Dan.The.Spa.Man

Sounds like a couple of problems. The heater is most likely grounded and causing the gfci to trip. Now that it is diconnected, it's not tripping but the flashing power light is a separate problem. A flashing power light indicates that the heater is getting too hot or the thermistor is bad. Being that the heater is disconnected, it has to be the thermistor. Just to make sure...do you have both thermistors (gray wires that come from the heater and plug into the side of the control box) plugged in? If you have them disconnected, plug them back in...they will not cause the heater to trip. You at least need a new heater and if the thermistors are plugged in and the power light is flashing I would replace both thermistors.

When you are already dealing with someone who disregards instructions that are included with the product, it might be smarter to have them quit messing with it, we are dealing with 240v and water in close proximity. He did not disregard the intructions...if you look closer at what he posted it says the the instructions that came with the new control box had different information then the schematics on the actual new control box itself. 2 different sets of instructions in the same box. And I would also go with the set of instructions on the inside cover of the control box which he did.

Not sure what happened but I've never seen or heard of the circ pump shorting out anything in the Caldera tubs. I wouldn't doubt that the transformer in the control box was the initial problem and the old pump may have been fine. But who knows. Now that you are where you are, I would suggest checking a couple things. 1. Does the four flashing lines come on pretty much right away after resetting power? 2. Make sure the circ pump isn't air bound and water is actually flowing. 3. If there is flow and the 4 flashing lines come up pretty soon after resetting, I would look into the control box to see if the "control unplugged" light is lit. If it is lit then you most likely need a new topside control pad.

No nipple needed...although they may look like different diameters, they are they same unless you bought the wrong pump. The new E5 pump uses the same 3/4" tubing as the old silent flo 5000. The nipple is only needed to retro-fit the pumps into the Caldera spas which used a 1" pipe. The best way to clamp off the lines is to heat them up with a heat gun or blow-dryer. Needle-nosed vise-grips will clamp right down on them after some heat. As far as bonding...if the original one wasn't bonded, the new one doesn't need to be. It has a bond location because some of the newer installations need to be bonded. If you want you can get a small piece of copper and run a separate bond to the bar.

The heater is dead because of a broken plastic manifold. When I found the crack, I removed the piece, but unfortunately I have to buy the whole pump because the manufacturer does not sell the 5 cent plastic piece. This is frustracting to say the least. In response to the maintenance comment, my parents did take good care of the tub, up until the final draining, evidenced by a substantial maintenance history maintained by the dealer. Even with this, I am weary because it has been sitting, and sitting in some very cold weather for awhile. Thanks for the comments. What is the piece that is broken...can you take a pic? You mention a manifold, heater and pump which are 3 different things. Is it the end cap on the heater?

Same electronics. I work on both brands all day and there are no more problems in one vs. the other. Can't go wrong with either one but I like the seating and jets of the Cantabria. If you can have the dealer fill them both up for a wet test i would recommend doing that as would most others on here.

It sounds like he was talking about the air-line "fitting" which is the plastic nipple that the blue air "line" attaches to. Not the actual blue air line itself. Cracks are not common in the air-line fittings unless the tub froze.

That's good that they were not cracks, must have been scratches if they sanded out. As far as logging in and staying logged in, I can not do it at home, work, or on my laptop. I pulled out a 10 year old Mac laptop and I can log in and make posts if I reset the whole Safari browser each time I come on.

Sounds like it may be a 220 volt motor and you may have 110 volts going to it. The motor may be 220 volt only, or hopefully it is convertible. If so it will say 110V/220V on the sticker under "voltage". If it does then you would need to follow the diagram that says 110V or low voltage. It should show a diagram for both setups and it would just be a matter of moving some of the wires in the motor. If it is a 220V only motor then it will not work.

Don't think I've had a Caldera do that. It doesn't make sense to me that it's a thermistor. It has a hi-limit thermistor that is supposed to kill power to the heater if it gets over 110 degrees or something like that. It also has a control thermistor that communicates the temperature to the controls. Both of these would have to fail to cause the problem. It seems to me that it would either be that the relay is stuck closed and keeping the heater on or the topside control pad is bad. I would set the tub for 80 degrees and look into the control box to see if the "heater on" light is lit.

I use a Texture 1-11 from Home depot that has some sort of wood grain looking composite coating to it. It's about $20 per sheet and it only takes 2-3 sheets depending on spa size/height. You can stain it to your liking. The only issue is making a corner. If the old corners are good, I usually leave them. If the are in bad shape then you can sometimes just rip them off and make a straight corner by making 45 degree cuts.

