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How Long Should It Take To Heat My Water After Refill?


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I am just curious about how long it should take. I just got it finally powered up for the first time (preowned) and it has been on for 3 hours and I am not able to feel any changes in temperature yet. I was hoping to use the spa tonight (we are anxious) but it doesnt appear as though its heating up. I can hear the gentle humm of the circulation pump and i dont have any blinking "somethings wrong" lights, so I am hoping its just slow. I found my digital thermo and just took a reading of 77.5, so i will be able to track progress.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

JD

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I am just curious about how long it should take. I just got it finally powered up for the first time (preowned) and it has been on for 3 hours and I am not able to feel any changes in temperature yet. I was hoping to use the spa tonight (we are anxious) but it doesnt appear as though its heating up. I can hear the gentle humm of the circulation pump and i dont have any blinking "somethings wrong" lights, so I am hoping its just slow. I found my digital thermo and just took a reading of 77.5, so i will be able to track progress.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

JD

I believe you have a 2 breaker spa. Are both breakers on?

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Yes. I also double checked them and reset them again to be sure. It seems like things are running...just at a snails pace. Its now been running for almost 9 hours and its barely at room temperature. I put my arm in and can tell there is a little water coming out of the bottom drain and can see a faint water ripple, so i assume its working. I cant however tell if the water is hotter is coming out. Either its too small of a change or it aint working. Unfortunately my digi thermo died after the first use...so i am back to my own senses for temperature checking. I am going to give it the benifit of the doubt and hit the sack and hopefully its all ready to roll in the morning. Sure seems awefully slow though. Its a big ol' expensive spa to have a 4000w heater and heat this slow is kind of suprising to me.

Thanks,

JD

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Something sounds wrong. Your hose water temp was probably 60-65 degrees, you should be getting at least 4 or 5 degrees per hour - and probably more. So after 9 hours you should be plenty hot. Cover's in decent shape and on it, right?

Take a look at your meter. With the heater on, that wheel should be spinning pretty fast. If it's not, something's dead.

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Hi all,

I wanted to give a morning update. Its been about 20 hours now and it is getting there. The water is warm now, but not at spa temps yet. The cover is in good condition and sealed up well. I checked the power meter and can see it is spinning. I did find a little buried blurb in the manual stating it will take 18-24 hours to heat. I doubt it will even be done in 24 hours and its 100* outside here. I also noticed other models of spas having much bigger heating wattage (6000w vs my 4000w). Not sure why this spa would have a smaller heater, its not a cheap spa....

Thoughts?

Thanks all,

JD

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Hi all,

I wanted to give a morning update. Its been about 20 hours now and it is getting there. The water is warm now, but not at spa temps yet. The cover is in good condition and sealed up well. I checked the power meter and can see it is spinning. I did find a little buried blurb in the manual stating it will take 18-24 hours to heat. I doubt it will even be done in 24 hours and its 100* outside here. I also noticed other models of spas having much bigger heating wattage (6000w vs my 4000w). Not sure why this spa would have a smaller heater, its not a cheap spa....

Thoughts?

Thanks all,

JD

Hi JD,

I have a 4kW heater in my 380 gal spa. I'm soaking at max temp by early evening if I turn it on mid-morning, but suspect it's ready even earlier than that. Either your heater is much less than 4kW, the heater isn't working well, or there is some feature of the control system that's limiting the heater. You shouldn't need bigger than 4 kW to do the job on 330 gallons.

Try running the jet pumps and see if things improve. I am no expert on spas, but I wonder if there is an outlet temp sensor that is limiting your heater. Increasing the flow through the heater would help IF there is something like this going on.

The other possibility is that the heater is crudded up with deposits. This could cost you a fortune in electricity... fortunately heaters aren't too expensive. Running the jet jump will make a bit of an improvement if this is the problem as well, probably not much though.

20 hours at 4kW would be, of course, 80 kW hours to heat your spa. Too much juice!!! I would be seeing dollar signs flashing in front of my eyes!! Good luck, keep us posted.

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Thanks for the info. Is there something I can check out myself? I also noticed the circulation pump is a bit on the loud side. (I dont have anything to compare it to though). I can hear it churning from about 8' away which i am not sure is normal or not. I can definitely hear it clear as a bell when next to the spa. Is it possible the pump is clogged or something? I put a new filter in. Anything else I can check?

