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Hot water heater trouble shooting


Lane77

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I am an electrician called to check hot water heater in a hot tub. Without the heater connected you get 240v as soon as you connect heater you lose the voltage. I checked the heater, ohms were good, continuity was good. I hooked it up to the older element the customer had taken out. It heated it up, so I put everything back together and it started to work. 240 with heater in cct. It heated up to 68 and then started doing it again. Zero volts off board with heater in cct, take heater out and you get 240v. Board losing voltage under load? Fully board? Help a guy out. 

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My first step would be to disconnect and reconnect all incoming wires all the way back to the GFCI if needed and make sure they are all clean and tight. I have seen recently a few newer installs that when the electrician or owner use their drill to tighten the copper strand wires into place but do not go back over each connection manually by hand with a screwdriver. For a tight connection the copper strands have to be compressed and flattened out a bit so there is no fluctuation in power or worse arching that can lead to meltdown of the terminal block. 

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On 9/3/2023 at 3:36 PM, CanadianSpaTech said:

Post pics of board and schematic on inside cover. Costs $0.00 to check connections. Bad/failing relay... but personally have never seen one do that

Agreed.

On 9/1/2023 at 8:36 PM, Lane77 said:

Board losing voltage under load?

It does suggest a faulty relay if there are no errors on the controller.

Is it a new heater assembly or just the element? What brand of spa?

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