Need help troubleshooting why new pump stopped working

[pjyelton]

I installed a new water pump to my old hot tub that I inherited recently, the pump lasted for a day but then stopped working all together and I'm trying to debug why.  I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice.

When the pump gets a signal to run either from a heat call or schedule call nothing happens at all.  I can turn the pump freely with a screwdriver so it isn't stuck.  I have checked the fuses and nothing is blown and also checked the starter capacitor and it seems to be working fine while testing with a multimeter plus I swapped it out with the capacitor from the old pump and nothing changes.

Here is where I am uncertain because I have very limited experience when dealing with electrical systems.  The pump power cord has 4 wires: red, black, white, green.  My understanding is that since this is a dual pump setup and based on how the previous pump was wired that the red and black for the two speeds, white is neutral or constant, and green is ground.  Using a multimeter and during a schedule call I can only get it to read 120v and that's going from the red wire to ground.  Going from red to white or red to black give me nothing.  I don't know if that is to be expected or if that means there is a problem since I believe the pump requires 240v.  And if that is to be expected, any other test I can run with a multimeter before I just give up and say the pump is broken?

Here is the pump in question, its the 1.5 HP Dual Speed:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZY9M7ZD

[cranbiz]

Sounds like a bad relay in the control board. The pump is probably fine.

Post up pictures of the control board, the wiring diagram of the spa, which is usually on the back side of the cover and the pump wiring diagram on the pump.

[pjyelton]

Ok will do but might have to wait a couple days as the weather outside is awful and doesn't look to be getting better for a bit.  Out of curiosity, what would be the expected multimeter reading if things were working correctly, should I expect to see 240v across two of those wires?  Or can that not be determined without the diagrams/pictures?

[Cusser]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:23 PM, pjyelton said:

Here is where I am uncertain because I have very limited experience when dealing with electrical systems.  The pump power cord has 4 wires: red, black, white, green.  My understanding is that since this is a dual pump setup and based on how the previous pump was wired that the red and black for the two speeds, white is neutral or constant, and green is ground.  Using a multimeter and during a schedule call I can only get it to read 120v and that's going from the red wire to ground.  Going from red to white or red to black give me nothing.  I don't know if that is to be expected or if that means there is a problem since I believe the pump requires 240v.  And if that is to be expected, any other test I can run with a multimeter before I just give up and say the pump is broken?

Here is the pump in question, its the 1.5 HP Dual Speed:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZY9M7ZD

Your link shows a 230 VAC pump.  If you're only getting 120 VAC measured there, you're on the right path.

[cranbiz]

On 12/18/2023 at 8:37 AM, pjyelton said:

Ok will do but might have to wait a couple days as the weather outside is awful and doesn't look to be getting better for a bit.  Out of curiosity, what would be the expected multimeter reading if things were working correctly, should I expect to see 240v across two of those wires?  Or can that not be determined without the diagrams/pictures?

You should have 120v across the red and white pair the black and white pare and 240v across the red and black wires.

[pjyelton]

Thanks, that at least helps me start to better troubleshoot this.  I opened up the box and its a mess and doesn't look like it has been touched in over 20 years.  Posting pictures won't help at all until I get in there and clean it up, as I'm doing that I'll go wire by wire to try to narrow down the issue.