Kapp Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Just drained and refilled our new hot tub for the first time. On start up, the pumps ran through their test and then then a very loud screeching/grinding sound started coming from what I thought at first was the heater, after taking another panel it sounds more specifically to be the 24 hour circ pump. I have an Artesian spa "Quail Ridge" and at one time when I let it go for awhile got the rhHL error message. I have tried resetting the circut breaker several times and the same thing happens after a few second. I have also tried removing filters to see if there was any flow problems with the 3 new filters installed at same time. I am in close to freezing condtions and can't get ahold of any tech help from manufacture or dealer we bought it from until Monday. Does anyone know whats happening and a possible fix? Possible water flow prob, bearings in circ pump or heater? Help. thanks Kapp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Guru Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Just drained and refilled our new hot tub for the first time. On start up, the pumps ran through their test and then then a very loud screeching/grinding sound started coming from what I thought at first was the heater, after taking another panel it sounds more specifically to be the 24 hour circ pump. I have an Artesian spa "Quail Ridge" and at one time when I let it go for awhile got the rhHL error message. I have tried resetting the circut breaker several times and the same thing happens after a few second. I have also tried removing filters to see if there was any flow problems with the 3 new filters installed at same time. I am in close to freezing condtions and can't get ahold of any tech help from manufacture or dealer we bought it from until Monday. Does anyone know whats happening and a possible fix? Possible water flow prob, bearings in circ pump or heater? Help. thanks Kapp Kapp- I know I responded in private concerning my belief that the issue is the pump bearing, considering what you described to me in your message, but I wanted to give you one other piece of advice. If you are near freezing conditions and you can't run the spa, put a worklight in the equipment area with at least a 100 watt bulb in it and close the service door. The bulb will give you 100 watts of heat and will keep the equipment from freezing. That will buy you some time until you find a motor repair company to take a look at the spa motor. Just make sure that the bulb is NOT laying up against anything (plumbing, shell, wires, etc) because it can quickly melt anything it is in contact with. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kapp Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Just drained and refilled our new hot tub for the first time. On start up, the pumps ran through their test and then then a very loud screeching/grinding sound started coming from what I thought at first was the heater, after taking another panel it sounds more specifically to be the 24 hour circ pump. I have an Artesian spa "Quail Ridge" and at one time when I let it go for awhile got the rhHL error message. I have tried resetting the circut breaker several times and the same thing happens after a few second. I have also tried removing filters to see if there was any flow problems with the 3 new filters installed at same time. I am in close to freezing condtions and can't get ahold of any tech help from manufacture or dealer we bought it from until Monday. Does anyone know whats happening and a possible fix? Possible water flow prob, bearings in circ pump or heater? Help. thanks Kapp Kapp- I know I responded in private concerning my belief that the issue is the pump bearing, considering what you described to me in your message, but I wanted to give you one other piece of advice. If you are near freezing conditions and you can't run the spa, put a worklight in the equipment area with at least a 100 watt bulb in it and close the service door. The bulb will give you 100 watts of heat and will keep the equipment from freezing. That will buy you some time until you find a motor repair company to take a look at the spa motor. Just make sure that the bulb is NOT laying up against anything (plumbing, shell, wires, etc) because it can quickly melt anything it is in contact with. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kapp Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Great news on the screeching circ pump. Loosened the plastic PVC pipe connector between the pipe coming out of the heater into the 24 hour circ pump. I loosened just enough (by the way it was the only one I could actually loosen at all and with great effort) to allow some air to escape from the connection and until I had a small stream of water. Tightened it back up, prayed and crossed my fingers and the screeching was gone and the start up went as normal and began heating the water. I hope there was no damage to the circ pump while all this was going on. It has an automatic shut done and error message that came on and I would say it ran screeching for 10 mins at the most one time. The other tries were around a minute or two as I was trying to figure out what