mschmitz57 Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 I have a 10 year old Hot Springs Prodigy that quit heating. This spa had an older style trumpet heater so I installed a new style replacement heater. This was advertised as a Watkins but It looks like a reproduction model. The price was $209 so I figured I'd keep it and take my chances. The quality looked decent. After replacing it I restored the power and felt the heater was warm so I left it heat-up overnight. The next morning the water was cold. After a bit of investigation I decided my circulator pump was bad so I replaced that as well. Now I can see a nice vigorous plume of water coming-up from the outlet in the bottom of the spa as well as the little outlet hole in the filter compartment. I did not have this before I replaced the pump. I restored the power but the heater never got warm. I noticed the little green reset button was tripped so I reset it. Still no heat. Today I measured 115 VAC on the heater relay board. Also measured 115VAC on the circulator pump leads on the motherboard. The red heater LED is not on. The heater reset button is not tripped. I'm afraid my new heater bit the dust. At this point I'm going to try checking the heater with an ohm meter. Does anyone know what value I should see on this? Thanks for any advice. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan.The.Spa.Man Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 I have a 10 year old Hot Springs Prodigy that quit heating. This spa had an older style trumpet heater so I installed a new style replacement heater. This was advertised as a Watkins but It looks like a reproduction model. The price was $209 so I figured I'd keep it and take my chances. The quality looked decent. After replacing it I restored the power and felt the heater was warm so I left it heat-up overnight. The next morning the water was cold. After a bit of investigation I decided my circulator pump was bad so I replaced that as well. Now I can see a nice vigorous plume of water coming-up from the outlet in the bottom of the spa as well as the little outlet hole in the filter compartment. I did not have this before I replaced the pump. I restored the power but the heater never got warm. I noticed the little green reset button was tripped so I reset it. Still no heat. Today I measured 115 VAC on the heater relay board. Also measured 115VAC on the circulator pump leads on the motherboard. The red heater LED is not on. The heater reset button is not tripped. I'm afraid my new heater bit the dust. At this point I'm going to try checking the heater with an ohm meter. Does anyone know what value I should see on this? Thanks for any advice. Mark Somewhere between 9-15 ohms usually. If the heater LED is not lit up then the tub is not trying to heat. There is either a problem with one or both of the thermistors or the control head could be bad. Most likely a thermistor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschmitz57 Posted November 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Update. The heater resistance is around 8.5 ohms. I just noticed that when I reset the power, the heater LED comes on for about 10 seconds. Then I hear a relay "click" and the heater LED goes out. Yes the thermistors are original. Is there any way to check them? Will try replacing them first. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan.The.Spa.Man Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Update. The heater resistance is around 8.5 ohms. I just noticed that when I reset the power, the heater LED comes on for about 10 seconds. Then I hear a relay "click" and the heater LED goes out. Yes the thermistors are original. Is there any way to check them? Will try replacing them first. Mark You can check the resistance on those too. The reading depends on the water temp, but they should both read about the same value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschmitz57 Posted November 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 I found the problem. I was checking the thermistor resistance and found that I had the connector offset by 1 pin. In other words only 1 pin was contacting the motherboard. I had disconnected it when I replaced the heater and re-connected it improperly. The thermistor never registered a rise in water temp so the motherboard shut-down the heater. Will check back later to verity the water is actually getting hot. Thanks, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschmitz57 Posted November 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Hot tub is up to temperature. In the nick of time. 40's outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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