MattL

I have a 2008 Raindance hot tub with a Balboa Vs501z circuit board. I have two pumps. I'm not sure of the proper terminology, but I call them the main, or the circ pump (which is the one that turns on most of the time, circulating and heating the tub at low speed thru half the jets, and also has a higher speed), and the secondary pump which has only one speed and rarely turns on without manually pressing the button to turn it on. Well, this "secondary" pump has been getting louder and louder, kind of with a little squeel when it's on... I figured it was just a matter of time and it would have to be replaced. However, at the moment I'm putting an addition on my house and don't have time to mess with it. I'll put it on my Spring "to-do" list. Fast forward to a month ago, and the buss fuse popped. I replaced it and went on my merry way. It lasted 3 weeks and popped again. This time when I replaced it, the secondary pump would not prime and squealed like it was seized up, which I'm guessing is causing the fuse to pop. The main pump primed without problem and the noise from the secondary pump stopped, so I let it go to see what would happen. It got up to temp in about 5 hours, then popped again. There was a "dY' on the control panel, which seemsto mean someting about the heater may be dry. Now we get hit with a cold front and it's supposed to get down to 8F tonight. Is there a way I can bypass this "secondary" pump and just let the main pump do it's thing to get me thru the winter (or at least get me to the weekend whn I could shoehorn some repair time into my schedule)? Can I pop out one of the other smaller fuses to disable it? Do I have options? Any help would be appreciated.

The more I'm researching it, maybe those perimeter lights are fiber-optic???

Sorry... double post

Thanks, but the big underwater light (like shown in your links) is working fine. It's the small perimeter lights that are going out on me. The "head" of the light that sticks through the spa wall is only about 1/2" in diameter and are hex shapes and looks as though they're made that way so you can screw and unscrew them into place with a small wrench. The pics below were taken a couple years ago when most worked as they should (I hope you can see the pics... they're linked from Facebook)

I have a 2008 Raindance hot tub with a Balboa 54585 control box. The tub has one large underwater light and several small hex-shaped lights around the inside perimeter of the tub just above water level. All the lights can light up red/green/blue/purple/white, or fade from one color to the next. Well, they used to, anyways. I noticed a couple of the small lights didn't work when I bought it (a Craigslist tub), but the price paid made up for a couple lost lights. After a year I had lost a couple more, but it still would cycle through all the colors. Last fall I noticed I when the perimeter lights were supposed to be showing blue or purple, they wouldn't light up. Pretty soon I only had red or green, and now I only have green, with a bunch of darkness during the cycle. The large underwater bulb still cycles correctly with all the colors, but those little perimeter lights, of which only half of them work nowadays, only spit out the occasional green. I'm not really sure how LED lights work. Can I replace the little hex-shaped "bulb" with a new one, or is it something that the whole wiring harness or whatever has to be replaced back to the control box? If it's the latter, I'd have to disassemble a portion of my deck, as I built it to sit level with the top of the tub. Not impossible, but I'd rather not do it in the dead of an Ohio winter. Any guidance is appreciated! Matt

Evidently the magic elves that live under my deck fixed the issue while I was at work yesterday. I got home and, just for craps and giggles, gave it a go again. It sounded like it was spinning free (with no water)... then a couple bubbles burped out of the jets, then a few more, then more, and then she took right off. Checked it before I left this morning and the circ pump wasn't running at the time. I pressed the button to turn it on, and it spit water out the jets just like it was supposed to. Maybe I need to bump up the elves' salaries... Thanks for the suggestions either way.

I'm sorry... yes, the pump sounds like it's running fine, in circ mode and on high... it's just not grabbing any water.

I did a water change in the tub yesterday. Shut off the breaker, drained the tub, filled 'er back up (thru the filter mechanism), and turned on the breaker. Walked over to the tub and the "Pr" light was on as usual after a shutdown. I pressed the one pump button and it fired up and circulated water with no issues. I pressed the other pump button (which is also my circulation pump) and got nothing. Turned it off then on again... nothing. Repeat 20x. Nothing. I tried back-priming it by spraying water though a garden hose nozzle into some of the jets. Still nothing. I figured I must have done something wrong and managed to get an air bubble in the lines so I drained the tub again and refilled it (again thru the filter). Snapped the breaker back on and tried the pumps. 1st pump again had no issues. Circ pump is just not catching water, even after several attempts. The thing was running without a hitch before, and over the two years I've had it I've never had this issue. Is there a better way to ensure the pump gets primed other than filling it thru the filter? Any suggestions on how to get it primed? By the way, it's a 2008 Raindance Spa with a Balboa 54585 control box. Thanks

Yup... If I'd have had a tester I could have checked... thanks for the reply. There are a lot of tiny details to learn when you get a hot tub on Craigslist and not from a dealer who actually teaches you how to run it. I appreciate your help!

I have a Raindance Spa with a Balboa 54585 control box (also called out as model number INF107). The other night my son was in the tub with just the circ pump running, but when he decided to turn the jets on full blast the pump turned off altogether and I haven't been get it to fire up since. I've tried cutting the power completely to the tub, waiting 15 minutes, then firing it back up. It went into priming mode, but I still wasn't able to activate the pumps by pressing either of the "jets" buttons. I've gone through all the filtration cycles an all the running modes but the pump just won't run. When I press the jets buttons I can hear a slight click in the control box, but that's all I get. It's a new pump as of last november, and we haven't had any trouble with it since installing it. Since the pump is actually under our deck I figured I'd come here first to see what you guys thought before I started taking up deck boards. Any ideas what the problem might be? Matt

Hey all... noob to this forum. I have a Raindance Spa with a Balboa 54585 control box (also called out as model number INF107). Anyways, a couple months ago it was running without a hitch. We were on vacation for a week and when we got back we noticed that the circulation pump was never shutting off. I tried resetting the electronics by removing power from the spa completely, but when I fire it back up and it's done with the priming process, it goes back to running constantly. Also when we usually use the spa we sit on the same side and only use the one set of jets. However, after you're in it for a while the other set of jets will randomly fire up and run for about 15 seconds, then shut off. I can turn all the jets on just like always, but can never get the circ pump to stop. Does this sound like a flaky circuit board? Thanks for any help... Matt