Thanks all,

JD

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One more thing. I just pulled the panel off and listed close to the pump. It is running, but frequently (every min or so) will make a weird hiccup sound. Its almost like it sounds like changing gears on a standard transmission truck. I dont know if that is normal...it dont sound normal. I dont know what could cause that. Could this be messing up the water flow through the heater element? I also dont feel strong flow coming out of the bottom drain and i cant tell a temp difference coming out of that drain either...not sure if thats normal or not. I am not sure what to do at this point...

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

JD

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I'm no expert, but I think you may have a problem. Sounds like your hearing the sound my pool pump makes when it gets air in it (hiccup)! Bleed those pumps, and see if you get any air out. That could cause a low flow / heating problem.

As for time it should take to heat, I know my 450gal tub was drained yesterday, and I turned the power back on after it was full around 3 oclock, and by 10pm it was 100 degrees and ready to soak. I admit that I have no idea how big the heater is, or how long it should take, but it is pretty fast at heating.

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My first thought is to check the wiring. From my experiences, many pre-owned HotSpring/Tiger River spas are wired incorrectly. This brand is wired differently than most and the person selling the tub is generally not as descriptive as a dealer would be as far as explaining how to wire it.

Do you have it set up with 20 amp and 30 amp breakers or just a 50 amp breaker? If it is just a 50 amp breaker then it will not work properly. Make sure the wiring is exactly like it should be based on the diagram inside the cover of the control box.

If it is wired correctly, then you need to check for voltage at the heater relay. If there is voltage at the heater relay then you need to check continuity between the black and white wires on the heater itself.

As far as the sound that the circulation pump is making, it should not really affect anything as long as you are getting enough flow, it's just annoying. There may be something in the circulation pump causing the impellar to rub against the side of the pump housing.

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I am just curious about how long it should take. I just got it finally powered up for the first time (preowned) and it has been on for 3 hours and I am not able to feel any changes in temperature yet. I was hoping to use the spa tonight (we are anxious) but it doesnt appear as though its heating up. I can hear the gentle humm of the circulation pump and i dont have any blinking "somethings wrong" lights, so I am hoping its just slow. I found my digital thermo and just took a reading of 77.5, so i will be able to track progress.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

JD

Are you sure it is a 4Kw heater, there is an option to have a 1.5Kw heater.

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I am just curious about how long it should take. I just got it finally powered up for the first time (preowned) and it has been on for 3 hours and I am not able to feel any changes in temperature yet. I was hoping to use the spa tonight (we are anxious) but it doesnt appear as though its heating up. I can hear the gentle humm of the circulation pump and i dont have any blinking "somethings wrong" lights, so I am hoping its just slow. I found my digital thermo and just took a reading of 77.5, so i will be able to track progress.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

JD

Are you sure it is a 4Kw heater, there is an option to have a 1.5Kw heater.

Hi all,

Yes, it is the 4kw heater model installed. I checked it. As for the breakers, i have a 20A and a 30A separate breaker going to the tub. I have not traced the wiring internal to the tub though. One thing i noticed is that the tub will NOT heat when using it. The heater is on and you can feel a trickle of hot water coming out of the little drain on the bottom, but when you get in the tub and turn on the jets you will lose 1 degree period. I put it on UT-4 which is the "heat up to max and heat through jets" setting and it still wont budge. Not the end of the world..but the other night I was in "money saving" mode and left it at 98* throughout the day..then thought I would bump it to 101 just prior to getting in....NOPE....Didnt even make it 1 degree..just held 98.

Thanks,

JD

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I have a Caldera Kauai. When I filled it the first time, the circulating pump didn't get primed and it didn't heat up. I noticed a large bubble in the circulating pump suction's hose. I undid the hose clamp and slowly pulled the hose partly off, I got air and then a gush of water. It was a good thing I only had the hose partly off or I would have been drenched! The circulation pump was off and warm to the touch, I reset the breakers and the pump came on. It heated right up after that, about 4 degrees per hour.

Dave

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I had a Caspain and it would take about 12 hours to get fully up to temperature.

For future reference/FYI:

you should remember that there is a heater re-set button on the heater inside the equipment bay. If the breakers are not turned on correctly you could trip this reset switch. (turn the pumps on first, and let the water circulate through them for 5 minutes or so, THEN turn the circuit breaker for the heater on. ) If you find that after several hours the water still is not up to temp you should push the reset button inside the equipment bay.

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I had a Caspain and it would take about 12 hours to get fully up to temperature.

For future reference/FYI:

you should remember that there is a heater re-set button on the heater inside the equipment bay. If the breakers are not turned on correctly you could trip this reset switch. (turn the pumps on first, and let the water circulate through them for 5 minutes or so, THEN turn the circuit breaker for the heater on. ) If you find that after several hours the water still is not up to temp you should push the reset button inside the equipment bay.

