Jersey Hot Tub Repair

Do you have the DIP switches on the circuit board set properly? I'm assuming you should set them for a 24 hr. circulation pump, and it would be plugged into the circ pump connector, not Pump 1. The blower also needs to be enabled through the DIP switches. Dave

I've never seen a cover that was air tight. Icicles are not common, but I have seen a few. Steam constantly rising from the cover would indicate to me that it's not making good contact with the tub edges. Dave

We service both Gecko and Balboa systems. True, the in.xm and in.xe don't have serviceable circuit boards, but there's not really much on a Balboa circuit board you can fix either. On the in.xe or in.xm the only option for a circuit board failure is to replace the entire pack. On the other hand, if you have a bad circuit board in a Balboa, it's generally cheaper to replace just the circuit board. I prefer the Balboa because the heaters and sensors are field replaceable, where in the in.xe & xm you have to replace the entire heater assembly. Also, the Balboa seems a little "tighter." The Gecko pack has a rubber seal around the cover which always seems to be falling out when we try to put it together in the field, and the cable strain relief clamps don't fit very well over heavy pump harnesses. For retrofitting a new pack with a gecko system, I prefer the in.ye, which is highly versatile and uses the same AMP connectors as the Balboa pack. If you have a 3 pump or a 2 pump and blower system, the in.ye is less expensive than the Balboa. You have to software program the in.ye, but it's not difficult to follow the directions. The Balboa is programmed by dip switches. Quality wise, I think the packs are similar. I've had one DOA on each of them over the past 5 years. The gecko uses a 4 kW heater element, while the Balboa uses either a 4.0 or a 5.5kW heater. You can try to count the pennies on the electrical usage. The 4kW needs to run longer but uses less energy. The 5.5kW heats faster, but uses more energy. I've never had a customer note the difference. If you're really worried about saving a few dollars a year, maybe a hot tub isn't the greatest investment. The HR error message typically is accompanied by a second code. SP-HR means pack failure. RN-HR means heater failure, which is a much less expensive repair. Dave

It's a very expensive part, close to $1000. We charge $149 to install a topside, which is about a 30 minute job. Dave

Arctic Spas topside quick reference guide: https://www.arcticspas.com/owners-manual/quick-reference-guide/ Dave

Hi Dan, I don't see a lot of air switches anymore, but I'll try to think out loud and maybe give you a hand. The air switch is typically connected to a stepper switch, where each puff steps through the available functions. The stepper switch is a fairly large, inexpensive, and easily replaced. It's not logical that the system would draw 8A on the second press with the motor in low speed, then 1.2A on the third press with the same apparent result. Those extra 6.8A have to be going somewhere. Amperage is a measure of actual energy, not potential. My guess is that when it's drawing 8 A, your heater is turning on, and on the third press the heater is turning off. If the first press is drawing 4.5A, I'm guessing that your heater is turning off when the motor is in high speed. This would be typical for a 115V hot tub in the USA. Where are you measuring the amperage? At the power terminal where your home is connected to the tub, or on the individual components? I wouldn't try any DIY wiring on a 240 Volt tub of water I was planning on climbing into. You can get a retrokit that includes a digital pack, new heater and new topside control panel for under $400 US. It is safer than gambling with electricity and water and will definitely make your life easier: https://www.spadepot.com/Balboa-VS-Spa-Control-Kit-P3185 Dave

Power off the spa, disconnect the topside control panel, then turn the spa back on. Balboa control packs default to Standard mode, 80 degrees. If the motor comes on, then you may be looking at a problem with the topside. If the motor still doesn't come on, try plugging the motor directly into a 120V outlet to see if it's working. If it isn't, it indicates a motor problem. If it is, it indicates a circuit board issue. That could just be a blown fuse, or it could be time for a new circuit board. Dave

