Beachcomber 360 hybrid. Burn circuit board connector

[Milly]

So i got a beachcomber hot tub hybrid model 360. Have had it for 5 weeks. Never had a problem with it. Today, while I am doing my water shock i noticed a burnt smell. I open it up and look at the circuit board, to find the connector where power comes in burnt and starting to melt. The connector has white, hot red,hot black. Looks like the Hot black completely melted. Have no idea what caused this, hot tub has been working fine up until today.

Called beachcomber dealer who sold me the tub and he said that he will have to get back to me to see if beachcomber will cover it under warranty.

Now I am worried, that it might not get covered under warranty, so I was hoping someone could explain to me why this happened and is it common. Beachcomber dealer said something about an arc fault could cause this.. Have no idea what that means. GFCI never tripped, hot tub been working great for 5 weeks, everything was wired properly so I am lost.

Hope I can get some feed back.

Thanx.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

Did you have a licensed electrician hook it?   I think Beachcomber should cover it but you never know, it's a hard one to blame on someone. Usually something like that can be caused by a loose connection?

[Milly]

I did the hook up my self, Checked all connections to make sure nothing was loose. Didn't give any problems for 5 weeks then boom.

[Milly]

I been doing some research, in case beachcomber doesn't want to cover under warranty. I figure since it uses Balboa Circuit boards that I would just buy my own. which would obviously be cheaper then buying from beachcomber. However it looks like the model of circuit board i have is not sold anywhere.

Balboa Model VS612
P/N:55263

Must be an OEM board only sold to beachcomber??

Stupid hot tub, barely use it and it costing me more money then enjoyment..

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 Ride your dealer hard about covering it, there is a very good chance it's not anything you did!!  Good luck!

[Milly]

Ride your dealer hard about covering it, there is a very good chance it's not anything you did!!  Good luck!

Yup, will see what the out come of it is. I will update the thread, when a decision has been made.

Thanx

[bikz]

Did you have a licensed electrician hook it?   I think Beachcomber should cover it but you never know, it's a hard one to blame on someone. Usually something like that can be caused by a loose connection?

Jim I'm curious. If Milly had had a licensed electrician hook it up. Do you think the manufacturer might place blame with him/her instead of potentially Milly/a do it yourself-er or replace the part as a defective item?

Milly, if the HOT wire was in fact loose that would cause a lot of resistance/heat and over time could/would create the failure you've encountered. FWIW

As a side note my Spa came from the factory with a loose ground wire(main power cord)  where it terminated at the main board. Two people missed it, because there was an inspected by sticker on the panel cover.

[Milly]

Milly, if the HOT wire was in fact loose that would cause a lot of resistance/heat and over time could/would create the failure you've encountered. FWIW

As a side note my Spa came from the factory with a loose ground wire(main power cord)  where it terminated at the main board. Two people missed it, because there was an inspected by sticker on the panel cover.

Yup I understand that the loose wire could cause this. However I remember tugging on those wires hard after screwing in the terminals, and they were nice and tight in there.

When we built our new home, I did the electrical on my whole house, from installing main panel all the way to installing light fixtures. It was all inspected by ESA ( Electric Safety Authority) and it passed. Inspector was amazed that everything was to code and done by a DIY. My background in electronics along with the CEC book ( Canadian Electrical Code book) were the big help in this. So I am pretty confident that my connections to the hot tub were nice and snug. I just regret not having this one ESA inspected as that would now cover my butt on the matter.

Will be contacting my beachcomber dealer later on and see what they decided. They said they would have to contact beachcomber head office and ask if they cover it under warranty, if not I have to eat the cost I guess, but not without a fight.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

Did you have a licensed electrician hook it?   I think Beachcomber should cover it but you never know, it's a hard one to blame on someone. Usually something like that can be caused by a loose connection?

Jim I'm curious. If Milly had had a licensed electrician hook it up. Do you think the manufacturer might place blame with him/her instead of potentially Milly/a do it yourself-er or replace the part as a defective item?

Milly, if the HOT wire was in fact loose that would cause a lot of resistance/heat and over time could/would create the failure you've encountered. FWIW

As a side note my Spa came from the factory with a loose ground wire(main power cord)  where it terminated at the main board. Two people missed it, because there was an inspected by sticker on the panel cover.

