is undone plug them back in one at a time(turn power off before plugging things in.if you get everything back in and no tripping suspect your heater

[johnny248]

I unplugged both pumps, and flipped the breaker. No problems, display turns on, blower works, I'm not sure if the heater works, did not let it run long enough. Then I plugged in Pump 1, and it blew. Unplugged pump one, flipped the breaker again, plugged into pump 2, still on. Press pump one on the controls, (nothing happens of course, it's not plugged in) hit pump 2 on the controls and I'm just getting a humming noise, no pumping. So I'm guessing what has happened is probably that the water started pouring out, filling up the base of the frame to the point where it hit the pumps and shorted out the motors. I guess next step is to remove the pumps, and see if I can disassemble the motors and with a miracle clean out the motors, brushes etc and maybe get my motors back? if not it looks like I'm going to be out a lot of money to replace those two. Which really sucks. I know I have Flowmaster xp2e pumps. I'm sure what the two models are, but the first google search I did showed one to be around $400. Any chance homeowners might pay for this? doubtful I'm guessing.

[THE SPA GUY]

it looks like pump number one is the problem. if you have an air compressor with a air nozzle, you might try to blow that out may still have water in there. we have seen that before, if the motor still trips after it is dry, you might be able to take to a local motor shop, if not just get a motor and use your existing wetend .. might save you some money.

[david_bilton]

it looks like pump number one is the problem. if you have an air compressor with a air nozzle, you might try to blow that out may still have water in there. we have seen that before, if the motor still trips after it is dry, you might be able to take to a local motor shop, if not just get a motor and use your existing wetend .. might save you some money.

unless they have to bust off the impeller and then replace the seal.if this is happening look to bitting the bullet and replace them(ouch) rebuilt sometimes is not the best way to go. if the spa is older than 6 years old go new.best of luck to you and yours