First, make sure the pump is moving water. Are the gate valves open in the plumbing immediately before and after the pump? Is it wired properly? If you run the wires directly to current, outside the pack, does the pump turn on and push water? Is the board configured properly? There are jumpers to tell it how many pumps it has that the installed has to set. Do you have voltage going to the pump relays? If a power fuse has blown, the board could still be hot but not sending the proper power to the pump. You said you adjusted the pressure switch. Did you use a meter to check continuity, or did you just rotate the adjustment screw? Try shorting out the pressure switch connector and see if that makes the system work properly. The easiest way to do this is to power off the spa, disconnect the pressures switch wires at the pressure switch, power on the spa and connect the two ends of the pressure switch wire. I do this by pushing a paper clip into the spade connectors that would normally attach to the pressure switch. Obviously, you have to be careful not to touch the board while it's powered up. The pressure switch itself uses 12V on a Gecko SSP system and is safe to handle. You have to short out the pressure switch circuit AFTER the spa is powered up. If it sees continuity on power-up, it will report an error condition. Here's the service manual for the SSPA pack, maybe it can help you: http://www.aquaspaandpoolsupply.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/TECHBOOK-SSPA.pdf Dave

The sensor clamped to the heater tube is usually the high limit sensor. The temp sensor may be in the tub itself, mounted through a wet well, which is essentially a hole in the tub that the sensor bulb sticks through, with a small gasket on the back of the sensor to make it water tight. What COULD be happening is the temp sensor is getting a draft on the back of it, so it's not reading the water temperature. The sensor bulb is cooling from cold air hitting the back of it, while hot water hits the front. So the temp sensor things it's 100 degrees and calls for heat, and the water continues to heat beyond the set temp. When the water hits 115, it trips the high limit sensor, which is clamped to the heater. Trace the wire from the circuit board to the temp sensor, and make sure the sensor is pushed all the way into the well. You could also insulate the back of it with a little silicone caulk to stop the draft from touching the sensor. A factory installation often has an aluminum coated bubble wrap over it, silicone-caulked into place.

Would it be accurate to say your problem seems to be related to the outdoor temperature? What kind of heater do you have: the watkins low flo heater with the two 3/4" steel tubes, or is it 2" diameter steel can with an element inside? The lo flow heater has the temp sensors internal. The 2" can has the sensors mounted outside. If you have the 2" can, make sure the sensors are insulated so they aren't affected by the ambient air temperature. Is your tub a 115V tub or a 230V tub? You should get 230V across the terminals that the heater connects to, when the tub is calling for heat. You will get 115V when it's not calling for heat. In a 115V tub, you will get no reading when it's not calling for heat.

The 50A jumper probably disables the heater when your pumps are on high speed. Intermittent heating is often caused by bad flow - which could be dirty filters. Or, your pressure switch could be flaky and not staying closed, causing the heater to turn on and off. That would be in line with the wrench symbol, which probably means to "call for service." Dave

I can't speak as to the issue with your board, but relay's burn up all the time. Some people on this forum say they've replaced the relay's themselves. The power leads going into your tub are 6 gauge stranded probably. The get hot, expand, then contract. Over time, the connection gets loose from years of expansion and contraction. Loose wires cause arcing, which can burn up your circuit board. If a heater shorts out, it means the coating on the element has failed and electricity is leaking out of the element into the water, which instantly trips your GFCI, I don't think current leakage would cause a relay to burn up. I've never been able to connect a board burn up due to a heater, but honestly, how would you know? When the boards damaged, you replace it. If you replace the board and the tub works properly, you're going to assume the heater is working fine and wasn't the problem. Dave

Four things can cause an FL1 error. The following order is what I have experienced doing repairs: 1) Dirty filters. If your filters are more than a year old, don't clean them. Replace them. If it's a consistent FL1 error, try with the filters removed. 2) Bad circ pump (see this at least once a week) 3) Bad flow switch. (see this once or twice a month) 4) Bad circuit board (seen this once in 6 years) I had an intermittent overheat error in a Master spa that we've been fighting with for a month. After several trips to the customer, and several calls to their tech experts, the best guess was that it was a flo error due to a failing circ pump. Went to replace the circ pump yesterday, and when I removed it, found several one inch pieces of glass in the pump impeller. Asked the homeowner if he'd lost a wine glass lately. Turned out they dropped it in a few weeks before the problem started. They drained the tub and thought they got all the glass, but they missed just enough to restrict the flow enough to cause the overheat error. In other words, check your plumbing, especially between the circ pump and the flo switch. I've seen hoses that were coated with minerals and chemicals on the inside that just restrict water flo enough to trigger a flow error. (Sort of like cholesterol in a coronary artery). Dave

