How to remove the blower on Caldera Utopia Tahitian

[calderautopia]

The breaker to the controls/blowers/pumps was continually tripping on a GFCI fault.  I traced it to the blower, which apparently is a relatively common fault mode for GFCI tripping.  I have seen on another post that the one way valve can fail allowing water to enter the device.

How on earth do I get this out?  I see a screw on the inlet side, with some flex hose going to it, but the outlet side looks like glued PVC.  Even if I split the black case, not sure I can enough vertical clearance anywhere to service the internals.  Hoping I'm missing something that enables this entire unit to drop out.

Pictures attached.

It's a 2004 Caldera Utopia Series    Model:  Tahitian 

Thanks so much.

[CanadianSpaTech]

Should be no glue. Remove the black dry wall screws at the base (backside will be harder). Remove the screw holding the plumbing into the blower and you should be able to work it out of there. Yes there could be a failed one way check valve letting water back into the blower. When you get it out check for water inside. Some will have a Hartford loop in line but if the water level in the spa gets to high it can overcome the loop.

[calderautopia]

Thanks for that.  Are you saying that the top pipe is just a slip fit?  Does the entire black body just lift upwards and out, flexing the top pipe somehow?

I'm trying to remove the wooden sides on the corner and the front, but after the screws were removed, the wood is somehow hung up under the plastic rim of the actual tub.  Are there clips or something up under there?

[CanadianSpaTech]

18 hours ago, calderautopia said:

Are you saying that the top pipe is just a slip fit?

Should be

 

18 hours ago, calderautopia said:

Does the entire black body just lift upwards and out, flexing the top pipe somehow?

Should

 

18 hours ago, calderautopia said:

Are there clips or something up under there?

no idea

[calderautopia]

OK, I was able to get the blower assembly out of the tub and disassembled it.  The intake pipe was full of leaves.

The commutator brushes had a thick, fuzzy layer of black dust on them, probably making a conductive-dust path to ground, thereby tripping the GFCI.

I blew everything out, verified the impeller spun freely, and reconnected it just laying outside the tub.  Everything came to life, the commutators sparking like mad as the accumulated dust and such blew/burnt off, and then it settled down into normal operation, minimal sparking as the armature polished up again.

When I reinstalled the device, it took awhile before any bubbles came out, and then after starting and stopping the blower, the bubbles moved to a different jet.  I verified that the blower was actually developing pressure by pulling it out again, starting and checking the volume and pressure at the outlet.  No water is visible at the inlet piping.

Reassembled everything and about 50% of the outlets now bubble.

Is the problem now, that the air valves at the non-bubbling seats are fouled and need cleaning?  How do they come apart, do you gently persuade the exterior hand lever to pop off, and I'll see some orifices that might have cobwebs or leave debris in them?  Any other slick way to blow through all the jets one by one?  Or, do those valves only mix air in with water flow and have nothing to do with the air blower outlets?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[CanadianSpaTech]

11 hours ago, calderautopia said:

that the air valves at the non-bubbling seats are fouled and need cleaning?

Possible

11 hours ago, calderautopia said:

Any other slick way to blow through all the jets one by one?  Or, do those valves only mix air in with water flow and have nothing to do with the air blower outlets?

not sure if I would blow them out and back flow the water through the system. 

Might suck out the blower jets with a wet dry shop vac with the spa drained.

Might want wait a bit and see if it clears itself out on it's own. 

Don't forget there might be a one way check valve in line.

[calderautopia]

I figured it out!  Dumb mistake.  I landed the white, neutral wire from the blower on a "white" labeled tab on the mother board, but it was for a 120VAC circuit, not the 240VAC that the blower demands.  I thought the sound of it was very quiet, saw the 240VAC label on the motor, and using a meter verified that my input was only 120VAC. 

Then upon closer inspection I found the clearly labeled, vacant Blower terminal way to the left, and not near the black blower terminal.  I should have taken pictures prior to lifting the leads.

Once the blower had the full 240VAC supply all the bubble ports were active.  I used a leaf blower to try and clear the inlet path to the blower, reassembled the miserable to get to wood screws on the backside, and am now slowly putting the aging side panels back on.  They are about par for the course at 20 years old in a Bay Area climate.