WayneHiden Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 Good evening all, returning owner here. Been without a hot tub for about 10yrs whilst we had children etc but recently had an offer which was difficult to turn down. As we were thinking about taking the plunge again we thought WHY NOT!? Long story short, we were offered a used hottub sale for £500 if we could remove it immediately. No problem. The spa was a 4+1 and I was shown it running. Great! I quickly paid and few days later I relocated it inside my garage (not a fan of outside bathing myself) Anyway we ran it for a month, then had a smart meter fitted. Immediately saw my electricity costs had gone from £1.50 average per day up to a whopping £4.50-£5.50 per day!! I’ve owned this sized tub before, and know this isn’t normal. From researching the tub, I’m sure it’s a Chinese make. Specs are below from looking at all components : Winer AMC 18button blue control panel Pump : LX TDA200 (1.5kw) Circ pump : LX JA50 (0.37kw) Heater : LX H15-R1 (1.5kw) Air blower : LX APR800 (700w) Power on the spa seemed way down from what I could remember. Taking 1.5days to get up to temperature after initial fill. Surface jets did not work but no big deal to me (I just mention incase it’s relevant to this question) Seemed to be running for a very long time each day...and couldn’t hold its temp when we were bathing. It would slowly cool. 1st thing, I changed the filter. Yuck! 2nd was to investigate components. The heater was only rated for a 300litre bathtub...so I upgraded it to the H30-R1 (3kw) which was for up to 1,200litres. STILL the costs are consistently over £5.50 per day (although it does get up to temp a lot quicker now!) Can anybody offer advice of what route to go down next? Reluctant to give up on it. The shell itself is solid (although the cabinet itself could with some TLC). One other thing which may be worth a mention is that the preheat setting will only allow me to set it for maximum 19hrs and 50mins per day. (Currently set at 2am start for 19:50hrs per day @ 36deg.....£6 per day!!!) I’m going crazy here, one day we spent £10.50 on electricity alone! Any advice appreciated! (And sorry for the long post) Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cusser Posted October 17, 2020 Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 I assume that you have a cover for the spa ?? Do you use a timer to heat at certain times or is it simply set to maintain a temperature ?? Is your electric rate based upon highest 1-hour demand for the month ?? Mine is not in a garage, but your garage must be warmer than winter morning temperatures, even for me in Arizona. My 1988 CalSpa gets set to 104F around the clock in winter and heats only about 30 minutes per day and keeps temperature fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneHiden Posted October 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 Hi, Yeah it’s warm in the garage. The heating function is set currently to run from. 2am and goes for 19hrs. (Regulated by the thermostat keeping it at 36deg) YES it has a spa cover on it. Ive just had a brainwave however, When I received it some of the panels were damaged to the cabinet, so I left them open. I’m wondering if this is letting the ambient temp of the cabinet fall too quickly so the thermostat keeps kicking it in? Job for tonight will be to get as many panels connected and see if that improves it at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneHiden Posted October 17, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2020 As a test I’ve had it shut off for a few hours. Temp dropped from 36deg to 26deg (cabinet sides still off) manually checked water temp and it was still at 37deg! Sounds like that’s the reason the Preheat function is running pretty much constantly. Maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted October 18, 2020 Report Share Posted October 18, 2020 Post some pics of your equipment and control pack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneHiden Posted October 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2020 Components are shown here. Also the control unit. does this help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneHiden Posted October 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2020 Does anybody have experience with this Winer AMC control panel? My old hottub I used to leave heated constantly and never noticed any spike in cost. This one will not allow it on for more than 20hrs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSpaTech Posted October 19, 2020 Report Share Posted October 19, 2020 3 hours ago, WayneHiden said: Does anybody have experience with this Winer AMC control panel? not me. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDspaguy Posted October 19, 2020 Report Share Posted October 19, 2020 Yeah, never seen one of those before. Have you tried the spa manufacturer tech support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneHiden Posted October 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2020 I have no idea what the manufacturer is. Assume it’s just a generic tub as it’s kitted out with LX pumps etc and I hear that the Winer AMC is a common topside unit for Chinese spas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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