was happening and then cut power. That was Sunday night, 3 days later it is working and functioning beautifully. By the way I did switch to Nature2 (both stick and aroma therapy oxidizer.) Water is crystal clear smells great and so far so good except for getting the chorline to show on the strip. (I also decided to switch to cholorine granules with this system) I am guessing since it is a new batch of water I need to get the cholorine reserve up then should be able to maintain with a low level. While I am logged in and on the subject perhaps I could throw out this question or perhaps it would be better suited for another strand so others could find it...anyway. With the Nature2 Zodiac Cense MPS+aromatherapy oxydizer I have seen it presented two ways on how best to use it. 1) throw in 1/2 tbps before each use and then use chlorine once a week as a shock technique or 2) just the opposite, use small amount of chlorine granules 1/2 tbps After each use and then use the Cense once a week for the shock. Wondering if you or anyone else had better luck with one way or the other. Feel free to cut and paste this question under chemistry. Thanks again for your help...Kapp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Guru Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Great news on the screeching circ pump. Loosened the plastic PVC pipe connector between the pipe coming out of the heater into the 24 hour circ pump. I loosened just enough (by the way it was the only one I could actually loosen at all and with great effort) to allow some air to escape from the connection and until I had a small stream of water. Tightened it back up, prayed and crossed my fingers and the screeching was gone and the start up went as normal and began heating the water. I hope there was no damage to the circ pump while all this was going on. It has an automatic shut done and error message that came on and I would say it ran screeching for 10 mins at the most one time. The other tries were around a minute or two as I was trying to figure out what was happening and then cut power. That was Sunday night, 3 days later it is working and functioning beautifully. By the way I did switch to Nature2 (both stick and aroma therapy oxidizer.) Water is crystal clear smells great and so far so good except for getting the chorline to show on the strip. (I also decided to switch to cholorine granules with this system) I am guessing since it is a new batch of water I need to get the cholorine reserve up then should be able to maintain with a low level. While I am logged in and on the subject perhaps I could throw out this question or perhaps it would be better suited for another strand so others could find it...anyway. With the Nature2 Zodiac Cense MPS+aromatherapy oxydizer I have seen it presented two ways on how best to use it. 1) throw in 1/2 tbps before each use and then use chlorine once a week as a shock technique or 2) just the opposite, use small amount of chlorine granules 1/2 tbps After each use and then use the Cense once a week for the shock. Wondering if you or anyone else had better luck with one way or the other. Feel free to cut and paste this question under chemistry. Thanks again for your help...Kapp Kapp- First off, I sincerely apologize for being so far off and being so certain in my error! I was totally confident in my response, and am now totally humbled. As for the Nature 2 (I'm going to be very conservative in my reply, now), I have used Nature 2 in my own spa for years, and have found the instructions packed with it to work the best for me. It's good that you switched to using chlorine, because you can't use bromine with Nature 2, but I've never had to maintain a chlorine level in my spa. I just use the MPS, per the package recommended dose, once a week and prior to each use. I only use chlorine as needed (big party, lots of people, etc), or if I get lax with my MPS doses I'll add a small amount of chlorine just to get back ahead of the curve. Of course, if you are reluctant to listen to my advise at this point, I would totally understand! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kapp Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Great news on the screeching circ pump. Loosened the plastic PVC pipe connector between the pipe coming out of the heater into the 24 hour circ pump. I loosened just enough (by the way it was the only one I could actually loosen at all and with great effort) to allow some air to escape from the connection and until I had a small stream of water. Tightened it back up, prayed and crossed my fingers and the screeching was gone and the start up went as normal and began heating the water. I hope there was no damage to the circ pump while all this was going on. It has an automatic shut done and error message that came on and I would say it ran screeching for 10 mins at the most one time. The other tries were around a minute or two as I was trying to figure out what was happening and then cut power. That was Sunday night, 3 days later it is working and functioning beautifully. By the way I did switch to Nature2 (both stick and aroma therapy oxidizer.) Water is crystal clear smells great and so far so good except for getting the