New Jacuzzi, No Power

[Hankshanker]

An electrician installed the 240V line for our new J-315 yesterday. After the hook-up with the power on and the tub empty, he confirmed 248V was reaching the control box.

The tub, however, was showing absolutely no signs of life. No display, no lights, no noise, nothing. Thinking that we needed water in the tub for it to power on, the electrician left, we filled the tub and got the same result: a dark silence.

We flipped the 40A GFCI breaker several times. We pulled and inserted the disconnect. We checked the connections against the wiring diagram. We replaced the 20A fuse. There's another 1.5A PCB fuse somewhere in there that the dealer suspects might be blown. Neither the dealer nor the electrician can help us until after Christmas, so here I am with a disappointed but optimistic wife.

Now we're thinking about getting an inexpensive voltage sensor in a feeble attempt to diagnose the problem, but I'm very reluctant to really start messing around with this thing.

Other than the 240V circuit going dead half an hour after it was tested (and why would it?), what could be the issue here? If power was reaching the control box, shouldn't at least one component indicate such?

Throughout our hot tub project, this forum offered many, many words of wisdom. I could sure use some more right about now.

[Water Boy]

Does the breaker trip instantly when you power it on? If so, I am guessing The electrician possibly wired the breaker wrong. I know often times they have the load neutral in the wrong spot, and it will trip instantly. I wouldn't go messing with that though just to be safe. I know you want it for Chritmas, but I would just wait for the dealer/electrician to fix it. But, I would check the load neutral first on the breaker.

It could be possible the breaker is bad already. Unlikely, but can happen. If the beaker is working properly, and installed properly, then something at the spa is not right. Sorry I wasn't much help.

Here is a better description of what I was trying to say.

GFCI Tripping Due to Miswired Neutral

The most common wiring mistake occurs with 4-wire systems. Unfortunately,that even a few professional electricians sometimes get a flunking grade on this one:

The white neutral wire to the spa's control box must be attached (as shown in our 4-wire diagrams above) directly to the neutral terminal of the GFCI breaker, NOT TO THE SUB-PANEL GROUNDING BAR. Mis-wiring it to ground instantly trips the GFCI when energized, cutting power to the hot tub.

http://www.spadepot.com/spacyclopedia/wiring-hot-tub-spa.htm

[Hankshanker]

Thank you for the reply, Water Boy. The odd thing is that the breaker doesn't trip unless we press the test button that sits right on the breaker. Our disconnect is a simple pull-out type without a GFCI, so there's nothing to trip there. We switch the breaker on at the main panel and not a single thing happens. Very puzzling.

On a related note, the dealer said that we should just leave the untreated water in the tub for the three days it will take until someone comes out to take a look. Bad idea? The pH is around 8.4 on the test strip, TA is between 40 and 80.

[Water Boy]

It won't hurt anything to leave it until they fix it.

[Hankshanker]

Well, I'm glad that plain tap water can sit in there for a couple more days without making pea soup.

I predict that the solution to this problem will be very simple. After comparing online images of the circuit board with ours, we discovered that our 1.5A fuse is missing.