Dr. Spa
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Posts posted by Dr. Spa
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Most likely you have a bad heater element. You can get the correct ohm reading, but it can still be shorting out to the water. Try disconnecting BOTH wires from the element and see what happens then.
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Old school. NICE! I have a similar set up. My recommendation for a more modern controller would be an Intermatic Multiwave;
http://www.intermatic.com/en/products/pool_and_spa/electronic_controls/multiwave
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" There was continuity between line 1 and 2, but nothing between the legs and the neutral/ground."
Yeah, removed from the spa and empty of water, it would NEVER show the short.
Most likely you have a bad heating element.
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You need to put an amp meter on the heater. If it's getting voltage and not pulling any amps, you have a bad element (yes, new parts can be bad from the get go)
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You paid someone to fix it...It isn't fixed. They owe you your money BACK. ANY small claims court judge will agree.
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Need a picture of the spa side control panel.
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"when I totally block the one "good" drain, the other one still barely pulls anything". That would tend to indicate a problem. Any possibility the screen is clogged (and difficult to see)?
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Are you ABSOLUTELY SURE it hasn't always been this way? It's not necessarily abnormal for the vast majority of the suction to be through only one drain.
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Sounds more like a controller issue and power is being sent simultaneously to both the low speed and high speed of the motor.
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When bromine is added to a spa it's in the form of bromide ions. It then activated with an oxidizer to form hypobromous acid. Hypobromous acid is the killing form of bromine. When hypobromous acid reacts with an organic contaminant it's reduced back to bromide ions. The bromide ions can then be reactivated back into hypobromous acid by the addition of an oxidizer. This is somewhat of a continuos cycle with bromine sanitized spas.
If 100 percent of the bromide ions became hypobromous acid and 100 percent of the hypobromous acid returned to bromide ions, you would never again have to add more bromide salt. But hypobromous acid can react with certain chemicals in the water that tie up the bromide ions and prevents them from becoming free bromide ions in the water. This happens when hypobromous acid produces bromate or bromoform for instance. There are many other combinations that tie up the bromine so it can not become a free bromide ions. For this reason more bromine salt or bromide ions need to periodically be added. The level of bromide ions should not go below 15 ppm.
The basis behind 2-part liquid bromine sanitizing systems is to add a salt of bromine (sodium bromide) to the water to get bromide ions and then oxidize the bromide ions with an oxidizer such as monopersulfate (MPS), hydrogen peroxide, percarbonate, ozone or any compound of chlorine to produce hypobromous acid. You need a minimum of 15 ppm of bromide ions for an oxidizer to work and to provide a "bank" of bromide ions for an oxidizer to react with.
Bromine tablets are typically 1-bromo-3-chloro-5,5-dimethylhydantoin. When added to water they hydrolyze to become hypobromous acid. With bromine tablets a separate oxidizer is not necessary to make hypobromous acid, it is already an ingredient in the tablets. When the hypobromous acid reacts with a contaminant and is reduced, it becomes a bromide ion. You then get a build up of bromide ions in the water. After a while, you could just start adding an oxidizer to reactivate the bromide ions to hypobromous acid, but most people don't, they just add more bromine tabs.
Currently is no way to test water to find out how much bromide ions are in it. This is because the same test that measures bromide ions also measures chloride ions and all water has chloride ions in it. Other than making an educated guess, there's no way to tell when the bromide ion level is too low. The 2-part bromine manufacturers know this and recommend that you add some bromide ions (liquid bromide salts) every few weeks or so.
Realistically, a bromine sanitized spa can not be switched over to chlorine, if there's still bromine in the water. All the chlorine added to the water is going to convert bromide ions into hypobromous acid. As long as there's 15 ppm or more of bromide ions in the water, all the chlorine added is going towards converting bromide ions into hypobromous acid, none of it will provide a chlorine residual. The spa will continue to be bromine sanitized until the bromide level gets below 15 ppm. But there is no test kit for measuring just bromide ions in the water and therefore no way to know when the bromide level is below 15 ppm. It could take a week. It could take 2 months.
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The absolute easiest way is to put two new holes and fittings into the spa and plumb it in as a COMPLETELY independent system. Anything else, you'll go bald pulling your hair out...bald from head to toe.
I"m assuming they're heating water directly...rather than a PV system? if so, how much storage capacity do they have ?( FYI, unless they have MASSIVE storage capacity, never in a million years will they ever reach payback)?
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Go for it.
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All their products are "the worst"? Looks like you only used ONE of their products, and it didn't work for YOU.
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Definitely go with the better dealer.
Some years ago I read an article about a study that determined that women base much of their buying decision of cars on the number and convenience of cup holders. Never would I think that cup holders would be a deciding factor for a hot tub.
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"So I added some clarifier and that’s when the bubbling/foaming started."
This typically is caused by something in the water that the clarifier coagulates into large enough particles to then create this problem. Most frequently it's personal hygiene products. i.e. hair conditioner, make-up, body lotion etc.
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First, lets try to get consistent on terminology. You say "The breaker only trips after approximately 20-30 minutes of running with the jet blower"...but then you say "The hot tub has nothing fancy, just a circulation pump, single stage jet pump and the brains/heater unit".
A blower is a type of "pump", that just blows air. Nothing else, no water, just air.
A circulation pump is a very small water pump that is typically used 24/7 for filtration and heating.
There's then LARGE one speed and/or dual speed pump that pump large volumes of water for the jet action.
As for your problem though, could very well be a bad GFCI breaker.
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Did you get this new, or used?
Balboa makes controllers, used in spas.
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does requiring a permit sound reasonable? ummmm, is there anything the government does that's reasonable??? Permits cost MONEY, and this is yet another way for them to raise revenue. You're also increasing the value of your home, and it's now documented, so they're be a little increase in your property tax as well ;-)
ASTM F 1346 is just a recommendation, that any municipality may or may not adopt..as is, or modified by them if they choose. The warning stickers, are actually considered one of THE most important parts, any without, it fails with an F minus.
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It all varies by municipality.
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Repair documentation? Virtually non-existant for ALL brands. Most manufacturers use off the shelf parts manufactured by other companies (generic). There's maybe a couple of brands that make most of their own stuff (preparatory)...Hot Springs for sure is one of those.
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Not really...though there is a multiplier you can use to convert it's chlorine results to accurate bromine results (I don't remember the number to multiply by).
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Brand, model , year?
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How long from the time you added the metal gone till you added the Renew? It sounds like, in fact, you DO have metals in the water.
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A hot tub? As in 300-500 gallons of water? And you're using muriatic (liquid) acid to try lowering the ph (how much, how often?)? How are testing the pH...as I suspect your test results are way WAY off!
Tripping Breaker - Gecko In.xm1 (Morgan Spa)
in Portable Hot Tubs & Spas
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"I have the control unit completely removed from the the spa and am reading continuity between 1 and 2, so the heating element doesn't come into play."
This is not correct. Sorry, not even close, as the two have almost nothing in common. Not only is it possible, but in most cases normal, for a heater element to have the correct amount of resistance (ohm reading), but STILL short out to the water, causing the GFCI to trip. Once the remove water as a factor, the GFI wont trip.
Having continuity between 1 and 2 is also completely normal and really doesn't tell you much. There's a transformer in the system and as long as the line side of it is intact, this will give you a continuity reading.