Caldera Palatino - First Pump Mode/Normal Heating Not Working, but Other Modes w/ Heating Do

[gregg098]

I have a Caldera Palatino that is about 5 or 6 years old. About a week ago, the spa temperature started dropping and two rows of 4 dashes appeared on the screen. I've been reading through forums and other posts and did a bit of troubleshooting and this is where I got to:

• Power cycled and waited for boot up, no errors on screen
• Press jets button and hear some relays click, but nothing happens. Two rows of 4 dashes appear on the screen after maybe 10 seconds.
  • Verified no power is supplied to either pump with a non-contact voltage tester
• Press jets button again, one pump starts, just as it normally would. Rows of 4 dashes disappear after a few seconds. Heater symbol turns on.
  • Using a clamp on meter, measured ~10 amps to the running pump. No power to other.
  • Using my Sense power meter, confirmed that the heater was working based on power output (~6 or 7KW total)
• Press jets button again and second pump starts. Heater still on.
  • Measured ~10 amps to both pumps.
  • Sense meter shows ~8KW total usage. This is normal with both pumps and heater online.
• Press jets button again and one pump turns off. Same as above. Working normally.
• Press jets button again, everything turns off
• Press jets button again, back to the beginning. Clicking relays, no pump, two rows of 4 dashes.

Other things I've tried based on research. All testing after a fresh power cycle.

• Removed filter to ensure it wasn't an issue
• Verified it wasnt air lock. All pumps do start and discharge just fine, just not the first mode which would be used for normal, unattended heating.
• Continuity checked main fuses on circuit board to ensure they aren't blown.
• Disconnected pressure switch on heater element. Jumpered wire leads to control board. No effect.
• Disconnected water thermocouple, measured resistance. I think it was around 17K ohms which matched a chart online I found when water temperature was about 70F. Looks normal.
• Disconnected thermocouple on the heater, measured resistance. Same as above. Looks correct.
• My spa has an ozone generator. I tried disconnecting that from the circuit board. No effect.
• Verified ~120 VAC to each leg on the heater
• Checked tightness of all connections. Reseated everything I could.

So I'm at a loss on where to go from here. Is there a bad relay or something in my control board maybe? What haven't I checked?

Attached a picture with the control board and heater. Looks like I took this when I had the ozone generator leads lifted, so disregard that.

Thanks for the help.

[castletonia]

Does the first pump have low speed?  If I'm understanding your post correctly, you press the jets button once and nothing happens.  Press a second time and the pump turns on high speed.  Press a third time and the second pump turns on (its single speed).  Press a fourth time and the first pump shuts off and press a fifth time the second pump shuts off.  Is that correct?  If so, it sounds like the pump lost low speed or the circuit board is not sending power to the low speed terminal (if that's even possible).  

I never tried this, so maybe wait for an actual service tech to respond first, but I wonder if you could switch the black and red wires around where the pump goes into the circuit board.  If you could and it works, then you could verify if the circuit board is the issue or the pump.  I know it can be done manually when bench testing a pump out of a hot tub, I just don't know if the electronics are dumb (or smart enough) to prevent the hot tub from trying to run it that way.

 

[gregg098]

Yes that sounds correct. I missed the different contacts for different pump speeds. Maybe Ill do some tinkering tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up.

Still interested if others have feedback on a similar issue.

 

[gregg098]

So I did a little troubleshooting and here's what I found:

- Turn power back on, let controller boot up. No dashes unless I wait a bit for the heater to try and turn on.

- Press Jets once. Hear clicking, no pumps, two dashes after a little bit. Right after pressing and hearing the relays, measured ~120VAC phase to ground on the "Jet 1 Lo" terminal next to fuses, and also all jet contacts on bottom of panel (both blacks and whites).

- Turned power off and cycled Jet 1 red and black.

- Turn power on, press Jets. Nothing happens. Just as before

- Press Jets again, pump turns on to low speed (as expected due to wire swap)

- Press Jets again, both sets running in high speed I think.

- Press again, 1 set turns off

- Press again, all pumps/jets off

So, possibly a bad contactor somewhere? Not sure why I measure voltage on all contacts regardless of pump mode its on.

Any thoughts? Should I replace the whole controller board?

[gregg098]

If anyone else has this issue, it turned out to the be the controller board. Just one relay was bad. Replaced the board with a new one from backyardplus and it works just fine again.