77119 Heater Relay Board Multiple Failures

[RDspaguy]

Maybe @castletoniacan find a clue...

[Extra Gold]

"Maybe @castletoniacan find a clue..."

Thanks, I just sent him a private message and suggested he post here if he has any info.

 

[NotaFanofWatkins]

On 12/11/2020 at 12:13 PM, n-mod said:

I attempted this with 220v, it tripped my gfci as soon as the heater turned on. Any ideas how to get this to work?

Or maybe I mixed up my wiring, I have it hacked together in my garage. 

You'd have to show us pictures of your whole setup.

 

Technically the only difference between the 120 and 220 systems is one extra hot leg and the wires are moved around. I don't have a 220 setup, so I can't help you 100%. If you popped the GFCI, it's possible your GFCI is old/weak, but more likely that you have some current leakage to ground. AKA: Your heater probably has a short to ground and it's not safe.

 

100% do not mess around with GFCIs. If it tripped open on immediate powerup, you have a safety problem. It's possible your board was preventing heater power-up because it detected a short. I don't know for sure.

[Extra Gold]

We found the fix to the Control Unplugged blinking led and the LimOk blinking green. It was that we did not take the black jumper wire on the old motherboard and move it to the new board, so it was missing on the new board. Just a newbie mistake, and the support where we bought the motherboard figured it out. Thank you to anyone who gave time to looking at this. I did learn a lot by finding this forum, and I'm sure it will come in handy in the future.

[n-mod]

On 12/14/2020 at 3:20 PM, NotaFanofWatkins said:

You'd have to show us pictures of your whole setup.

 

Technically the only difference between the 120 and 220 systems is one extra hot leg and the wires are moved around. I don't have a 220 setup, so I can't help you 100%. If you popped the GFCI, it's possible your GFCI is old/weak, but more likely that you have some current leakage to ground. AKA: Your heater probably has a short to ground and it's not safe.

 

100% do not mess around with GFCIs. If it tripped open on immediate powerup, you have a safety problem. It's possible your board was preventing heater power-up because it detected a short. I don't know for sure.

Got it working with a proper wiring setup. Thanks for saving my board. This is on a converted jetsetter running 220. 

[duke1]

where do you buy the 77199 relay board?
My hotspring Grandee still has the 3 relays model, it's my first time to replace the board so I want to get a reliable seller with better support.

 

[Anthony101]

If the led is flashing on the heater relay board and it temporarily resolves itself by replacing the heater relay board you more than likely need a new control board. Of the relays are actually failing, I'd be curious to know which relay is going bad on the relay board and total amp draw of the system when it is functioning correctly. If I have to replace a 77119 board more than once every couple years for a customer, then I'd definitely start questioning whether or not another component is causing the issue.

 

•  

[rawdawg070deuce]

Check the adjustment of the pressure switch, if switch is equipped with an adjustment. The small amount of usually blue paint will help to identify a tampered adjustment on the pressure switch. This can cause the "problematic relays" to flutter on and off and can cause the relay to build up heat and eventually fail. 

[Rob E]

I incorrectly put the black heater wire in in 1 instead of H1, turned the power on & maybe heard a noise. Immediately turned the breaker off. Moved the white power supply wire to 1 & the black heater wire to H1. Turned breakers back on and nothing works now. Did I just fry the entire board or just the relay board?

At least when the old relay board was not working, the pump was working, now nothing. Not sure where to go from here!

Rob

[RDspaguy]

Check the voltage from the breakers.

[Rob E]

11 hours ago, RDspaguy said:

Check the voltage from the breakers.

 

[Ndfhotub]

Hello,

I got this hottub for basically free and am trying to figure it out. It is set up as 115V. Everything seems to work except the heat (pump and jets all seem fine). Both boards look OK with no signs of shorting or burns. The previous owner replaced both boards not to long ago (I’m told).

“D9” on the heater relay board was blinking red, and the only light on that board (no green lights) so I soldered the heater relay board as mentioned above before ordering a new relay board hoping to save a few bucks but it appears still not to be working. I ended up ordering a new board and upon setting up the new board I realized the previous owner must have replaced the board and didn't place the “jumpers” in the correct spots, so I placed them in the correct spots and plugged it back in. I now have a solid green “R18” but “D9” is still blinking red. I can’t tell if the heater is actually working though. I also checked the voltage and it looks good. 