If it is the 4K heater then there is no reset on the unit itself.

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I had a Caspain and it would take about 12 hours to get fully up to temperature.

For future reference/FYI:

you should remember that there is a heater re-set button on the heater inside the equipment bay. If the breakers are not turned on correctly you could trip this reset switch. (turn the pumps on first, and let the water circulate through them for 5 minutes or so, THEN turn the circuit breaker for the heater on. ) If you find that after several hours the water still is not up to temp you should push the reset button inside the equipment bay.

If it is the 4K heater then there is no reset on the unit itself.

Not quite. Perhaps that mght be true on newer models (??) but my 2005 Caspain had a 4K no fault heater and had the reset switch.

JD,

What year is your Caspian?

I think I averaged an increase of 4 degrees an hour to reheat. You should be able to feel a significant, steady very warm flow of water coming up from the floor drain/grate.

Is there an ozinator installed on this tub as well? If so you should be seeing tiny bubbles flowing out from the floor drain as well.

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Hi all,

The year is 2006 caspian CHP model. I almost convinced myself to pull out the circ pump without draining it and got half way there until i noticed a flaw in my technique.....water shoots out of the pump also. I only had plans to plug the hose...there are multiple hoses going to the pump. So i gave up for the eve on that. I also noticed something about the breakers. When I turn on the 20amp breaker...nothing happens. Seems like everything (circ pump, jets, control panel, etc) is running on the 30amp breaker. Does that mean the 20A circuit is heater only and everything else is on the 30a? I verified the wiring against the schematics and it looks correct.

Got it all rigged back up, turned on and am now living with the loud "off balance washing machine" sounding circ pump...until tomorrow that is.

Thanks,

JD

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I had a Caspain and it would take about 12 hours to get fully up to temperature.

For future reference/FYI:

you should remember that there is a heater re-set button on the heater inside the equipment bay. If the breakers are not turned on correctly you could trip this reset switch. (turn the pumps on first, and let the water circulate through them for 5 minutes or so, THEN turn the circuit breaker for the heater on. ) If you find that after several hours the water still is not up to temp you should push the reset button inside the equipment bay.

If it is the 4K heater then there is no reset on the unit itself.

Not quite. Perhaps that mght be true on newer models (??) but my 2005 Caspain had a 4K no fault heater and had the reset switch.

JD,

Well then you have something weird going on then, because the No-Fault 6000 heaters were 6K and the next generation Tri-Bend heaters were 6K. Those both had resets. The Titanium heaters that followed are 6K and 4K and neither have manual resets.

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I had a Caspain and it would take about 12 hours to get fully up to temperature.

For future reference/FYI:

you should remember that there is a heater re-set button on the heater inside the equipment bay. If the breakers are not turned on correctly you could trip this reset switch. (turn the pumps on first, and let the water circulate through them for 5 minutes or so, THEN turn the circuit breaker for the heater on. ) If you find that after several hours the water still is not up to temp you should push the reset button inside the equipment bay.

If it is the 4K heater then there is no reset on the unit itself.

Not quite. Perhaps that mght be true on newer models (??) but my 2005 Caspain had a 4K no fault heater and had the reset switch.

JD,

Well then you have something weird going on then, because the No-Fault 6000 heaters were 6K and the next generation Tri-Bend heaters were 6K. Those both had resets. The Titanium heaters that followed are 6K and 4K and neither have manual resets.

What can I say to you? The Tiger River documentation cleary identifes the heater on a 2005 Caspian as being a 4K heater:

From the Owners Manual:

http://tigerriver.hotspring.com/Easy/pdfs/...s_manual_05.pdf

The Caspian model features one Wavemaster 8000 (2 hp single speed) jet pump and one Wavemaster 8200 (2 hp two speed) jet pump. The Bengal (Model MM) features a Wavemaster 9000 (2.5 hp single speed) jet pump. The Caspian and Bengal (Model MM) spas have a No-Fault® titanium, high watt density heater.The heating system consists of a 4,000 watt (4 kW) heater on the Caspian while the Bengal (Model MM) has a 6000 Watts (6kW) heater. The spas are also equipped with an energy efficient low-flow circulation pump, and a high-limit thermostat for protection of user and equipment.

I know for a fact the 2005 Caspain has a reset switch. I owned the tub. I have actually seen it with my own two eyes, and on two seperate occasions used the reset switch.

