skiznot Posted February 24, 2014 Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 My friend recently gave me a Sovereign IQ hot tub. He told me the heater was not heating. I get it home and do some test on the heating element before I fill it up. It has the Watkins No-Fault 6000 heater with the reset switch on top of the element. I open the IQ2020 control box and disconnect the white and black heating element leads from the heater relay board. The element read 9.7 ohms. I then went ahead and filled the hot tub up to see maybe if he didn't have the reset switch properly reset. I fill it up and everything works on the hot tub like the jets, lights, ect but still not heat. I touch the heating element with my hand and it doesn't appear to be getting hot. I'm getting a green light for "OK" on the control board all of the time and a red "heat on" light when I turn the jets off. This seems normal because I have the 110V version and it will not heat and operate the jets at the same time. I get nothing on "control unhooked". I then check the heater relay board by pulling the white and black heater element leads from the relay board and check the voltage coming out of the board. I get 121V. I then recheck the heater element with a ohm meter and get 10 ohms. At this point I think my heater is good and my relay board is good so I pull the filters out of the machine restart it and get the same thing. I appear to be getting circulation because I can see the water rising from the drain on the bottom of the hot tub. I could also feel the water coming out with my hand. So I check the thermistors and high limit sensors with a ohm meter. before the hot tub was filled with water and the temperature was approx 50 degrees outside I was getting about 18 ohms or so on each of the sensors. I really didn't have a good thermometer to check the water temperature but the one I had said approximately 55 degrees. It was a turkey thermometer. I got a reading of 10.5 ohms or so on each of the two sensors. Is there anything else I need to check or should I take the heating element out and lay eyes on it to see if it has a burn hole in it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac-1 Posted February 24, 2014 Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 It sounds to me like you may have a bad connection / partly broken wire somewhere, Resistance tests fine at the milivolt range where the meter operates, but when higher volts / amps are applied this connection becomes a bottle neck, and will tend to get very hot unless it opens up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiznot Posted February 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 My meter is self adjusting or automatically picks the correct setting. Do you think the bad connection could be on the heater leads? Do the reset switches go bad? I wouldn't think I would get a reading if it was improperly depressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac-1 Posted February 24, 2014 Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 It is not about the meter it is about physics, if you have an undersized wire (like you would have if some strands were broken, then when current is applied that section of wire would heat up and its resistance would increase. I am not sure if that is what is happening here, but it could explain your good resistance readings. Do you have a clamp meter where you could measure amp draw while running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiznot Posted February 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 No. I saw that is another way to check and verify that the heater was drawing a current. Don't you put an amp clamp on the heater leads to see if it drawing current? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreservedSwine Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Do you have a cover for the spa? If an element OHM's out around 10 OHM, and is getting 120v, it's heating. What you need to ensure, is that you're still getting 120v under load (with the heater wires still attached) at the board. With no load, you may get 120v, but under load, it may drop to zero. Try pulling the heater terminals off about 1/2way to expose the terminals, so you can test for voltage with the heater attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiznot Posted March 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 If I get no voltage under load would you say it is the heater relay board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiznot Posted March 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 And yes I have a cover for the spa. Just seems like no warm water is coming from the drain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac-1 Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 If it were me I would invest in a cheap clamp meter to get a better idea on amp draw and if it is a intermittent or continous problem. For this you could get away with a cheap $10-15 clamp meter from harbor freight or similar, accuracy is not really needed, just ballpark figures. Even +/- an amp or two would be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreservedSwine Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 If I get no voltage under load would you say it is the heater relay board? Yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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