First of all, the most important consideration is the reputation of the dealer. You want someone who is proven to be responsive to their customers. I'm an independent service company and I get a lot of business from customers who are just fed up with the retailer they bought their tub from. Lack of returned phone calls, long waits for appointments, and salespeople who resent having the pick up the phone and arrange service for a customer AFTER they've sold them the tub and gotten their commission are common complaints I hear. I wouldn't buy a scratch-n-dent hot tub unless I got a HUGE discount. First of all, how did it get scratched - n- dented? It's not like someone put it in their shopping cart and pushed the cart too close to their car in the parking lot. It was likely dropped off a truck, hit with a fork-lift, or dragged on it's side through doorways. A new tub comes wrapped in carboard, plastic, Styrofoam, etc. They don't get "scratched" unless someone is not being careful. Who knows what other damage it has? Additionally, some retail stores cannibalize floor models for parts; not necessarily bad but a part time teenage stock-boy who really doesn't know what they're doing may be pulling out pumps or heaters to service their other customers. I would have real concerns about quality control. If it's a return from another customer, it's not scratch-n-dent, it's used. Enough of that tirade. Most ozonator's are basically an ultraviolet bulb. Lifespan on the bulb is about 2000 hours. That's why they don't warrantee it past a year. Google "ozonator" and look at on-line stores and you'll see the price is considerably lower than $600. We've been using an aftermarket ozonator that has an MSRP of about $100 from a company called Dynozone. One failure out of about 50 installs in two years. About 75% of the hot tubs we service are out of warranty. We can argue about whether an ozonator should last 2 years or 5 years, but let's face it, at 10 years it's not functioning. So, most people we encounter do not have a working ozonator in their tub and are none the wiser. Most people, when they find out they've been getting along without it for 7 or 8 years, say "why bother replacing it now?" Distance from the dealer is a major consideration. First of all, how many service techs do they have? Year round or just during their busy season? When your hot tub dies in the middle of the winter and you need service, are they driving two hours in the snow to get to your house? When we get calls from customers who are far from our shop, I always tell them they should find a service company closer. Let's face it, if I can service 3 tubs that are within fifteen minutes of me, or drive 90 minutes each way to your house to do one service call, what am I going to do? Parts-only warranty, at least in the first year, is not typical in the industry. We provide warrantee service on 4 different brands, and they all cover parts and labor, at least for the first year. Several for longer. Dave

With the pump disconnected, turn on your breaker, which should turn the tub on. Now, press the TEST button on the breaker. We just want to see if the GFCI is working properly. If the test button isn't working, then your GFCI is the problem. GFCI's work off the neutral line, so the neutral on the pump is the trigger. Next, try disconnecting the ozonator. If it has a short in it (which is common in older tubs), it could be turning on when the pump turns on and causing the problem. If that's not it, connect your new pump to a different pump connector on the pack. Since the J&J connectors are keyed to the plugs, you may have to swap wires instead of plugs. Will the new pump work connected to a different pump circuit? Does your other pump work when connected to the circuit that's giving you problems? If the problem is following the pump, and disconnecting the pump cures the problem, most likely the pump is bad. I've seen one or two DOA pumps in my day, but that is a rarity. Dave

Most of the small circ pumps are sealed and not possible to repair. But look at it this way, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If it's the original pump, you've already gotten 13 years out of it. I wouldn't waste my time or money trying to repair, even if it was possible. A circ pump is one of the cheapest parts on a hot tub. Dave

If the spaside display works and the indicator lights come on, it's getting it's 12V, so I'd look elsewhere for a solution. You should have two 115 legs coming into the spa (usually a 6 gauge stranded red and black wire to the white terminal block on the left of the circuit board). Only one of them feeds the 12V circuitry that runs your control panel, so if you've lost a leg, the control panel could theoretically work even though nothing else does. Check for 115V between line 1 and neutral. 115V between line 2 and neutral. 230V between line 1 and line 2. Did you test the GFCI? If there's a problem with your Neutral line, the GFCI won't work. A problem with Neutral could be affecting the tub. You could hot wire the pumps to a regular 115V outlet, even if they are 230V pumps, just to see if they turn. But any Balboa circuit board I've ever worked on makes an audible click when a relay is activated, so my guess the is the relay's aren't closing and opening when you press the topside buttons. You can also test the pump receptacles on the circuit board with your voltmeter when you press the topside buttons, but I doubt if they are activating since you don't hear the relay. If power checks out and the GFCI checks out, assuming the fuses are good (you didn't answer my question about whether you removed them to check them), it points to a circuit board issue.

