Arctic Spa Heater Problem

[wetnwildone]

I'm looking for some help troubleshooting. Went out and found the GFI was tripped on my 2006 Arctic spa summit. Looked inside and found the heater plug fried. Pried it apart and found the pins all black and melted.

Removed the wires that run from the heater plug from the circuit board and turned on the GFI and it held. Looked on the circuit board and found some black marks that looks like heat related problems coming from the relay on the circuit board. so... any way of testing the heater. Could this just be a plug /moisture problem, and if I replace the plugs the heater will work ? Because of the amount of current going through, would it be wise to change the relay ? Any thoughts and help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ross

[Dano]

I'm looking for some help troubleshooting. Went out and found the GFI was tripped on my 2006 Arctic spa summit. Looked inside and found the heater plug fried. Pried it apart and found the pins all black and melted.

Removed the wires that run from the heater plug from the circuit board and turned on the GFI and it held. Looked on the circuit board and found some black marks that looks like heat related problems coming from the relay on the circuit board. so... any way of testing the heater. Could this just be a plug /moisture problem, and if I replace the plugs the heater will work ? Because of the amount of current going through, would it be wise to change the relay ? Any thoughts and help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ross

warranty?

[THE SPA GUY]

Is it still under warranty , didn't they have a 5 year warranty on electrical. if it is i would call the dealer to fix,,,may be the easiest way...

[Kingdog]

I'm looking for some help troubleshooting. Went out and found the GFI was tripped on my 2006 Arctic spa summit. Looked inside and found the heater plug fried. Pried it apart and found the pins all black and melted.

Removed the wires that run from the heater plug from the circuit board and turned on the GFI and it held. Looked on the circuit board and found some black marks that looks like heat related problems coming from the relay on the circuit board. so... any way of testing the heater. Could this just be a plug /moisture problem, and if I replace the plugs the heater will work ? Because of the amount of current going through, would it be wise to change the relay ? Any thoughts and help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ross

Sounds exactly like the problem I had on the used arctic spa I bought. I had to buy a new circuit board and it fixed the problem.

[MaximusMo]

Sounds like I have exact same problem with my 8 yr old Yukon arctic spa.

Heater stopped working, brought it for service, guy said heater works fine but male/female connection is melted and burned on both ends.

So I bought a new heater, started installing it and have now noticed some burn marks on the board from before where the main leads from the heater go in. Hoping that it will still work, don't really want to have to replace the board as well. I haven't started it up yet. Any concerns or thoughts?

Did the original poster also have to buy a new board?

Thanks for any help!

Forum Newbie

[Spa_Guru]

Sounds like I have exact same problem with my 8 yr old Yukon arctic spa.

Heater stopped working, brought it for service, guy said heater works fine but male/female connection is melted and burned on both ends.

So I bought a new heater, started installing it and have now noticed some burn marks on the board from before where the main leads from the heater go in. Hoping that it will still work, don't really want to have to replace the board as well. I haven't started it up yet. Any concerns or thoughts?

Did the original poster also have to buy a new board?

Thanks for any help!

Forum Newbie

The problem stems from insufficient contact surface in the plug, I reccomend replacing the 5.57KW heater element with a 4.4 KW so the problem does not reoccur.

[aquatechservice]

Hi all of you who have an artic spa..

heater problems are recuring on these spas and it will be hard to find a 4 kw heater for them to have less amp draw because artic spas get parts manufactured for them so you have to go through them ( big brother)..

the heater they have is a 5.5 kw and of course it draws a lot of amps for the plug.. usually on a well engineered spa, the heater is connected directly to the board.. so what I would recommend is remove the female plug from the spa pack, cut the male plug from the heater, install 2 lugs on the heater wires and connect them directly to the spa pack board..

if any of you have any problems with your artic spa, ask me and I'll tell you all the tricks to go around..

