Service/Repair Manual Needed For 2011 Hotsprings Limelight Spa

[GrahamT]

Does anyone know how I can get a service manual for my hot tub? I'm having an issue that I would like to initially troubleshoot myself with the help of a manual, before pestering this forum with too many newbie questions. 

[cranbiz]

Hot Springs doesn't release those to anyone except authorized dealers.

Post up your problem with pictures of the plumbing, control box, wiring diagram and equipment area. The more info you can give us, the better the results normally are.

[GrahamT]

My issue started a few days ago when the hot tub stopped heating and jets stopped working. The filter appeared dirty, so I cleaned it and did a power reset at the breakers. The tub restarted, heating and correctly jetting water - problem solved - not. Two days later the tub stopped heating and pumping water again. Both times it stopped on its own, without someone using the tub.

The touch control panel (shown in pix) has power and allows me to cycle through some, but not all settings. However I am unable to enable any functionality from the touch panel, other than to cycle through the limited menu choices it displays. Resetting the power to the tub briefly displays all control settings, some low flow circulation appears to happen, but then the control panel quickly reverts to the limited display I show in the accompanying photo with no low flow circulation that I can detect.

Attached photos include the main board, heater relay board (with a connecting wire appearing a little burned), model sticker, main pump, salt controller, and wiring schematic. Any help will be appreciated, but if the investigation I have to perform is extensive it will likely be beyond my limited electro-mechanical abilities.

[pdelahaye]

Hi Graham,

so I’m no engineer, but I have owned a limelight pulse tub since 2009 and I’ve dealt with a whole selection of minor and more major issues over the years.  I’m sure these tubs share some common parts whilst I’m not familiar with the salt system, and any software changes in the 2 years after mine was built, but this is where I’d start.

i note your tub does not have a flow sensor, mine is built into the heater, but you appear to have a by pass wire installed (white connector to the left of the white connector with the grey cable at the top right of the control board).  One safety feature is the tub shuts down if it does not detect flow but when this is bypassed.  My limited understanding, is that if flow does stop, the tub relies on the thermal hi limit sensor (also usually on the heater), to detect the water is too hot because it is not flowing.  This can cause the tub to stop working, shut down.

where this is leading me to, is whether the circulation pump is running, when you turn on the tub, put your hand on it, is it vibrating?  If you have a multimeter, it would be worth checking you have mains voltage for the circulation pump.  It is also worth noting, the circulation pump is protected by a 20mm glass fuse, inside the fuse holder hidden on the back of the control board box, you can see it just to the left of the blanking plug in the bottom of the control panel enclosure, with the 2 silver spade connectors going to it.  It would be worth checking that fuse has not blown in this as this will stop the circulation pump from running, which could in turn lead to the water in the heater getting too hot and tripping the hi limit sensor.  If the fuse has blown, the reason it has blown could be a faulty circulation pump, 

other than this, try removing the filter and run the tub, a blocked filter can cause flow issues, even when they look clean, when they are old they don’t let the water flow as well

that is what I’d start with

 

Paul

 

 

 

 

 

[GrahamT]

Thank you Paul, this was helpful! I pulled the fuse you clued me into and it appears to have continuity and not be blown. I power cycled the tub and noticed what sounds like a very small pump struggling to move water. I’m assuming it’s the circulation pump (the little black pump seen adjacent to the heater in the photo - is that right?). That said, the sound could also be coming from that grey box attached directly to the end of the heater. You can hear the sound in this  video: https://imgur.com/Yfgofc4  . The sporadic pumping sound went on and off for 10 minutes like that, till I shut the power off to the spa. 

The yellow water tube coming from the heater started to very slowly warm up.The touch control panel after a few minutes went into the partial display I showed in previous photos.

There were two status lights lit up on the control board, as seen in the photos, one is green (Bus status), one is red (R138 D8?). 

I did install a clean new filter when this problem first arose, but that didn’t resolve the issue.

 

Any new thoughts?

[pdelahaye]

So that little grey box with the black and red cable, without seeing where it goes to, is most like the DC step down transformer, to 5v DC for the point of light controller, on mine it’s a small black transformer, cable tied to the frame of the tub, but that is most likely what it is, it may have been replaced at some time.  I’ve no idea how the salt system works, maybe it’s a power supply for that, but I doubt this is linked to your issue.

next thing I’d probably check is the power to the circulation pump next, sounds like the heater is working, and maybe if the water is not circulating like I suggested, the heater is heating the water in the heater, if it does not circulate, it could be getting too hot and tripping the hi limit stat.  As the water cools down, the heater might start heating it again, until it again is too hot and cuts out? Maybe this is the repeat cycle you are seeing every 10 minutes?

i would check the mains voltage is coming out the board for the circulation pump next, multimeter on the white and black cables for the circulation pump, with the multimeter set to AC, expect the voltage to be either 110 or 230 depending on where you are in the world, if you have voltage, could be a circulation pump issue if there is no circulation,
 

I would try and run the tub without the filter in the tub and the tub on, if there is an air lock (have you recently drained down?) as soon as you turn on the tub, can you start the main 2 speed pump? This could help to purge any air if it is causing any issues, do you get a stream of small bubbles from the hot water outflow point on the tub? When you hear the circulation pump running before it cuts out?

if you do have bubbles, do they stop when the sound goes off? I wonder if the circulation pump sort of working but really end of life? It might even have something jamming it? I’ve had random orange plastic parts over the years ending up in the tub, which I have assumed are small parts of impeller blades which have broken off and travelled through the pipes, maybe something has jammed it.

i believe there is also a way to measure the hi limit thermostat to ensure that is working seem to recall you can take a resistance reading, but no idea what is good or bad.

