Catalina stealth Posted February 21, 2013 Report Posted February 21, 2013 (edited) I bought a used catalina hot tub last weekend. It's a stealth series, sabre to be exact. It was running fine in the resellers garage when I went to look at it Saturday. He delivered it Sunday :-) I had the 240v service installed and hooked up today. I turned the disconnect on and the control panel of the tub lit up just like it should and displayed "prime mode, can last 4 mins." Well once it exits prime mode it immediately displays "freeze cond" then flashes from that to the water temperature, which says "40degrees." Well it's been on for 5 hours now and it's only raised 3 degrees and now reads "43 degrees." It IS very cold here in middle Tennessee at the moment, but everything I've read says a 240v tub should heat anywhere from 2-4 degrees an hour. Also, I have a brand new cover so its not losing any heat that way. Oh yeah, and there is a little thermometer icon blinking in the bottom right of the display, I hope that means its heating? What am I missing here?!?! Is it just heating up so slow because the initial water temperature is SO low, or is there something else I have to do to turn the heater on even? Any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance! -Brad Update: well I let it stay powered on for a couple more hours and still no temp change. So since there's no replies here I just started my own trouble shooting. I didn't specify earlier that the pumps weren't running because I didn't know they should be operational even though the water was still cold. So yeah, they aren't working either. So, I unplugged one of the pumps harness connection to the main circuit board and turned the power back on and both jets on, then I used my multimeter to check to see if there was even any powers going to the motors. AAAAND, no, there is no voltage coming out of either pump connection on the board. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! Does the whole board need replaced? The lights work, so I know at least part of the circuits work. ALSO, when I turn jet 1 on, I hear the faintest little noise from the main circuit board although I can hear exactly what PCM component it's coming from. btw - the system is bled and there is no air lock or air in the lines anywhere. FINAL UPDATE ~ *SOLVED* Explanation - my professional, licensed, electrician had 2 legs of the incoming power source backwards. He had the neutral in one of the "hot" terminal blocks and one of hot wires in the "neutral" terminal block. I FINALLY found this after 4 hours out in the freezing cold in the middle of the night >_< when I started checking the voltage like I mentioned earlier. There actually WAS voltage showing at the pump connection, but it was only 120v, this is a 240 system. So, I followed the connection on the circuit board all the way back to the input power source and voila! (In my best French accent) :-D they were labeled vertically from top to bottom 1) "neutral," which was the top terminal block 2) "hot," second terminal block going down 3) "hot," third and final terminal block going down. So, Neutral-Hot-Hot. I put my black multimeter lead on the "neutral" terminal screw and my red lead on the first "hot" terminal screw, it read 248 volts exactly, then I moved my red lead to next other "hot" terminal screw and it read 120 volts, so I knew something was wrong, because no other connection had been made inline, north of this, to transform my voltage down like that. So I switched the 2 wires and BOOM, running like a singer sewing machine right now. And already starting to heat steadily. Edited February 21, 2013 by Catalina stealth Quote
spanorth Posted February 22, 2013 Report Posted February 22, 2013 That is some good troubleshooting! I can just see you doing a little dance when she fired right up after switching those wires. Good thing you hired a "professional" to do it. Damn lucky it didn't ruin the circuit board or something, geez... Quote
Catalina stealth Posted February 22, 2013 Author Report Posted February 22, 2013 That is some good troubleshooting! I can just see you doing a little dance when she fired right up after switching those wires. Good thing you hired a "professional" to do it. Damn lucky it didn't ruin the circuit board or something, geez... Hehe, yeah if my neighbors had been awake, they'd thought i was looney. (it was 11pm and 22degrees, and mixed precip fallin) Yeah, i wanted to do the ENTIRE install of the tub my self, but my wife wouldnt let me. Sometimes, i am indeed a little overzealous though? lol Quote
HuMan123 Posted February 22, 2013 Report Posted February 22, 2013 Nice story and I am glad to hear it worked out. My only future advice to you would to stay aware that when measuring voltage on wiring that is terminated you can read backfeed through some components so best course would be to remove wiring from terminals and test line to line/ground/neutral etc without fear of backfeeding. Congratulations on your fix and happy tubbing! Quote
Catalina stealth Posted February 22, 2013 Author Report Posted February 22, 2013 Nice story and I am glad to hear it worked out. My only future advice to you would to stay aware that when measuring voltage on wiring that is terminated you can read backfeed through some components so best course would be to remove wiring from terminals and test line to line/ground/neutral etc without fear of backfeeding. Congratulations on your fix and happy tubbing! I never even thought of that! Wow, this place is a gold mine for the hands-on likes of myself. Quote
Spa_Guru Posted February 26, 2013 Report Posted February 26, 2013 If the electrician was that inept, dare I ask if he installed the spa using a GFCI breaker? Quote
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