[Tomab]

Hi all of you who have an artic spa..

heater problems are recuring on these spas and it will be hard to find a 4 kw heater for them to have less amp draw because artic spas get parts manufactured for them so you have to go through them ( big brother)..

the heater they have is a 5.5 kw and of course it draws a lot of amps for the plug.. usually on a well engineered spa, the heater is connected directly to the board.. so what I would recommend is remove the female plug from the spa pack, cut the male plug from the heater, install 2 lugs on the heater wires and connect them directly to the spa pack board..

if any of you have any problems with your artic spa, ask me and I'll tell you all the tricks to go around..

I second what aquatechservice recommends. I am not a service tech but I am dealing with the same problem...melted plug, black burn marks inside spa pack. My tub is still under warranty. The service guy told me that Arctic recommends the same thing, to bypass the plug and hook directly into the spa pack board. They told me the reason why this happened is that the heater relay failed and current was still being supplied to the heater and overheated the plug even though the heater wasn't "on" supplying heat to the water. Not sure about that but that's what they told me.

Now my problem is that I've been waiting a 1 1/2 months so far for the new relay to come in from Arctic.

[Spa_Guru]

They told me the reason why this happened is that the heater relay failed and current was still being supplied to the heater and overheated the plug even though the heater wasn't "on" supplying heat to the water. Not sure about that but that's what they told me.

Now my problem is that I've been waiting a 1 1/2 months so far for the new relay to come in from Arctic.

If the heater stuck on due to a relay it would either fry the element or the hi limit depending on where it was placed, the plug overheats due to an inadequete connection for a 5.5 kw element, eliminating the plug will solve the problem, I used to do that with the old Jacuzzi "Blue Panel" packs.

Waiting six weeks for a part is nuts, it only takes a cargo ship 3 weeks to cross the Pacific, what is their excuse?

[Tomab]

They told me the reason why this happened is that the heater relay failed and current was still being supplied to the heater and overheated the plug even though the heater wasn't "on" supplying heat to the water. Not sure about that but that's what they told me.

Now my problem is that I've been waiting a 1 1/2 months so far for the new relay to come in from Arctic.

If the heater stuck on due to a relay it would either fry the element or the hi limit depending on where it was placed, the plug overheats due to an inadequete connection for a 5.5 kw element, eliminating the plug will solve the problem, I used to do that with the old Jacuzzi "Blue Panel" packs.

Waiting six weeks for a part is nuts, it only takes a cargo ship 3 weeks to cross the Pacific, what is their excuse?

At this point it isn't quite clear on what's holding it up. Customs? Arctic dragging their feet? Who knows at this point.

In the dealers defense they just recently aquired selling the Arctic line. They do not have an inventory of parts yet. My dealer that I purchased from no longer carries Arctic.

[Spa_Guru]

At this point it isn't quite clear on what's holding it up. Customs? Arctic dragging their feet? Who knows at this point.

In the dealers defense they just recently aquired selling the Arctic line. They do not have an inventory of parts yet. My dealer that I purchased from no longer carries Arctic.

Most of the stuff that makes up an Arctic comes from here --->>> http://www.risingdragonplastics.com/en/index.php

They are still in a state of flux because they are still learning how to make spas, they are relatively new at it, so it can be difficult to find now-obsolete parts.

[Water Boy]

Hi all of you who have an artic spa..

heater problems are recuring on these spas and it will be hard to find a 4 kw heater for them to have less amp draw because artic spas get parts manufactured for them so you have to go through them ( big brother)..

the heater they have is a 5.5 kw and of course it draws a lot of amps for the plug.. usually on a well engineered spa, the heater is connected directly to the board.. so what I would recommend is remove the female plug from the spa pack, cut the male plug from the heater, install 2 lugs on the heater wires and connect them directly to the spa pack board..

if any of you have any problems with your artic spa, ask me and I'll tell you all the tricks to go around..

I second what aquatechservice recommends. I am not a service tech but I am dealing with the same problem...melted plug, black burn marks inside spa pack. My tub is still under warranty. The service guy told me that Arctic recommends the same thing, to bypass the plug and hook directly into the spa pack board. They told me the reason why this happened is that the heater relay failed and current was still being supplied to the heater and overheated the plug even though the heater wasn't "on" supplying heat to the water. Not sure about that but that's what they told me.

