Catalina stealth

Well it sounds like you solved your own problem! If everything you say is correct I can see no other reason it wouldn't be the transformer. Now this can be misleading as well. If you find that the transformer is indeed bad, and replace, there very well may be another problem after that. that could just be the first one manifesting. You might want to try and hardwire the transformer in, bypassing the board to see if it still trips a breaker, if so, then yes there's definitely a problem with the transformer. Check the voltage being fed to the transformer from the board pins as well. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

Boom! That was it, easy peezy lemon squeezie!

I never even thought of that! Wow, this place is a gold mine for the hands-on likes of myself.

Agree with everything you said. Im not very close to any dealer at all though :-( The filters are "supposed" to be new, but my electrician was supposed to be licensed/certified/proffessional and hook the damn thing up right as well!

Spot on! My friend got his dads used hot tub and moved it to his house, after it had sit idle for a year. He didnt have mice in it, but frogs had colonized in his plumbing. When he kicked that thing on the first time, frog legs/heads were coming out of every jet! ewwwww i know, but it happened. Just imagine if his family had been in it when they cut it on! So, lesson - better safe than sorry, check it!

Thanks Guru, I feel better having some of my suspicions confirmed as likely sources by a pro :-) Checking these things as soon as i get home from work today. Going to add and inch or 2 of water first though. Good stuff!

i get a flag when i read, "recirc pump quits running, still have 120v to pump." How do you know there is STILL 120v being fed to the pump? Did you check the voltage at the connection to the circuit board with a voltmeter? If so, did you check it when that condition was present, specifically? Also, you say your board controls 2X3hp pumps, heater, and light, but you dont list a recirc pump? Is your recirc pump a separate unit from your 2 main pumps? Just asking because my recirc operation is performed automatically by pump #1 on low. When you get that FLO code on the display, does all water flow stop at the jets? can you feel anything at all, even low pressure recirc? Read here for more details: http://spababes.com/spa-packs/hot-tub-error-codes-flow/

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

I'm a new owner as well, but I have been through the gauntlet over the past 30 hours with my newly bought, used hot tub. And speaking from recent experiences, check it NOW! While its inside, in the warmth, and out of the weather. It may not be cold where you are, but its freezing here, and I would have loved to have been able to rewind the past day and night with my hot tub being indoors! Lol. Anyways, get that electric ran, and fill that thing up and get familiar, and wise about all of its inner workings, i.e. impeller(s), pump(s), main board and location of the different components on the board, bleeder valves, heater, and so on. Although, you already sound like you know more than me about spas specifically lol. I would fill the tub, bleed the lines, let it set for a little while with no "forced" pressure on the lines, then check to see if you have any leaks. If not, crank that baby up to see if there are any hidden cracks, chew marks, bites, hairline cracks, or dry rot, that cause leakage. If you don't see any after a while with it running your good to go. Hell, I'd even keep it setup until that pad gets ready. Just my 2 cents bud. Good luck.

Hey guys, it's me again :-/ after my struggle last night, my victory was short lived. (See my other thread) Everything on my spa is working fine as far as pump #2, lights, circulation/low on pump #1, heater, ect. My problem is when I hit the pump 1 button to switch it on. Pump #1 is constantly running on low/circulation because I keep the tub on "standard" mode because its so cold outside and I don't know exactly when we are gonna have time to use it, so I want it to be ready. Anyways, when I hit that button to turn on pump 1 jet system, it's flows perfect for about 10-15 seconds, the the pressure drops out. Almost completely. And then 6-7 seconds later, boom, it fires right back to the same healthy flow out of the jets. So, consecutive cycles of loss of pressure/flow, is my problem. Like I said, this same pump performs flawlessly when on low. It's only when turned on high that I see this condition. Side note - my dad has an above ground pool and if you take the basket out of the skimmer it start sucking air and dying out, but that doesn't pick back up, it just sucks until complete loss of flow/water pressure. My tub is mimicking that condition in everything except for the loud air-sucking sound at that leaf trap. If my tub is making any of those noises they aren't audible when I start the jets. But, I can hear disruption in the water flow on the incoming water line going in to this pump. Sounds like air to be honest, and quite a bit. I'm just not hearing it up top at the skimmer/filter area. What I have checked: all of the water line gate valves, they are all pulled out to the open position. And i bled the lines again just like last night, via the little thumb screw bleeder valves on the output side of the pump. There was no air in the line, only water came out. I tried to unscrew the union on the incoming side of the pump just a hair to see if any air came out, but I couldn't budge it as its in a very hard to get to position. What my gut tells me: There is air in the water line on the incoming side of the pump. But that's confusing, why only on high? Second, water level is just a tad too low and it is indeed sucking air at the skimmer. This would explain why it only happens when the pump is on high since its sucking with more power. Albeit, my water level is and 2/3's up the face of the skimmer flap, and according to the manual that's about perfect. And lastly, the impeller is damaged. Only other thing that makes sense to me. But I'm crazy so who knows lol. Does anyone think there could be some obstruction in the outgoing lines that feed the jets? That maybe fall back down the line a little when there's low pressure, but get pushed back up to block the water feeding the jets when it encounters high pressure. Hell, I'm lost guys. And absolutely discouraged. We bought this tub with out tax refund with high hopes of thoroughly enjoying it. So far, it's been a pain in my neck, yeah ironic huh. Once again, PLEASE HELP!!! AHHHH!!! >_<

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.