chorline to show on the strip. (I also decided to switch to cholorine granules with this system) I am guessing since it is a new batch of water I need to get the cholorine reserve up then should be able to maintain with a low level. While I am logged in and on the subject perhaps I could throw out this question or perhaps it would be better suited for another strand so others could find it...anyway. With the Nature2 Zodiac Cense MPS+aromatherapy oxydizer I have seen it presented two ways on how best to use it. 1) throw in 1/2 tbps before each use and then use chlorine once a week as a shock technique or 2) just the opposite, use small amount of chlorine granules 1/2 tbps After each use and then use the Cense once a week for the shock. Wondering if you or anyone else had better luck with one way or the other. Feel free to cut and paste this question under chemistry. Thanks again for your help...Kapp Kapp- First off, I sincerely apologize for being so far off and being so certain in my error! I was totally confident in my response, and am now totally humbled. As for the Nature 2 (I'm going to be very conservative in my reply, now), I have used Nature 2 in my own spa for years, and have found the instructions packed with it to work the best for me. It's good that you switched to using chlorine, because you can't use bromine with Nature 2, but I've never had to maintain a chlorine level in my spa. I just use the MPS, per the package recommended dose, once a week and prior to each use. I only use chlorine as needed (big party, lots of people, etc), or if I get lax with my MPS doses I'll add a small amount of chlorine just to get back ahead of the curve. Of course, if you are reluctant to listen to my advise at this point, I would totally understand! John Thanks John...OK let me see if I am understanding you about the Nature2 and MPS...as you can see I am trying despertately to get a good "system" and stick with it. I like the sounds of your way....OK basically then I can ignore the chlorine reading on the regular test strips and not worry about it?? (that test strip has the four...chlorine, ALK, PH, Calcium hardness) I also have the Nature2 test strips that show the MPS (which is dead on right now by the way). What has worked for you is to use the Zodiac Cense (or other oxidizer) once a week to maintain MPS and a small amount BEFORE each use. You have been using a shot of chorline only after heavy use or big party or something correct? The Nature2 strips show ALK and PH and Calcium hardness in addition to the MPS so as long as I am just using those and keeping those 4 good, that should work right? I may use the other strips after heavy use or party to double check chlorine if I used the chlorine granules. So far the water is beautiful (no milky water or smell) and is crystal clear. Let me know if you think I am hearing you correctly about the above paragraph...thanks Kapp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenz1g Posted March 12, 2009 Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 Just drained and refilled our new hot tub for the first time. On start up, the pumps ran through their test and then then a very loud screeching/grinding sound started coming from what I thought at first was the heater, after taking another panel it sounds more specifically to be the 24 hour circ pump. I have an Artesian spa "Quail Ridge" and at one time when I let it go for awhile got the rhHL error message. I have tried resetting the circut breaker several times and the same thing happens after a few second. I have also tried removing filters to see if there was any flow problems with the 3 new filters installed at same time. I am in close to freezing condtions and can't get ahold of any tech help from manufacture or dealer we bought it from until Monday. Does anyone know whats happening and a possible fix? Possible water flow prob, bearings in circ pump or heater? Help. thanks Kapp Kapp- I know I responded in private concerning my belief that the issue is the pump bearing, considering what you described to me in your message, but I wanted to give you one other piece of advice. If you are near freezing conditions and you can't run the spa, put a worklight in the equipment area with at least a 100 watt bulb in it and close the service door. The bulb will give you 100 watts of heat and will keep the equipment from freezing. That will buy you some time until you find a motor repair company to take a look at the spa motor. Just make sure that the bulb is NOT laying up against anything (plumbing, shell, wires, etc) because it can quickly melt anything it is in contact with. John Normally you wouldn't be off and I would have posted the same exact response if I were in your situation. Depending on what type of circulation pump he has, I do know that Hotspring's 1/20th of a HP circ. pumps have floating impellers and they do get kinda create a little of a hayday of a fit when not primed correctly. You wouldn't also have this problem with the hotsprings circ pumps as they don't have bearings. But I dont know what artesian spa's are equipped with, so I'm ignorant on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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