Now my problem is that I've been waiting a 1 1/2 months so far for the new relay to come in from Arctic.

Arctic has been wiring their heaters directly to the spa packs for the last two years now.

[Water Boy]

They told me the reason why this happened is that the heater relay failed and current was still being supplied to the heater and overheated the plug even though the heater wasn't "on" supplying heat to the water. Not sure about that but that's what they told me.

Now my problem is that I've been waiting a 1 1/2 months so far for the new relay to come in from Arctic.

If the heater stuck on due to a relay it would either fry the element or the hi limit depending on where it was placed, the plug overheats due to an inadequete connection for a 5.5 kw element, eliminating the plug will solve the problem, I used to do that with the old Jacuzzi "Blue Panel" packs.

Waiting six weeks for a part is nuts, it only takes a cargo ship 3 weeks to cross the Pacific, what is their excuse?

At this point it isn't quite clear on what's holding it up. Customs? Arctic dragging their feet? Who knows at this point.

In the dealers defense they just recently aquired selling the Arctic line. They do not have an inventory of parts yet. My dealer that I purchased from no longer carries Arctic.

Please contact the Arctic Spas Technical support team.

They are very knowledgeable and would love to get your spa running properly.

Contact:

Shane S.

1-800-309-1744

or

780-789-2626

ext. 322

You can also contact him by email

Shane@goarctic.com

[Spa_Guru]

Arctic has been wiring their heaters directly to the spa packs for the last two years now.

Sure, that is what I meant about still learning, spa manufacturers often make paralell mistakes years apart because nobody shares information or takes repairmen as seriously as they should.

Because of this, Arctic just had to learn what other manufacturers have already found out 15 years ago.

[Tomab]

They told me the reason why this happened is that the heater relay failed and current was still being supplied to the heater and overheated the plug even though the heater wasn't "on" supplying heat to the water. Not sure about that but that's what they told me.

Now my problem is that I've been waiting a 1 1/2 months so far for the new relay to come in from Arctic.

If the heater stuck on due to a relay it would either fry the element or the hi limit depending on where it was placed, the plug overheats due to an inadequete connection for a 5.5 kw element, eliminating the plug will solve the problem, I used to do that with the old Jacuzzi "Blue Panel" packs.

Waiting six weeks for a part is nuts, it only takes a cargo ship 3 weeks to cross the Pacific, what is their excuse?

At this point it isn't quite clear on what's holding it up. Customs? Arctic dragging their feet? Who knows at this point.

In the dealers defense they just recently aquired selling the Arctic line. They do not have an inventory of parts yet. My dealer that I purchased from no longer carries Arctic.

Please contact the Arctic Spas Technical support team.

They are very knowledgeable and would love to get your spa running properly.

Contact:

Shane S.

1-800-309-1744

or

780-789-2626

ext. 322

You can also contact him by email

Shane@goarctic.com

Water Boy,

Thanks for the contact information. Much appreciated.

As of this morning the spa is fixed. It was the relay that needed replaced. No need to replace heater.....just hard wired it into the board.

[Bpaduch]

Can you buy just the relay? I asked my local arctic spa dealer and they said its part of the spa pack board and I can't buy it separately.

[Spa Board Doctor]

The relays are available and are often affected by the heater plug "burn-down". The heat travels through the wire and into the relay contact points and beyond. I have made many repairs on these boards and always bypass the heater plug, add ring terminals to the heater wires, and wire directly to the pc board. If the heater or high limit relays are affected we replace them as well.

BB

[Leeboy]

I have a 2013 arctic spa cub . 1st heater lasted a year, replacement lasted 3 days. Now it's two weeks and haven't gotten a replacement. My friend has a 2014 arctic, and his heater lasted less than a year .

[north_of_boston]

I have a 2011 Arctic Yukon, which is essentially the same as the Cub, just no lounger, more liters of water -- no probs.

There is one thing - they do stand by their stuff.

[Dale.jakes]

Anyone know where I can find a guide to help me hard wire the heater from an arctic spa directly into the spa pack?