Gecko in.xe programming question

[Bouncycow]

Any gecko spa pack experts out there?
We inherited a hot tub with single pump and a Gecko in.xe 5-11-h4.0 spa pack. It's on the roof deck above the bedroom and currently there's pretty loud vibration noise when the pump is running which is enough to wake us up. In the short term I'm trying to program it so as to prevent the pump starting at all during the night. At the moment I have it programmed as follows:

Economy mode enabled, set to start at midnight with a duration of 12 hours (so it won't try and heat the water until the following noon)
One filter cycle set to run for one hour at 9am

What I was hoping would happen is that it would go to sleep at midnight, run the pump for circulation between 9am and 10am, then wake up and start heating etc at noon. This seems to be working in general, except that the pump still runs at intervals but only for a short time like maybe a minute or two. This generally seems to happen every 90 minutes or so.

Does anyone know 
a) why the pump is starting up for these short bursts, and
b) is there a way to stop it?

At the moment I've just been switching it off at the breaker every night but I'm hoping there's a more elegant solution.

Thanks!

[cranbiz]

@CanadianSpaTech

Our resident Gecko Expert.

[CanadianSpaTech]

1 hour ago, Bouncycow said:

a) why the pump is starting up for these short bursts, and
b) is there a way to stop it?

A)... It runs the pump to purge/flush the plumbing lines and to also run a sensor check (water temp polling, Flow, freeze protection)

2) unknown Contact Gecko Tech Support they are very helpful. 1 800 784 3256

Place spa on thick Rubber Horse Stall mats to dampen vibration. Open up the main panel and make sure nothing is touching/rubbing like the electrical wire against a panel or the plastic enclosure. Put your hand on the pump to see if vibration goes away and the same with the spa pack. You should be able to find the source and apply a solution to quieten it down.

[Bouncycow]

Excellent, thanks - I'll give them a call. 
I suspect the vibration problem is that the pump and spa pack  are not very well mounted... they both sit on what looks like a rubber mat of some sort but the pump is roughly screwed down with some mounts and the spa pack is just screwed straight down at the front, nothing at the back - hopefully the photos give an idea.

I've ordered a rubber anti-vibration mount for the pump - hopefully I can replace the current blue pad things with it without having to drain the whole thing.

 

[Bouncycow]

So according to the very helpful Gecko support,  the pump runs occasionally to allow the pack to get a temperature reading, which makes sense... and there's no way to stop it from doing so. So back to the original plan of isolating the pump as much as possible.
The pump itself is a 3HP Century Lasar BN61... not sure how old, possibly 10 or so years. Are these considered noisy?

[CanadianSpaTech]

2 hours ago, Bouncycow said:

The pump itself is a 3HP Century Lasar BN61... not sure how old, possibly 10 or so years. Are these considered noisy?

All main pumps will have noise and a "tone". They are all pretty much the same for sound. Not much you can do about that and I don't think you would lessen the sound much by replacing it with a newer pump unless the original pump has bearing issues and at 10 years that is a real possibility. In this case you can rebuild or replace. In your case it is the tone and vibration you need to work on. The current rubber shim under the motor can be upgraded to a thicker rubber pad and still have the pump line up with where it needs to be. I would also add a rubber grommet on the top of the foot and then a stainless washer the use a bolt to screw it down. I would have the pump running when I tighten the bolt and listen to the tone as I tighten. Sometimes not a full tighten on the bolt might have a more acceptable "tone" than a fully tightened bolt. 

If you get that done and still get an annoying hum and you have made sure there are no other areas inside the cabinet where a vibration exists then you may want to place the spa on horse mats to help dampen the hum.

[CanadianSpaTech]

What's under the rubber pump base/foot wood or plastic? If plastic maybe add a piece of wood under the rubber pump base/foot. If it's directly on the plastic it might pick up and amplify the vibration.

[Bouncycow]

Thanks @CanadianSpaTech - sorry for the late reply.

I had a look from the side and it looks like the pump and spa pack are sitting on top of a piece of thick rubber mat which in turn is sitting on top of a couple of random bits of plywood sheet:

 

 

I suspect the plywood is acting like a sounding board and probably making things worse... I don't think the ply is attached to the frame at all, and the pump and spa pack are just held down with woodscrews. I'm guessing this is not the normal method of mounting