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So, so frustrated. Dream Maker x400 is dead, how to troubleshoot?


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I just finished installing a new pump, topside control, and Mach 7 control box.  Everything worked great for 5 minutes, then EVERYTHING died. 

The topside control panel does nothing, the pump is lifeless, and the lights don't come on.   As far as any sounds or noises, I don't hear any. 

I opened the box and verified 120v at the board, so the issue isn't related to the GFCI plug since there's power getting to the board.  

I have no idea where to test with my multimeter next though, and I cannot find guides on this particular board (balboa Rs81).  

I decided to check the fuses both visually, and with the multimeter continuity tester and all three fuses passed. 

However, inserting the multimeter leads into the molex Connectors on the board shows no power to the lights or the pump.  

I'm stumped, and I wish I had a guide or manual... 

Here's a link to the control board pack.  

Balboa RS81 Mach 7 Pack

I've been working on this hot tub all week long, 30++ hours put into it.   Any help is much appreciated. 

 

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I assume placing the multimeter leads into the pump and light molex connectors should be showing a positive voltage, right?  Since they're not, I assumed a fuse went bad... but they're all perfect according to the multimeter and visual tests...

Thus, I'm baffled... there's a large capacitor, but looks perfect... and like I said, the board is brand spanking new.  Only 5 minutes of runtime lol!  

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Hey guys!  First of all, I would like to thank you all for being so responsive and willing to help.  This forum has been a tremendous resource this past week as I encountered one obstacle after another fixing various components in our hot tub.  

I ended up calling Dream Maker this morning, and the person I spoke with was great.  She was very knowledgeable and after some discussion she determined that the board is more than likely the culprit.   Since the board was one of the new parts, purchased last fall, she RMA'd it without hesitation ($400 part, so thank goodness!).  It should be arriving in 7-10 days.  

In the meantime, I still had the old control board in the garage.  I decided to get creative by removing (desoldering) the pump power cord molex connector and soldering it to a medium-duty extension cord (14/3) that plugs into a GCFI electrical outlet.  Doing this enables me to bypass the control board and plug the pump directly into an electrical outlet.  It also helped reassure me by confirming the pump is in working order (the pump is brand new, too!).   

I've attached a photo of my bypass.  Ignore the terrible soldering job.  I am going to redo the entire thing using the second identical molex connector on the board (one for pump, one for Ozone).  I made some beginner mistakes, but I'm confident I can do a much better job redoing it.  Each wire I soldered (three wires) was much better than the previous.  I tested the pump and ran it for about a minute, and I felt victorious in this never-ending battle with the hot tub. 

Hopefully everything from here on out goes the way it's supposed to.  I've learned a LOT, but I'm ready to just enjoy all of the hard work for a bit.  

20210510_235104~2.jpg

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Day one update with custom bypass connector cord:  I've been running the hot tub all day and it's working great!  Hot tub started at ~77°F when I turned it on at 11am, and it's now around 93°F, 15 hours later.   

It takes it a while to heat up since there is no active heating element in the Dream Maker x400.  It heats using a "hot stick" heater (red union that connects to pump).  Somehow as water moves past the union, enough friction is created to heat the hot tub to over 100°F, which is mind-blowing to me.  

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5 hours ago, Sandlotje said:

Somehow as water moves past the union, enough friction is created to heat the hot tub to over 100°F, which is mind-blowing to me.  

AmbitiousUnselfishHake.webp

Nah, I'm kidding - it's just snake oil.  

If you pull out that red "HotStick" and replace it with a straight pipe, your tub will still heat up at the same slow and energy-inefficient rate because the actual source of the heat is the pump itself.  Dreammaker spas was actually acquired by another company (Jacuzzi's parent company), these days all new models contain a true 1kW/4kW heater - they did away with the "HotStick" years ago.   Even their cheapest budget grade "EZ Spa" which used to contain only a hotstick now contains a conventional 1kW heater.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update:  

Turns out the F2 fuse did blow.  It blew on the first replacement, and it blew on the second replacement.  I'm now waiting for replacement fuses to come to work on it this weekend.  I'm going to systematically determine the culprit of the blown fuses. 

My hot tub is very simple.  I've only got three components that connect to the board: 

  • Pump
  • Lights
  • Topside controller

So I'm going to begin with just the topside controller and the spa lights plugged in (I seriously doubt the brand new topside controller could be the source of the problem).  I'll let it run for 15 mins or so (about the amount of time it took to blow previously).  Then I'll test just the pump, and continue testing in that kind of fashion. 

I chose to order 10 fuses on ebay that are of the same spec, so I've got plenty of glass to blow!  The actual replacement glass fuse from a hot tub parts store would've been $8 to $11, each!  (I got the lot of 10 for $11 shipped.)

I'll update when I have time to do more testing.  

FWIW, the pump is brand new, and the 3-wire pump cord is also brand new.  The wiring for the lights, and the lights themselves are 15 years old and have 15-year-old wear and tear (dirty, have been plugged/unplugged a number of times, etc.).  Therefore, the light circuit is suspected to be the culprit due to a possible short from a wire nick or something of that nature.

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Update #2:

I have now confirmed that the lighting is the source of the F2 fuse blowing (1/8 amp).  The replacement fuses came so I was able to begin the troubleshooting process. 

My spa is very simple.  The cause of the blown fuse can only be the lighting or the pump.   I don't have any other electrical components to plug in. 

I started with just the lighting connected (the suspected problem).  Sure 'nuff, the fuse blew in minutes as it had previously.  Then I unplugged the spa, unplugged the lighting, removed the fuse, verified it was blown with multimeter, inserted a new fuse, plugged in only the pump, and turned it back on. 

I'm now going on 1 hour of runtime.  I have no doubt the lighting was causing the blown fuse.  Now I have to determine how to access the wiring for this particular hot tub. 