Is there any indication I can look for to see if the heater is actually working? Should it be warm to the touch? Any leads I can check? Should the heater have any noise or anything?

After doing some research on this tub it looks like it definitely has its flaws and if i knew I probably would have looked elsewhere, but i have a lot of time already invested in it so any and all help is much appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

[ACHofNY]

On 11/27/2020 at 11:06 PM, Christopher todd said:

i am having the exact same problem with Watkins heater relay board. replaced just six weeks ago.

dont want to purchase another until i know why they are failing or if i breakdown and pay for spa place

to do it then we must have some warranty on the board.   fifteen years of self repair been fortunate

usually circ pump or thermal switches. definately a problem with this re-designed board. can we still

purchase the original ? our hot tub is an 05 PRODIGY WATKINS MFG         GOOD LUCK TO ALL

I just spent some time working on my spa, the relay solder evaporated and burnt out. Being an engineer, I examined the board and determined it was a bad design. The traces providing power is very marginal. I purchased a replacement relay, hard to find since it is discontinued. I replaced the relay and added additional wire to help the trace. When it installed it, it was failing after a period of time. The red light starts blinking, the controller unplugged led was lite. It power cycled it a few times and it would fail after a few minute. I read another post with this problem after replacing the relay board. I determined that that the pins between the main circuit board and the relay socket was not providing connection, or some other contacts. I applied DeoxIt D5 and Gold contact cleaner on all connections. I also had used 2000 finishing sand paper to clean the oxidation on the pins on the main board to the relay board. The pins uses material that oxidizes especially bad for a out door spa. This seem to work, it’s been working for 3 weeks so far.

For what it is worth, it is not an expensive thing to try, especially if you replace the board and have random issues.

[RDspaguy]

4 hours ago, ACHofNY said:

Being an engineer, I examined the board and determined it was a bad design.

Great info, but I'm unsure of your "bad design" assessment, as I have seen these boards last 20 years. 

Nice tip on cleaning the pins.

[Kybasche]

Several years later - but after experiencing a lot of the same symptoms described here (relay board failing over and over, only a few months apart, seemingly no other symptoms), I tried @NotaFanofWatkins's hack on a 220V setup, and by george, the hot tub is back to heating. Thanks to you, and others on here whose patience and knowledge helps the otherwise helpless (like me)

🌡️

[Mark Mason]

The Watkins 77119 heater relay board has a major design flaw. Watkins knows it and refuses to fix it. The IC’s on this board will fail in 2-12 months. It’s their cash cow!! I went through five boards at $150 each before I found the solution. I found a guy in Chicago land that goes by the name “Bulletproof Steve”. He will rebuild your older three relay analog board for less than the cost of a new two relay digital board. He uses heavy duty relays and other tricks to “bulletproof” your board. Call or text him at (434) 774-5242. It’s the last heater relay board you’ll ever buy! 

[schup]

On 12/14/2015 at 3:05 PM, geo1111 said:

I have a 2001 Hot Springs Grandee and replaced the heater relay board in it with the updated 77119 board in August when the tub stopped heating. The tub then heated fine until October when the board failed again (the red LED on the heater board was blinking rapidly and GFCI resets did not reset it). I replaced the board again in October and it worked fine until now (December) when it has failed again (heater board red LED blinking rapidly). That's an average of 2 months per board. The circulation is good, filters are clean, water is good, etc...

Is there an issue with these boards or is this an indication of another problem?

Thanks for any suggestions!

It's just not good practice to run 15 to 20 amps thru a circuit board.  That's what it takes to run heaters.  I had the same problem, so I desoldered the relay and replaced it with a similar relay that has the extra posts on top of the relay(ebay has them).  That allows you to wire a parallel path to the heater, cutting the current draw on the circuit board in half.  Working great so far.

[Overthebars]

On 4/24/2022 at 1:06 PM, Kybasche said:

Several years later - but after experiencing a lot of the same symptoms described here (relay board failing over and over, only a few months apart, seemingly no other symptoms), I tried @NotaFanofWatkins's hack on a 220V setup, and by george, the hot tub is back to heating. Thanks to you, and others on here whose patience and knowledge helps the otherwise helpless (like me)

🌡️

Just ran across this topic today after replacing the garbage digital boards several times... about every 12 months... worked like a champ on my 220v setup!! Even the little D9 annoying LED quit flashing! Thanks to @NotaFanofWatkins and others who took the plunge.