Hotspring Aria - Dead :(

[beachball]

I'm gutted, was planning to get in the tub on xmas day.

2 days ago, I noticed the power light was off. Sure enough, there was no pump, no heater, it's dead. Just had an electrician come round to check the power source, RCD, etc - all fine.

Whilst he was there, he put his magic power detector over the main circuit board of the spa and could see that the board had power.

Anyone seen this before? His best guess was that it could be the control panel (where the temp buttons are, etc).

I called Hotspring to discover that they have gone into administration. Now run by Watkins (the manufacturers), they can't send somebody out for 3 weeks! Absolutely useless.

Can anybody help?

James

[Dan.The.Spa.Man]

I'm gutted, was planning to get in the tub on xmas day.

2 days ago, I noticed the power light was off. Sure enough, there was no pump, no heater, it's dead. Just had an electrician come round to check the power source, RCD, etc - all fine.

Whilst he was there, he put his magic power detector over the main circuit board of the spa and could see that the board had power.

Anyone seen this before? His best guess was that it could be the control panel (where the temp buttons are, etc).

I called Hotspring to discover that they have gone into administration. Now run by Watkins (the manufacturers), they can't send somebody out for 3 weeks! Absolutely useless.

I just thought of something else if the tub has a stereo (Aria comes with or without)

****Also, check to see if there is a light lit up that says 'control unplugged' inside the IQ control box. If so the stereo system may be fouling up the system in which case you would need to unplug the various stereo components.

Can anybody help?

James

What is the voltage, 220?

Are you sure both breakers are on? The 30 and 20?

Look into the IQ 2020 control box where the wires are and see if there is a green light on that says 'limit OK'

If not, reset the breakers to see if anything comes on, even if it is brief.

Very odd that the power light would be completely out. If the electrician didn't use an actual meter to test the breakers and incoming power then they didn't do much good.

*****Just remembered something else to check if your model has a stereo*****

Look in the control box to see if the 'control unplugged' light is lit. If so the stereo may have a problem and would need to be unplugged from the system to make things work.

[beachball]

Thanks for replying...

What is the voltage, 220?

I'm in the UK, so 220 to 240v.

Are you sure both breakers are on? The 30 and 20?

I've got an RCD and a trip switch (30amp), side by side, housed in the outside meter box. I've tried flipping them on and off several times, pressed RESET on the breaker, made sure I pushed them down before up... both are in the on position.

Originally this spa specified 20 amps, but it kept tripping out when pressing JET1 or JET2, intermittently. Had it changed for a 30amp fuse (Hotspring said this was happening a lot on this model and they now recommended 30amps) and was ok after that. An armoured cable runs from that box to an outside switch, then the spa is connected to that switch.

The electrician that was round this evening was using a "pen" type thing with a light on the end that turned red as he pressed it against the power cables and iq2020 motherboard.

Look into the IQ 2020 control box where the wires are and see if there is a green light on that says 'limit OK'

I see "LIM OK" and what looks like an led to the left of it, but it's not illuminated.

If not, reset the breakers to see if anything comes on, even if it is brief.

Nope, nothing. No led's lit up at all on the board, no sound, no clicks, nothing.

Very odd that the power light would be completely out. If the electrician didn't use an actual meter to test the breakers and incoming power then they didn't do much good.

The only other time I'd seen this behaviour was when the spa used to trip the 20amp trip switch.

*****Just remembered something else to check if your model has a stereo*****

Look in the control box to see if the 'control unplugged' light is lit. If so the stereo may have a problem and would need to be unplugged from the system to make things work.

Yes, it's got a DVD player (but no screen!). I did see "CONTROL UNPLUGGED" on the board but no light.

What do you make of that? Could it be anything other than the power supply? Would you *always* get some led's on the control board if there was power? If so, how could the electrician's "pen" have lit up when he pressed it against the power cable just shy of the spa, then on the board?

Thanks for helping....

I had no idea that HotSpring UK had gone out of business. Seems it was during November. Typical - only I could buy a spa from a company that'd been running for 30 years, only to see them fail 5 months later!

James

[spatech (the unreal one)]

If not, reset the breakers to see if anything comes on, even if it is brief.

Nope, nothing. No led's lit up at all on the board, no sound, no clicks, nothing.

If I read this right, you verified that your 30A breaker near the spa isn't tripped but did you check the breaker in your main panel at the house?

[Dan.The.Spa.Man]

Thanks for replying...

What is the voltage, 220?

I'm in the UK, so 220 to 240v.

Are you sure both breakers are on? The 30 and 20?

