Problem With Easypak / Hydroquip (Long)

[op1]

The problem begins.

I purchased an Easy Pak ( Hydroquip ) from Spa Depot, this July for a 1992 Sundance, I am refurbishing. It wasn’t long after I started using it that I had inconsistencies with the water temperature. I have been on and off with Spa Depot’s technical support with a couple of issues. First issue the ozonator doesn’t work. The smart jack lights up but not the ozonator. No problem they will send me a new one. In the interim I discuss the temperature issues. I keep it set to 80 and only raise it a couple of hours before using it but it always reads high. Then one morning I woke to find the spa had overheated. (however actual spa water did not seem that hot)

I called Spa Depot and spoke to the tech,. I ended up having to turn off power, letting it cool. After about two hours with cover off and power off I was able to run the pumps and blower again and got it to cool. I set the temperature way below the read out and noticed that the heater light stayed on. Called Spa Depot again. Turned temp all the way down. Turned power off and on and the system seek to reset and it seemed to be functioning correctly. Tech advised that it was probably a fluke of the controller. Ok I'll work with it. But skeptical. I set it to 85 and kept a close eye on the temp. Next morning I checked it, and was at 85, great. So I set it to 95 so that I could go in for a soak at night.

Later I got ready for a soak took the cover of. Spa said 95. So far so good. But it didn't feel that warm. Had my soak. Turned it up to 100 and covered it up.

Next morning checked the temp, it showed 95!!! WTF? Checked the setting, it was set for 100. Most of the time in the past the temp was higher then what I set it for. This time it was 5 degrees lower. The spa has a pretty good cover. In addition to the Sundance insulation I added 2 inches of foam board. I cleaned the filter no less than 2 weeks ago. So it shouldn't be losing heat. Tried resetting power all over again and setting temperature to max, but could never get temp past 95

I contacted Spa Depot, they contacted the manufacture Hydroquip who in turn issued a call tag for the equipment. I drained the spa, packed up the controller and heater along with a note explaining everything as above and sent it back to Hydroquip. It takes a week for the unit to get there and a week to get back to me with a few days while it is there. In short no less than three weeks without use of my spa. Arggg

The saga continues

I get the controller back and found a work order that came with it. It advised that the heating element was bad and that it had been replaced. The unit was bench tested for two hours and heated the water to 100 degrees ran well. Somehow I didn’t have warm and fuzzies. Ok I reinstall everything, and refilled tub. New ozonator not working ! The water temperature is 59 degrees so it will be a while before its hot enough for a soak. Best if I leave it overnight. So I set it to 100degrees and went to bed. Got up in the morning had my coffee and went to check on my spa. OVERHEATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called SpaDepot. I was asked to put some cold water down the filter port in order to cool the temp probe quickly and be able to run the pumps. This worked. However despite the water, hotter than what the temperature was set for, the heater continues to stay on. I shot videos of the controller and heater continuing to heat even after the water temperature setting is exceeded. In addition even after the pumps turns off the heater continues to stay on. This causes and overheat condition. I am now waiting to hear back from Spa Depot and Hydroquip as to how to proceed. This unit is only a few months old in short it has spent more time in transit that it has installed..

To be continued……

Anyone else have issues with Hydroquip?

OP1

[op1]

Well just got off the phone with SpaDepot. Long story short they seem to be a stand up company. They have a real interest in seeing that I am happy with my purchase and will be taking care of this.

More to follow in the coming days.

OP1

[op1]

Well just got off the phone with SpaDepot. Long story short they seem to be a stand up company. They have a real interest in seeing that I am happy with my purchase and will be taking care of this.

More to follow in the coming days.

OP1

Update. Spadepot & Hydroquip did the right thing!!! I will post an update once I have the spa up and running again.

OP1

[op1]

Well just got off the phone with SpaDepot. Long story short they seem to be a stand up company. They have a real interest in seeing that I am happy with my purchase and will be taking care of this.

More to follow in the coming days.

OP1

Update. Spadepot & Hydroquip did the right thing!!! I will post an update once I have the spa up and running again.

OP1

The new controller and spa side is in and appears to be working nicely. Temperature for the last two days has been +/- 2 degrees from set point. Kudos to Spadepot and Hydroquip for standing by their product and doing the right thing.

OP1

[wjthomson7@gmail.com]

I bought a Easypak 2000 in January 2016 from Spa Depot to replace the Gecko spa brain on my 15-year-old Sonoma Spa. It worked great for a month then the spa side control panel started to give random read outs. The control allowed me to control all the pumps and blowers but did not give water temp read outs and would not allow me to program the Easypak brain. The Spa Depot warranty technician talked me through a number of steps to fix the problem with no solution. He authorized me to send the unit back to the factory at the factory's expense. So I emptied out 450 gallons of hot water from the tub, uninstalled the Easy PAk unit and spa side control pad and sent them back to the HydorQuip factory in early March. The factory tested the unit and spa side panel and said they were ok despite the substance of my complaint. After they returned the unit to me, I installed it and it behaved normally for about one week then started the same symptoms that I described earlier in this review. I contacted the Spa Depot technician and was told that the factory could not be wrong and the problem must be on my end!! Finally, in April, I was fed up with a dysfunctional spa control system and called the Spa Depot warranty tech group and talked to a different technician. He walked me through a number of tests and steps and after each one, I fed him videos and pictures of the results. Finally, he talked to the factory and they said send it back to the factory for the second time for test but I would have to pay for the freight which indicated that I was the problem not their unit. They also said that if the unit tested OK, I would have to pay to have the unit shipped back to me!!. I shipped it back after dumping another 450 gallons of hot water and they tested it and found a faulty spa side control unit which they replaced under warranty. They shipped it back on their UPS account. I have not installed the unit with the new spa side control panel yet. I am discouraged enough that I have not re-installed the unit yet. The unit design and ease of installation make the unit very attractive. I can verify that it is easy to install since this will be the third time that I have installed it. I am disappointed in the customer service of Spa Depot and the terms from the original factory (HydroQuip). At this point, I cannot recommend the unit to any one that will depend on their local spa technician to install and follow up with issues with the unit. If I had not installed and re-installed the unit myself, I would have spent $100s of dollars for my local spa technician's time to deal with this problem. I have spent many hours of my time dealing with the Spa Depot techs and installing and re-installing the unit.

Spa Depot did respond with regrets for my problems and gave me a $50 gift certificate to compensate for me paying for the freight to the factory the second time around. They are pretty good people to deal with but I do not like to be dismissed by telling me that the problem is in my spa when it was clearly a factory warranty issue.