Balboa Lite Leader Heating Issue

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The Story behind the tub.

i purchased a balboa hot tub from a spa company in my city and this tub is a 1998. when i first set everything up they forgot to send me the pump so when i called them they couldnt find it and gave me a brand new ultra jet pump.

when i wired everything up the lite leader board wasnt putting out the right voltage so i had to get it replaced. once i finally had everything said and done the problem im having is the following

When i wired the pump up the diagram on the lite leader showed brn blu and blk going to pump as high low and common. and the wires that i have for my pump are black red and white. so finally i found a diagram on the internet for lite leader that had those 3 colors and i wired it up. the problem im having is when i first boot up the hot tub it begins heating with the pump on low speed. which is my understanding thats how it should be but unfortunately it wont heat up the tub past 80 degrees. but when i switch the high and low wire so that it heats with the pump on high it heats the tub to 104. the issue im having is that this will use much much more electricity. Anyone have any ideas on what could be going on?

Any help is appreciated it!

[Spa_Guru]

If the switch on the board is set for 120v heater, the spa won't heat on both speeds of the pump, to further complicate issues, if you have the lo and hi speed reversed, it is actually heating from the pump heat, not the heater.

When you power the tub down, then turn it back on, which speed does the pump run on?

Does the tub only heat with the element (verified with an amp check) on one speed?

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When i turn the breaker off then on it kicks on low speed but the tub won't heat to 104 only to 77... but when i switch the high and low wire on the pump and then click the breaker on and off i get high speed on turn on and it will heat to 104. its been driving me insane for months. u think my element might be gone and its just the pump heating that much? to 104?

[PreservedSwine]

Yup.

Many spas don't even have heaters, and rely on the friction of water molecules during high speed to heat.

Either that, or the pressure switch (if it has one) is out of wack, and is not closing on low speed, but is closing on high speed.

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Thank you guys so much for your help so far. How can I test if the heat element is working? When I touch the spa pack heater pipe it's not very hot. Should it be? Any help appreciated

[PreservedSwine]

If you don't have an amp clamp, check for proper voltage at the element poles (120v across heater terminals- don't measure pole to ground). Assuming you're getting proper voltage, disconnect power, then OHM out the elemnt, a 4 KW will be somewhere around 11-14 OHMs IIRC.

If you have an amp clamp, just clamp one of the heater legs and see if it's drawing amps- a 4KW will pull around 7 amps.

That's it.

It will not feel warm to the touch.

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ok so i checked the resistance and voltage and i believe my element is good. then i tested the voltage and I'm not getting any dc voltage from the terminals on the heater.. i even disconnected the plugs and went right to the mother board and still not getting anything.. any ideas?

[n1oty]

The heater gets AC voltage, not DC.

John

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Ok will check ac voltage in the morning. If it reads less then 120. What's my next step

[PreservedSwine]

The topside has a very little "heater on" light indicator- see if it's lit. If it is, and the heater isn't getting voltage- throw the board away, or have it repaired.

If the heat indicator light is NOT on, check your pressure switch.

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How can I over ride the pressure switch to allow heating just in case it's bad

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Ok so just finished working on it I used my amp clamp and wasn't getting any draw from the heater. I then tested the heater ad it seems to be good ! Next step I did was over ride the pressure sensor. I read that Iu must do this within 5 seconds of turning the power on. This worked. I got 16 amps on the amp clamp. And 240 volts. I checked for continuity on the pressure sensor and it indeed does work. So unadjusted it properly using the continuity meter and turning the pump on a few times. Here is the issue. The pimp only turns on about 9 seconds after turning power on and for some reason this is to long and won't turn the heater on. Is this making sense? I can get heater on if I manually over rode the switch within 5 seconds.

Thank you guys so much for your help so far. It's been such a blessing.