I've got an RCD and a trip switch (30amp), side by side, housed in the outside meter box. I've tried flipping them on and off several times, pressed RESET on the breaker, made sure I pushed them down before up... both are in the on position.

Originally this spa specified 20 amps, but it kept tripping out when pressing JET1 or JET2, intermittently. Had it changed for a 30amp fuse (Hotspring said this was happening a lot on this model and they now recommended 30amps) and was ok after that. An armoured cable runs from that box to an outside switch, then the spa is connected to that switch.

The electrician that was round this evening was using a "pen" type thing with a light on the end that turned red as he pressed it against the power cables and iq2020 motherboard.

Look into the IQ 2020 control box where the wires are and see if there is a green light on that says 'limit OK'

I see "LIM OK" and what looks like an led to the left of it, but it's not illuminated.

If not, reset the breakers to see if anything comes on, even if it is brief.

Nope, nothing. No led's lit up at all on the board, no sound, no clicks, nothing.

Very odd that the power light would be completely out. If the electrician didn't use an actual meter to test the breakers and incoming power then they didn't do much good.

The only other time I'd seen this behaviour was when the spa used to trip the 20amp trip switch.

*****Just remembered something else to check if your model has a stereo*****

Look in the control box to see if the 'control unplugged' light is lit. If so the stereo may have a problem and would need to be unplugged from the system to make things work.

Yes, it's got a DVD player (but no screen!). I did see "CONTROL UNPLUGGED" on the board but no light.

What do you make of that? Could it be anything other than the power supply? Would you *always* get some led's on the control board if there was power? If so, how could the electrician's "pen" have lit up when he pressed it against the power cable just shy of the spa, then on the board?

Thanks for helping....

I had no idea that HotSpring UK had gone out of business. Seems it was during November. Typical - only I could buy a spa from a company that'd been running for 30 years, only to see them fail 5 months later!

James

I thought you may have been outside the US, that's why I asked about the voltage. Sounds like the exported models have a different electrical setup than what I am familiar with. Anyway, there should be a light on near one of those LED's.

Not sure what a RCD is. Is it the same or similar to a standard American GFCI breaker? If it has a test button then try to hit that and see if the breaker snaps off.

If you can post pictures of the breaker/RCD setup it may help me...also the wires going into the spa control box as well.

[beachball]

Spatech: The hot tub RCD and trip switch connect directly to the electric meter, both are on the outside wall of my house. A seperate cable runs from the meter to the inside fuse box for the rest of the house.

Dan: Ok, thanks. It's dark right now, I'll take some pics tomorrow.

RCD is a circuit breaker, yes. The RCD has a test button, pressing it snaps the switch down, ready for a reset.

About those LED's, would you expect to see one on if there was indeed the correct power going to the spa? They're all over the motherboard on the IQ2020 box but none are lit (right beside all those labels you mentioned, "LIM OK", etc.).

Stupid hot tub.

[beachball]

Are there any breakers *inside* the hot tub?

[Dan.The.Spa.Man]

Are there any breakers *inside* the hot tub?

No breakers on the inside.

I'm not sure about the exported models, but the US models come with a 30 and a 20 amp breaker.

The 30 controls the circ pump, jets, lights.

The 20 controls the heater (the heater wouldn't turn on if the 30 is off but there would still be power at the main board from the 20 amp breaker) This may be why the electrician saw some degree of power with his test light.

On a normal US setup, I would suspect that your 30 amp breaker is not putting power to the tub, but I just don't know if your is set up the same. You would have to use a multi-meter to test voltage where the power enters the board.

[beachball]

Dan,

Thanks to you I sought the advice of a 2nd electrician, who tested the cable with a meter and found it wasn't what it should have been. Traced back to a loose wire and now all is well!

Thanks again.

James

[Dan.The.Spa.Man]

Dan,

Thanks to you I sought the advice of a 2nd electrician, who tested the cable with a meter and found it wasn't what it should have been. Traced back to a loose wire and now all is well!

Thanks again.

James

No problem...glad you got it going again without any major problems...enjoy!

[Stuart A]

I called Hotspring to discover that they have gone into administration. Now run by Watkins (the manufacturers), they can't send somebody out for 3 weeks! Absolutely useless.

Can anybody help?

James

I came across this article which states that Hotspring UK is out of administration.

http://www.whatspa.com/blog/hotspring-spas...administration/

This was the company who had a few sales people who would tell prospective buyers that other companies had gone bankrupt, which was a total lie.

Perhaps now they have experienced this firsthand themselves they will now stop this sales ploy.