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With the help of an electrical engineer, we dr-soldered the relays which revealed the part number which I used to order the new relays. They'll be here next Tues. What a relief this was., I was ready to condemn the board a couple of times but with the suggestions of those who replied to this discussion and insisted the board could be repaired, I'm now spending $20 instead of $459.00! I will report back as soon as the relays are installed and the tub is powered up and heating. Thanks again to everyone that replied.

Just an update, decided to mess around with this today and everything went smooth as silk. Ran the 6/3, 40 amp breaker/GFCI outside, pulled the jumper and switched the dip switch and everything is running a-1. Ran a quick jet cycle and heat stayed on so looks like we're all set. Thanks again for the help!

Buy it. Masterspas is the best out of hot springs , jacuzzi, Sundance , best insulation best cleaning systems American made unlike jacuzzi / Sundance. Went to 3 Masterspas dealers and all priced around 15k and well worth it when compared to other brands we looked at. Their hot tub is superior in every way

Update, April 17: So far, so good, no leak. However, even though I drained out 98% of the existing water that February day and tried flushing out the "dead volume" with fresh water, there could still be some of the hardened leak seal chemical "in place" doing its job. So more time is needed...

perfect, thank you! Ordering now...

I have a client who's an electrical engineer and I asked him if he was interested in replacing the relays to which he took me to his garage and showed me his soldering station! So, that was a yes. Lol. I'm ordering the relays today and will report back with the results of the board once repaired. Fingers crossed! Thanks.

Phospates are a useless measurement. They are trying to sell you phosphate remover, which is not needed since phosphates are normally not the limiting factor in algae growth. As far as the other results go, how are they testing and did you get a computer printout? Pool store testing software is optimized to sell you as many products as possible. This is how they make money.

Thanks for replying Yes Indeed it did and is now heating and working perfectly I assumed after the initial 30sec firing it had shut down permanently I gave up left it, to find out later it was heating, happy days wife used it today all good.

Thank you very much, Waterbear. I have Lamotte test strips now and a 5lb bag of DudaDiesel granular boric acid coming today. My plan is to keep TA in 50 to 70 range, make sure pH is 7.6 to 7.8, then add 0.5 pounds to my 325 gallon tub, then test and add more if necessary.

Here would be the test to find the bad relay. (After you replace burnt black wire connecting the 2 relays) With power to the board and heat light solid place one probe on the left coper heater relay and the other on the open tab on the top black relay... do you get 240? next test at where the black wire connects to the top relay... do you get 240? next test where the black wire connects to the bottom relay.. do you get 240? then test the open tab on the bottom relay... do you get 240V. Follow the power and where it ends is where the bad relay is. You can do all that but in reality I would be replacing both of the relays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiQBBHtejMA&t=294s

If it's a relay, relays can be sourced from Amazon and replaced. If you can't solder, you should be able to find an electronics guy that can. I would replace them all while it's being done. New relays will refresh the board and in the overall scheme of things, are not expensive. If it's a trace on the board, that can be repaired with a piece of wire, simply jump between solid terminals that bridge the break.

Enjoy

CanadianSpaTech - Thanks again for all your help!! I did find a Circuit Board repair shop in town - unfortunately, they wanted $250 to replace just the two relays that were bad (not to mention the others). I did end up getting a decent price on a new VS504SZ Board as an exact replacement of my one that was blown. Got it installed this afternoon and everything is up and running again! Guess I took the long expensive way around (new heater, new top controller, and now new board) - but on the plus side - everything is new and should last years; and if it breaks again I've learned a bunch thanks to your help! With any luck I may even get to enjoy the tub tonight - although it's pretty cold in Utah and the tub water was down to low 40's... Might be tomorrow.

the higher the TA the faster the pH will rise, particularly with a salt system because of the aeration created in the cell because of the generation of hydrogen bubbles so keeping the TA lower is important. Keeping the TA between 50-70 ppm will help because there will be less outgassing of CO2,which is the main cause of pH rise. Read these. It will help explain what's going on. https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/52522-some-truths-about-ph-and-ta/ https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/28846-lowering-total-alkalinity-howto/ The second one goes into the chemistry of TA and why high TA causes a faster pH rise Borate can be sued with a chlorine or bromine generator without problem and will help stabilize pH because it introduces a boric acid/borate buffer that, in conjunction with the carbonic acid/bicarbonate buffer we call TA helps "lock' the pH around 7.7 to 7.8. If you add borate do not lower the pH below 7.6 and don't lower it until it hits 8.0 or higher and keep the TA 50 to 70 ppm for best pH stability.

