paq1 Posted January 26, 2018 Report Share Posted January 26, 2018 Heya! Heat stopped working on Sun dance Spa from '95, popped open the board to find some melted wires/board. Had been using it for the past 6 months no problem, a few GFCI trips that had no explanation. Breaker panel at house is good so I assume when I hooked it up I didnt tighten the nuts/screws enough and with enough use they became loose and arcing occurred? I have been checking and this is about as much information I can make a guess out of, any ideas on what went wrong and how to prevent in future if i replace the board? two pics here, looks like hot coming in was melted and hot going out in addition to the bar above it https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_ufuQrYu9zISTIyTkYydXBMbXVsREJJelVmZzFONlljazB3 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_ufuQrYu9zIOFRUNVk1ZlFrVzV4SEhrVkRMa2x3N1l0N29Z Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jersey Hot Tub Repair Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 If you replace it, just make sure you clean the wires really good. You may want to cut off the burnt ends to make sure it's pure wire and you don't have any bits of burned plastic in there. Make sure there aren't any strands of the wire left outside of the terminal, squeeze the entire wire into it. There's really no way to tighten them, either the wires are in the terminals or they're not. You said the spa is a '95 model. That means it's almost 25 years old. That's not a bad life for a printed circuit board. I see plenty of newer hot tubs with burned up circuit boards after only 7 or 8 years. It may have been a faulty solder connection in the back of the board that you won't see until you remove it. You mentioned a few GFCI trips. That's a little unusual. Does the TEST button on the GFCI work as expected? Is the breaker unusually warm to the touch? Is the GFCI neutral connected to the spa or the neutral bar in the box? How about the GFCI neutral pigtail? Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wish2fish Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 this looks nasty. wonder what the cause was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paq1 Posted February 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2018 On 1/31/2018 at 9:01 AM, Jersey Hot Tub Repair said: If you replace it, just make sure you clean the wires really good. You may want to cut off the burnt ends to make sure it's pure wire and you don't have any bits of burned plastic in there. Make sure there aren't any strands of the wire left outside of the terminal, squeeze the entire wire into it. There's really no way to tighten them, either the wires are in the terminals or they're not. You said the spa is a '95 model. That means it's almost 25 years old. That's not a bad life for a printed circuit board. I see plenty of newer hot tubs with burned up circuit boards after only 7 or 8 years. It may have been a faulty solder connection in the back of the board that you won't see until you remove it. You mentioned a few GFCI trips. That's a little unusual. Does the TEST button on the GFCI work as expected? Is the breaker unusually warm to the touch? Is the GFCI neutral connected to the spa or the neutral bar in the box? How about the GFCI neutral pigtail? Dave Thanks for the insight Dave. On the GFCI trips, the test button does work as expected last time I tried it. I can't recall if it is warm to the touch with certainty but I believe it is when in use. I have the pigtail in the GFCI box to the neutral bar in the box and the neutral coming into the box from the main breaker as well at the bar. Here is a picture of the inside of the GFCI box. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jspCs0zkL9BdScCd5jk65c1-0MkzM6Wt After taking the board out and ordering a replacement board I have to double think that the root cause was at the hot connection that melted the pass through terminal bar above it, possible causing soldering points to fail and not vice versa. I plan to replace all impacted wires including the lead ins and put it back together today/tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jersey Hot Tub Repair Posted February 22, 2018 Report Share Posted February 22, 2018 My guess is that the terminal attachment strip was the root of the problem. Wires expand and contract from the heat and the connection gets more and more tenuous. After 25 years, the connection got loose enough that you got arcing. I must see at least one old circuit board a month that has burns at terminal connection points. Just make sure your new connections are clean. Sand that wire until it's bright and shiny, and make sure it's in the terminal strip really good. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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