Ideally they should be fixed from behind....but if the jet is not one that is visible from the motor compartment, then it would involve digging out foam. What I would do is get a "V" bit for a dremel and dremel out the crack (from the inside of the tub) slightly to create a channel. Then fill in the crack with the Devcon epoxy that is sold by HotSprings. As far as the tile I may have some. I'll check tomorrow. I've had a very hard time signing in here over the last few months. I try cleaning out cookies and changing settings but it's rare when it lets me log on. It lets me sign in every time, but any button that I hit after that bumps me off. If I don't respond on here you can get me at dutrumble@hotmail.com

The craigslist posting has been deleted. Did you get it? Pretty uncommon for the circ pump to cause the breaker to trip...usually it's the heater.

That smaller pump is probably shot if it"s an older tub and hasn't been replaced. You could take it apart to see if it's clogged, but most likely it will need replacing. Also try taking out your filters to see if that helps.

Most likely the swooshing around is the water in the heater boiling due to a lack of flow. You probably have a bad circulation pump. Reset power and see if the silent-flo circ pump is vibrating at all.

What is the actual cause of those cracks in it? I have some in mine. I've only seen cracks in the airline fitting if the tub froze at some point.

Are you in a warm climate? Pool water is in the mid 80's right now with no heater. In a hot tub with a circulation pump running all the time and a cover with good insulation it's hard to keep the water below the mid 90's unless you add cold water. To be sure that there is no problem with the thermistors or control panel you could turn the heater breaker off (if 220volts) or disconnect the heater (if 110 volts) and see if anything changes. It is pretty normal though for tubs to maintain temps in the mid 90's in the summer with the heater turned off.

Yes, they always read some small amount of voltage when they are cooked. If you pull it out there is most likely a scorch mark on the back side of the relay board.

Wow, I don't know who you talked to at Watkins but these tubs have been the same as far as the cycles go for the last 10 years. Just as Spatech said, the tub will cycle on once every 24 hours. Each jet pump will come on for about a minute each and the air will come on for about a minute. It will do this shortly after you power up the spa. So if you power it up at 3pm, it will go through this cycle every day at 3pm.

As Swine said, the circ pump definitely needs to be pumping water for the heater to work. Everything starts with that. Besides everything he said to check, also check for voltage at the female heater plug on the box that the heater plugs into. Sometimes the wires in the box leading to the plug burn up and don't make the connection. One of those 2 hi-limit button switches could be bad as well. You would have to test to see if voltage is going through the switches. You didn't cut off one of the thermostat lines, did you? I've had people cut off the lines that go into the drywell in the heater. That would cause a problem as well.

Could be a flow problem. Take the filters out and reset the breakers. If it heats up then the filters are too dirty. If the heater on light is not lit then there is either not enough flow from the circ pump, one of the new thermistors could be bad, or the control panel could be bad.

I wouldn't be surprised if the heater board went out after you initially tested it. They work the hardest when you first fill the tub and they have to heat for an extended period of time. If the "heater on" light is lit and there is no voltage to the relay then the board needs to be replaced.

The sides do easily remove on that tub. The fact that it is sunk into a deck is the problem.

I don't think there is any data out there to be able to give approximations to customers how long they may last as they are relatively new to the market. I've sold about 10 and have had zero problems and none of the customers asked how long they would last. If they did I would honestly not be able to give them an experienced answer. I believe that like most things, water chemistry will be a big factor on how long they last. Maybe passos did ask and can give you an answer. I did have 2 phone calls today asking questions that were easy to answer and pretty straight forward. Will you guy's be at the big "Spa Expo" going on in Hartford this weekend because we are hoping to get a sweet deal on a HotSpring/ Caldera up there? No. They were confused as to why we wern't going as "all the major brands" were going to be there. Surprising that a convention center would not want to make money and contact us to rent out floor space to try and sell our product as one of the major brands. Usually conventions/homeshows are pretty aggressive at getting as many dealers as possible dealers to attend these types of shows. I wonder why we were not asked. As far as the Ace cell problem with registering chlorine....check to see what your calcium level is. Also, if the water is clear and you have only added chlorine manually once per month, then the cell is definitely doing something.

There is a small reading on the control pad that says "temp". If it is flashing on and off then it may be an air lock. If it is lit solid then I would suspect that you have a bad heater relay board. You would have to test voltage at the relay that the heater connects to.