Also on the main board, a LED should light when the heater is on,

Paul

 

 

[GrahamT]

Here are some additional diagnostic observations that have been made. 

Right after the tub is powered up both the heater and limit LED light up (see photo). Approx. 15 seconds later the limit light goes off, and at the same time the LED labeled D8 (see photo) comes on.

The heater LED remains lit for approx. another 15 seconds then it too goes off. D8 remains lit.

During this time, and even afterwards, the circulation pump is receiving 120v of power. Using a soundscope I can also hear the pump trying to work, in the following cycle: It hums smoothly for a couple of seconds, then its pitch changes and it begins stuttering, then turns off. A couple minutes later it starts up again and the cycle repeats. When it’s doing this, there does not appear any visual circulation of water in the tub, so if it’s moving water, it’s doing it too slowly to notice. 

One additional observation is that the jet pumps function correctly if I start them right after startup, and remain functional until I turn them off. Then they can no longer power up after that.

Paul, or any helpful techs out there, does this lend credence to Paul's hunch about a faulty circ pump, or does this imply there could be another issue besides the circ pump? Thanks.

[pdelahaye]

There rarely seems to be a limelight tech around when I’ve needed one either, One more thing you could try, just to eliminate the heater being the cause of your errors, when you power up the tub, there should be a summertime setting.  I cannot recall the key press required to activate it, will need to check the manual,  But it basically turns the heater off for 8 hours, so in a warm climate, and summer months you can keep the water temperature cooler than the minimum 25 degrees C (or whatever that is in degrees F).

this might buy you some time to fault find before the hot water the heater has made trips out the tub if that is what is happening.

https://www.hotspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2009-limelight-owners-manual.pdf

 

see page 21 for SUMMER MODE

Paul

 

[GrahamT]

That's a clever thought, unfortunately I'm unable to activate summertime mode from the control panel. Pressing the On button to engage Summertime mode doesn't do anything. Since I'm trying to enable this feature as soon as the tub powers up and before the hi temp limit cut off is reached this indicates to me that the problem is something other than the circ pump. Which is too bad, that would have been an easy fix for me.

[cranbiz]

To me, everything revolves around the circulation pump working correctly. Yours certainly appears bad. Circulation pumps go bad way more frequently than any other pump.

[GrahamT]

Cranbiz, you and Paul's instincts are spot on. Last night I put a new circ pump in and everything started up and kept working correctly. I would say problem solved at this point, except I clumsily broke off the little barbed pvc nipple coming off the 90 degree ell attached to the outflow of the old circ pump. I think it is an airbleed line going into the tub. I ordered a replacement ell with barbed nipple, when I get that attached I'll finally get my long-delayed soak in!

For any other Hotspring owners with similar control boards, what I learned is that the red and green heater and limit lights stay on when the tub is heating and working correctly. When they go off that likely means the heating shut down, in my case, due to the circ pump not moving water through the heater, as Paul explained in his earlier comment.

[pdelahaye]

Hi Graham,

nice to hear it was a simple fix, I don’t know if this post has jinxed my own tub, but I went out to add chlorine yesterday and the water was colder than normal and the power & ready lights were blinking! Looks like I have low water flow as well!  The joys of hot tubs!  

Just wait until you fancy the challenge of the lights failing on this tub!  I still have 10 raio lights to replace out of something like 37 and then I’ll have them all working again!

Paul

[GrahamT]

Paul, sorry to have potentially jinxed your tub! My tub was 9 years old when I bought my house (it came with the house). All the lights were already out, and still are today! I'm fine with it, we prefer soaking in ambient yard light anyway. The previous owner installed the tub flush to a fence on one side, and the garage on another side. Those panels can't come off without moving the tub, so I won't be touching lights or jets on those two sides. I dread a leak on those sides as well.

As you mentioned, and I am discovering, it's hard to find a tech knowledgeable about Hotsprings spas on the forums, so we have to debug and fix our own. Good luck with the repair!

[CanadianSpaTech]

On 12/14/2023 at 3:07 PM, GrahamT said:

except I clumsily broke off the little barbed pvc nipple coming off the 90 degree ell attached to the outflow of the old circ pump

2 part Epoxy the hole and plug the line

[GrahamT]

That would be an easy fix, but what functionality would I lose if I do that?