Jacuzzi hot tub keeps blowing fuse

[walleyehunter]

Hoping to get some help diagnosing this issue. I have a Jacuzzi H230000 that came with the house we bought. The time delay fuse on the front of the panel would blow about once a month. After 3 months, it would blow after about 10 seconds. The pump seemed like it's louder than before. It will run for just a few seconds, then blow the fuse. I unplugged the pump, installed a new fuse and flipped the breaker. Everything appeared to stay on. Dump the breaker, plug the pump back in, flip the breaker, fuse blows. I decided between that and the noise the pump was making that the pump was the culprit.

So I order a new pump and installed it today. Hooked up the wires the same way I took them apart. Filled the tub with water and installed a new fuse. Flip the breaker and I get about 10 seconds before the fuse blows. The pump doesn't even start. I tried a second fuse thinking maybe it was a fluke deal and I blew that one too. Pretty frustrating as I just dropped $300 on a new pump. I once again unplugged the power cord on the control board that runs the pump. The power stays on. I can cycle through the settings for the pump (low, low lt, high lt, high, off). I can hear the relay click when I do this and the spa lights will turn on and off as they should. The one thing I notice is when you get to high (no lt) and you press the button one time to cycle to the off position, the relay clicks 2 times and jumps past off back to low (no lt). The other thing I notice is that the heat light will come on right away, but then it goes off after a few seconds. I haven't left the breaker on long enough to see if it comes back on or not.

I am trying to do this without the wife finding out as it was supposed to be one of her Xmas presents. She is home from work so I had to put everything away and hide the evidence. She goes into work at 11pm tonight and I won't see her until about noon tomorrow. My next plan (that I should have done in the first place) is to test the power cord that goes from the pump to the control board to make sure everything seems to be in check. If that checks out, I am at a loss. I am praying it's not the control board as they are over $400 bucks. My inquiry is, how do you test the relays on the control board? and if one is bad, can you pull it off and replace it or is it something that is soldered in? Also, could it be something with the heater since that light doesn't stay lit? Any info would be appreciated as I really don't want to shell out a bunch of money to have someone come look at it, only to find out it was something simple.

 

thanks,

[walleyehunter]

So I dug into this again this morning. Turns out that I had the common and high speed wires switched around. Pump fired right up. I am still seeing the issue where when I cycle through the pump settings and I go from high (no light) to off, it shuts off then immediately jumps to low (no light). Maybe the board has to run through a full cycle before you can shut it off. I will have to let it run and find out