Time to do some research.  

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Update #3, it's fixed!:

I was able to pull out the wiring that was affected from the control panel easily.  There was a crimp connection where wires were spliced together that was rusted out (had heat-shrink tubing to protect it, but the HS tubing was broken and exposing the crimp connection).   

I cut the rusted connection, then took the three wires and stripped the ends off (about half an inch, maybe a tad less), and then I twisted them together with a wire nut.  

I then put the wiring back in and connected everything, and it works great!  

BUT!!!! Of course, nothing can go smoothly the way it is supposed to go.  When I was putting the access panel cover back in place, the screw punctured a hose (luck and location, don't ask..), so now I have to replace the tube going from the manifold to the adjustable air valve(?).  Fun times. 😎

I've also attached a picture of the punctured tube.  The red dot indicates where the puncture is (tiny, tiny hole).  You can see how I attempted to use duct tape to seal it, and you can gather from this post that the attempt failed.  

20210523_172117.jpg

20210523_202642.jpg

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Last update:  Completed. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I punctured the hose (picture with duct-taped tube) yesterday.  It looks like my GOOP (glue adhesive) and my duct tape fix ended up working great!  Just needed to dry overnight last night.  I've been running it all day and there's no leak.   

I've been posting these updates in the hopes that it'll help someone who finds themselves in my shoes fix their hot tub.  Plus, I can refer to it in the future if I need to.  

While there are still minor issues with the hot tub that need fixing, it feels nice to have it up and running the way it's supposed to. It feels even better having fixed it all by myself.  I knew nothing about not tubs two months ago, but have learned SO much since then.  Blood,  sweat, and tears have all literally been part of this journey. 

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  • 1 month later...

Gees   Thanks for posting  this ,

Our..Dream maker is a X-500...bought in 2010 June.. they replaced the control box balboa mach7 in 2011 July

because it died...and the other cie had closed their doors...Dream maker has great service.

but now my spa is giving a code Sn...(senors)..phoned my spa store...had to take pics...and now he saying this is going to cost..plus 150 $ for service call and surely a new control board...I have zero technical abilities

my husband is no longer here...Do you know what is wrong with it..? I have been researching..never ending

maybe I should make a planter garden with it ? 😎 !

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1 hour ago, NINA54 said:

Gees   Thanks for posting  this ,

Our..Dream maker is a X-500...bought in 2010 June.. they replaced the control box balboa mach7 in 2011 July

because it died...and the other cie had closed their doors...Dream maker has great service.

but now my spa is giving a code Sn...(senors)..phoned my spa store...had to take pics...and now he saying this is going to cost..plus 150 $ for service call and surely a new control board...I have zero technical abilities

my husband is no longer here...Do you know what is wrong with it..? I have been researching..never ending

maybe I should make a planter garden with it ? 😎 !

 

TL;DR:  Might just be an air bubble in the pipes. Might be a quick fix with some gentle plunger action in your bathing suit to push the air bubble through the system. 

Good afternoon! Do not be discouraged, and don't turn it into a planter. 😊 I knew ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when I began trying to fix our hot tub. 

I didn't know there was a circuit board that the electronics connected to, I didn't know that it doesn't have an actual heating element (thought this was just part of every hot tub), I did not even know how to open the access panel (let alone what it looked like inside it).

While I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as the other guys on this forum on this kind of stuff, we can walk you through it step by step to figure it out; but it might require patience and a learning curve. 

The good news is that it might be an easy fix for you.  My father-in-law had the same error code the first time he filled his brand new hot tub.   Turns out there was an air bubble somewhere in the system that was causing it and the fix was easy.  

What he did was he got in the water and took a plunger to the water return intake next to the feet (removing the debris filter using a regular screwdriver).  After a good number gentle plunges (took him a few minutes) he saw some air bubbles come out of the jets.  After the bubbles finished coming out, he was still getting the error code, so he disconnected power for a few mins and tried it again and everything worked great. 

I'm sure these guys have a more sophisticated method than plunging your hot tub, but there's hope of an easy fix with to skill required. 

Even if it's not this easy fix, hang in there and be patient.  The guys on this forum were great and very helpful.   

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2 hours ago, NINA54 said:

but now my spa is giving a code Sn...

Almost always a faulty sensor.

2 hours ago, NINA54 said:

to take pics.

Can we see them?

2 hours ago, NINA54 said:

pics...and now he saying this is going to cost..plus 150 $ for service call

Not unreasonable if it includes the first half-hour. 

2 hours ago, NINA54 said:

surely a new control board...

That is a stretch, unless there is something telling in the pics.

2 hours ago, NINA54 said:

maybe I should make a planter garden with it ? 😎 !

I have one I am doing that very thing with.😉

We can walk you throught the technical part, but you need a good digital multimeter. They can be found at most hardware stores for under $50.

On a baboa m7 an SN error is usually a bad sensor. An air lock usually causes a FLO or OH.

I do not recommend a plunger. 

Post those pics and we'll go from there.

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  • 10 months later...

I have a Dream maker x400 that seems to run fine... EXCEPT every hour or so the pump will turn on to low speed,run about 30 seconds then turn off. This is a daily occurrence. It doesn’t seem to be a water temperature issue. Any idea what the problem could be?

 Thanks,

Muskie

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5 hours ago, Muskie said:

I have a Dream maker x400 that seems to run fine... EXCEPT every hour or so the pump will turn on to low speed,run about 30 seconds then turn off. This is a daily occurrence. It doesn’t seem to be a water temperature issue. Any idea what the problem could be?

 Thanks,

Muskie

Please start a new thread, post up pictures of your spa pack, the wiring diagram and pictures of the equipment area. Also, ant error codes or lights that you have.

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