For pool the suction valve for pool should be on and spa should be off the return valve for pool should be on and spa should be offl for spa the suction valve for spa should be on and pool should be off the return for spa should be on and pool should be off If your spa is a spillover spa that spills back into the pool you would have the spa return valve on and the pool suction valve on (all other valves off). this is your current setting according to your description of the valves but the picture shows that you have both pool and spa returns open and also the waterfall and the pressure side cleaner return. The pressure side cleaner line does not have a booster pump so it was probably for a Polaris 360 cleaner, which is the only one I know of that does not require a booster pump (there might be others on the market but I am not aware of any). Having the pressure side line open is fine. it just become another return. If you do get a cleaner then close the returns so only the cleanier line is open, have the waterfall and spa returns closed, and have the suction side set to pool. Waterfall should work when you have the pool returns running. The

First, I doubt your advice will be used by the OP, who was looking at hot tubs 6 years ago. Then we get into MasterSpa, their business practices and quality. MasterSpa makes an OK spa. It isn't a top tier spa. There is not anything outstanding about them. Hot Springs, Sundance, Artesian, Bullfrog, Marquis and Jacuzzi are far better tubs. The biggest issue with MasterSpa is that they use the travelling roadshow to sell tubs and then it's just about impossible to get warranty service (dealer are the ones to honor the warranty and the roadshow dealer really could care less about you once you fork over your cash). Do you work for a MasterSpa dealer? Sure sounds like it.

As soon as you add the sodium bromide you will have a bromine spa and there will be no chlorine. Put in your bromine floater and start adjusting as per my pinned post. You might also want to read the other pinned posts in the hot tub chemistry section of the forum. They are all pinned for a reason! On next fill you will need to add more sodium bromide and follow the guide. As far as a floater, get a Pentair/Rainbow 335 (they come in both tan and blue) since they have great adjustability and make it easy to maintain the proper bromine level from the tabs. No, you are not and if you have everything balanced and running right then just shock before going on vacation and make any minor corrections when you get back. I've gone away for 3 weeks in July just shocking before I left (Im in Florida!) and when I came back my chlorine in both the pool and spa was 0 but the water was still clear, no algae, I just shocked and the rest of my water parameters were in line. Having 50 ppm borate does help. I would suggest just going on vacation and taking care of any problems when you get back. As far as daily maintenance, I hope you don't have any pets or kids because they cannot be ignored if you are too busy. Hot tubs and Pools are really no different. You can automate things to some extent but you MUST test the water weekly and make necessary adjustments and sanitizer should be checked a few times a week unless you are not using the tub. If you are not using the tub you still need to check weekly. Or you can ignore it and hope for the best. AS far as chlorine, once you have established your 20 - 30 ppm CYA you stop using dichlor and switch to bleach. Daily maintenance is normally adding a few tablespoons of bleach. That it. After a while you will know how much you need to add without testing and you will just have to do your weekly testing. For that matter CH and CYA only need to be tested monthly once everything is running smoothly. It sometimes is more work to get your bromine floater properly adjusted than it is to do the dichlor/bleach method. No, it's because you are not doing chlorine correctly. Be aware that children can overheat quickly in a spa because they have smaller body surface area than adults so the temperature should be set between 95 to 98 degrees and they should not be in for more than 15 minutes at a time! https://homeinspectioninsider.com/how-long-can-kids-stay-in-hot-tub/ https://hottubinsider.com/hot-tubs-safe-kids/ https://wellisspa.com/blog/can-kids-go-in-hot-tubs/ Finally, I assume you are using trichlor in your pool in a floater or feeder. The same things I said about overstabilzation and FC to CYA levels also apply. If you are running your CYA at the recommeded 30 to 50 ppm then a FC reading of 3 to 5 PPM is perfect but if your CYA is higher then you need to run your FC higher to achieve the same level of sanitation and algae control. IF you do this you will have no need for algaecides, phosphate removers, enzymes, and other pool chemicals that the pool stores love to $ell you! It's how they make money so having an overstabilized pool is in your best interest. You also do not need alkalinity increaser, it's just sodium bicarbonate AKA baking soda. Liquid pool chlorine is the same chemical as laundry bleach (sodium hypochlorite), just more concentrated. Borax is better at raising pH than washing soda (pH increaser, sodium carbonate) since it has minimal effect on TA while sodium carbonate will often raise the TA way too high, particularly with bromine, sodium hypochlorite, cal hypo, and dichlor. It is really only useful if you are running trichlor since trichlor is extremely acidic (pH under 3) which can cause both pH and TA to crash!

Much appreciated!

I am plumbing my own pool, this will not be the first pool I did my own after the shell was sprayed. The main drain and Spa drain are 3" diameter. I am planning to reduce them to 2" to match the rest of the system. Has anyone ran 3" and why did you? The Pool/Spa together are 32' x 20' with a 7' sundeck. I am planning two pumps. Thanks

If you have a technical problem with your spa your best bet for a solution is to START YOUR OWN THREAD with YOUR info, not piggyback on something similar. There are 2 reasons for this. First, most of us volunteers who help people here don't have time to read through 164 replies to get the background info to answer your question. Most of us simply skip those threads and do not bother to reply. And second, it gets very confusing for everyone when 2 different conversations get going in one thread, and advice gets given to and taken by the wrong person. So, if you want help from our experts, start your own thread. Include details about your situation, and pics of equipment area, circuit board, and wiring diagram. @waterbearcan you pin this?