Yes, if you're getting in a pool of warm mold, I'd say there's a chance you can get infected by it. Ozonators loose their effectiveness as they age. Maybe yours is due for replacement. Sounds like it's time for a good shock treatment and maybe pay a little more attention to your regular sanitation routine. Dave

Just make sure you replace it with an ozonator of the proper voltage. Your ozonator adjusts for 110V or 230V. If you want to get a different unit, check what your tub is providing and get the rise ozonator. BTW - if you got 4 years out of an ozonator, that's darn good. Most are good for a year or two. I'd stick with what works. Dave

What do the instructions for the tub call for? That's what you should do. It sounds like you're saying you have a 60 amp breaker on the main and a 60 amp gfci breaker on the sub panel? So are you trying to ask if you can run a 50 amp tub on a 60 amp breaker? My initial answer would be "yes," unless the instructions say otherwise. Gecko calls for a 20% over-capacity on their packs, so a 60 amp circuit would be used for a 48 amp tub. I repair 30-35 tubs a week, and 60 amps seems to be the most common service I encounter. About 30% of the tubs I see are on 50 amp breakers,. Dave

The ozonator would turn on during a filtering cycle, so your symptom of shorting during the priming cycle makes sense. Most ozonators use a black light bulb that have a lifespan of approximately 2000 hours. So, once the tub is about 2 years old, chances are the ozonator has stopped doing it's job. As long as it doesn't get water into it's electronics, it will continue to turn on during filtering cycles, but it will not be putting ozone into the water. In your case, it sounds like some water has gotten into the ozonator and is causing it to short out. When we repair tubs, we explain to customer's what the ozonator does and try to help them make their own informed decision. I'd say about 9 out of 10 people don't have us replace the ozonator for them. I'm sure a fraction of them do it on their own, but most don't. In a 10 year old tub, I can tell you that the ozonator has probably been non-functioning for the past 7 or 8 years, and if you're happy with your water quality, then a new ozonator probably isn't going to matter to you. In your case, your ozonator may have been working up until the time it failed. Removing it may make a difference in your water quality. Time will tell. Personally, I think an ozonator is great because it reduces the amount of caustic chemicals you put into the tub. A combination of an ozonator and a mineral stick (like Filter Frog or Nature 2) will eliminate the need for bromine and allow you to use monopersulfate, which is much easier on the skin. You probably will still want to give it a dose of shock every 10 -14 days, depending upon how much you use the tub. Dave

Many of the Sundance tubs have 24 hr circulation cycles. Is this a new behavior? Your filtering cycle is probably programmable as well, maybe someone has managed to press just the right combination of key presses to put the tub into 24 hr. circulation mode? Dave

Power down the spa. Disconnect the topside. Remember which plug it was connected to. Power on the spa. Balboa spas default to 80 degrees, so pump 1 and the heater should turn after the 5-7 minute priming cycle. If it does, it tells me the spa works with the topside disconnected and doesn't work with the topside connected, which makes me think the topside is bad. When you press your control panel buttons, do you hear the relay's activate on the spa pack? If so, how did you check the fuses? You need to remove them from the circuit board to check for continuity. If you check them while on the board, you will get continuity through the board itself. Dave

You can't jump the wires to the pressure switch with the tub turned off. If the tub sees that switch is closed when it turns on, it reports an error condition. IOW, start the spa, then jumper the wires. (it's 12 volts DC, no worries about shock). Just 3 flashing dots without the LED on is a water flow condition related to the pressure switch. Check that the pump works. If so, remove your filters and see if the problem disappears. If it does, it's time for new filters, the old ones are clogged. 3 flashing dots and LED is generally a hi-limit error. Turn off the tub, then turn it on after 30 seconds. Does the error condition still appear? Is the heater hot? If the heater's hot, then you have a water flow condition. If the heater's cold, your hi limit sensor is probably due for replacement. Dave

Time out here - you need a GFCI cable. It's not a question of amperage and wire gauge, it's a question of climbing into a tub of electrified water. That's what you're paying for when you buy a hot tub power cord. Dave