Caldera Spa Geneva Utopia 2004 short when blower is connected

[Dgname]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum, and I'm hoping all of my Spa problems will be somehow fixed with your help and guidance.

First one I want to address is this one. This Caldera Spa Utopia 2004 was disconnected from power over 10 years, and I recently reinstalled it.

At first glance, it powered on normally, heater works fine, jets 1, jets 2, lights and blower work fine.

One day, I uncover the lid, and it is completely turned off. Breakers are in the middle position (short). I turn them all the way off, and they cannot be turned on, they bounce immediately to the short position.

I started disconnecting from the main board components such as heater (and tested breakers), and so on, until I unplugged the blower connectors, and then breakers finally were able to go up.

Sometimes I can plug the blower and it works fine, however sometimes they present the mentioned problem. I have them disconnected right now.

Any ideas? Why would they "work fine" and then be on a short out of the bloom.

[CanadianSpaTech]

I DO NOT know how Caldera runs their system plumbing but if you look at the attached photo you will see a spring loaded one way check valve that opens when the blower is on and closes when off to prevent water from getting to the blower. Common fail point. It works...water gets past check valve and it trips breaker then dries out and works again and a spa sitting 10 years the check valve spring might not be as springy as it once was. 

   

[CanadianSpaTech]

Remove the air blower from the blower hose (see photo above) and see if there is water/moisture present. 

[Dgname]

Interesting, I will check this out.

Thank you very much.

[RDspaguy]

A couple of things.

First, the blower is on one breaker, not both, and would only trip one breaker. The heater is on a breaker all by itself. If the blower really is tripping both breakers then there is a wiring issue. 

Second, the blower uses a hartford loop as the primary water protection, so water can only reach the check valve if the spa is overfilled.

Post pics of the circuit board, wiring diagram, equipment area, and circuit breakers with wires visible.

[Dgname]

Update: I think I fixed it.

 

Took apart the blower and no water present (check valve working fine), however I did unscrew the carbon brushes and moved them a little closer to the rotor. That seemed to do the trick. Apparently, if there's no good carbon brushes contact, there's a short.

Blower is now working perfectly fine.