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What can I say to you? The Tiger River documentation cleary identifes the heater on a 2005 Caspian as being a 4K heater:

From the Owners Manual:

http://tigerriver.hotspring.com/Easy/pdfs/...s_manual_05.pdf

The Caspian model features one Wavemaster 8000 (2 hp single speed) jet pump and one Wavemaster 8200 (2 hp two speed) jet pump. The Bengal (Model MM) features a Wavemaster 9000 (2.5 hp single speed) jet pump. The Caspian and Bengal (Model MM) spas have a No-Fault® titanium, high watt density heater.The heating system consists of a 4,000 watt (4 kW) heater on the Caspian while the Bengal (Model MM) has a 6000 Watts (6kW) heater. The spas are also equipped with an energy efficient low-flow circulation pump, and a high-limit thermostat for protection of user and equipment.

I know for a fact the 2005 Caspain has a reset switch. I owned the tub. I have actually seen it with my own two eyes, and on two seperate occasions used the reset switch.

Trigger,

If your's had a reset button then it either wasn't an '05 or someone put a different heater in. I understand it has a 4K heater, I service HotSpring/Tiger River/Caldera and replace about 10 heaters a week.

Here is some info from the same owner's manual that you posted:

NO-FAULT® HEATER AND INTEGRATED PRESSURE SWITCH

It is important to note that the No-Fault heater is protected by both the heater high limit thermostat circuit and the integrated pressure switch. The

causes of heater high limit tripping are discussed in the previous section.

If the spa is not heating, the red and green lights are blinking, but the pump and light are operating, then the pressure switch may be open.

Opening of the pressure switch is normally a result of one or a combination of these problems: 1) a clogged filter cartridge, 2) blockage within the

system plumbing, 3) power was not disconnected to the spa before it was drained, or 4) an air lock in the plumbing lines. Once the problem has

been identified and corrected the pressure switch will close which will energize the heater.

The heater high limit thermostat ciruit is not a manual reset, nor is the integrated pressure switch.

Did your heater look like a trombone? If so, that is the last heater that had a thermal cut-off which was able to be reset by pushing a button.

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Did your heater look like a trombone? If so, that is the last heater that had a thermal cut-off which was able to be reset by pushing a button.

Well, I don't know how else to say but it was a 2005 Caspain Hot tub with a 4K heater that could be reset with a button. There is absolutey no doubt about it. Perhaps you are mistken, or confused?

I'm not much of a musciaon, so I really couldn't tell you if looked like a trombone or not. I do know when the tub wasn't heating, just like the original poster stated, pushing this button reset the heater and it started to heat. :)

It wasn't an odd ball tub either. The very first time I filled it (june 27 '05) , I tripped the heater. I posted my problem to a well known web board stating I had a brand new 05 Caspian that wasnt heating. A very well known dealer/poster from across the country replied suggesting I hit the reset button, which I did. So other knoweldgable dealers where aware that my 05 Caspain had a reset.

In fact here is the hotsprings dealers actual reply to my post;

To fix: open the door and firmly press the reset button on the heater. Look at your owner's manual to find the thing, it can be hard to press.

:)

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Did your heater look like a trombone? If so, that is the last heater that had a thermal cut-off which was able to be reset by pushing a button.

Well, I don't know how else to say but it was a 2005 Caspain Hot tub with a 4K heater that could be reset with a button. There is absolutey no doubt about it. Perhaps you are mistken, or confused?

I'm not much of a musciaon, so I really couldn't tell you if looked like a trombone or not. I do know when the tub wasn't heating, just like the original poster stated, pushing this button reset the heater and it started to heat. :)

It wasn't an odd ball tub either. The very first time I filled it (june 27 '05) , I tripped the heater. I posted my problem to a well known web board stating I had a brand new 05 Caspian that wasnt heating. A very well known dealer/poster from across the country replied suggesting I hit the reset button, which I did. So other knoweldgable dealers where aware that my 05 Caspain had a reset.

In fact here is the hotsprings dealers actual reply to my post;

To fix: open the door and firmly press the reset button on the heater. Look at your owner's manual to find the thing, it can be hard to press.

:)

I'll have to refute this to the death...there is no manual reset on a 4KW Tiger River Caspian No-Fault heater. I'm going to guess that you are mistaken or confused, because I have been fixing these tubs exclusively for over 20 years. I'll have to check when I get to work tomorrow if the 2005 had the Tri-bend heater (which was 6K and had a manual reset) or if it came with the 4K Titanium No-Fault heater (which did not have a manual reset).

There was a few changes in heaters around that time. If yours had a reset button on it, then it was most likely the 6K Tri-bend heater, and not the 4K heater that jd-santaclarita is asking about. If he/she has a 4 KW No-Fault heater then it does not have a reset button on it!

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