 To answer my question I would say yes.  Many dealers will look for a way out as not to pay or replace anything if they can prove it's not their fault.
  If I were her dealer I would replace the board with maybe a few questions asked.  I have had quite a few instances where a licensed electrician hooked it up wrong, IE right wires hooked to wrong places, mainly at the breaker end of the service.  What I do is call the company and to explain what took place we even take pictures sometimes we eat it, sometimes we get paid back for the board and labor.  
  It's one reason when we sell a spa we really push the electric company's we always use.

 Sad and frustrating thing is I have had many a customer go ballistic on me saying the spa they bought is a psc of chit,I want my money back to come get this thing it doesn't work usually on a weekend, it's why I hate delivering a spa on Friday.   So I send my tech out to only find it was hooked up wrong by the home owner or the electrician.     Most are a bit apologetic to say the least some I think could care less.

 Most new spa owners are great and happy, many can turn into real jerks if one little thing happens, no matter what in the customers eye's it's always the spa's fault.  

[bikz]

Did you have a licensed electrician hook it?   I think Beachcomber should cover it but you never know, it's a hard one to blame on someone. Usually something like that can be caused by a loose connection?

Jim I'm curious. If Milly had had a licensed electrician hook it up. Do you think the manufacturer might place blame with him/her instead of potentially Milly/a do it yourself-er or replace the part as a defective item?

Milly, if the HOT wire was in fact loose that would cause a lot of resistance/heat and over time could/would create the failure you've encountered. FWIW

As a side note my Spa came from the factory with a loose ground wire(main power cord)  where it terminated at the main board. Two people missed it, because there was an inspected by sticker on the panel cover.

 To answer my question I would say yes.  Many dealers will look for a way out as not to pay or replace anything if they can prove it's not their fault.
  If I were her dealer I would replace the board with maybe a few questions asked.  I have had quite a few instances where a licensed electrician hooked it up wrong, IE right wires hooked to wrong places, mainly at the breaker end of the service.  What I do is call the company and to explain what took place we even take pictures sometimes we eat it, sometimes we get paid back for the board and labor.  
  It's one reason when we sell a spa we really push the electric company's we always use.

 Sad and frustrating thing is I have had many a customer go ballistic on me saying the spa they bought is a psc of chit,I want my money back to come get this thing it doesn't work usually on a weekend, it's why I hate delivering a spa on Friday.   So I send my tech out to only find it was hooked up wrong by the home owner or the electrician.     Most are a bit apologetic to say the least some I think could care less.

 Most new spa owners are great and happy, many can turn into real jerks if one little thing happens, no matter what in the customers eye's it's always the spa's fault.  

Jim, thanks for your response and I think your attitude and the manner in which you approach such a problem is commendable. Good on you. Also, I too feel requiring a licensed electrician falls short on Spa installations. Being licensed is one thing. Understanding the inner workings of a Spa is an animal of its own, and requires the additional knowledge required for Spa installs.
As for the general public that goes ballistic because they didn't do their homework. Shame on them.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 I hope Milly's dealer takes care of her, sounds like they are dragging their feet by saying they have to call the factory.  No matter what the factory say's it's up to the dealer to take care of the customer period!
 The dealers first response should have been one of a positive take on the situation, like will come on out and take a look at it and see whats going on.  Then replace the board get the customer up and running so she is happy again. (Deal with the warranty part of it later)  Instead she's waiting to hear back from them, without a spa now for 2/3 days going into a week end.  Not acceptable in my eye's!     Good luck Milly!

[hottubdan]

I hope Milly's dealer takes care of her, sounds like they are dragging their feet by saying they have to call the factory.  No matter what the factory say's it's up to the dealer to take care of the customer period!
 The dealers first response should have been one of a positive take on the situation, like will come on out and take a look at it and see whats going on.  Then replace the board get the customer up and running so she is happy again. (Deal with the warranty part of it later)  Instead she's waiting to hear back from them, without a spa now for 2/3 days going into a week end.  Not acceptable in my eye's!     Good luck Milly!

Ditto.  I would think the dealer should know whether or not this will be covered.  If they replace a burned board and make a claim to manufacturer, wouldn't it simply be covered?  Manufacturer only knows it is a burned board?

[Milly]

Update:

So my dealer called me back 24 hours later to indicate me that beachcomber would not cover the board under warranty. I argued that this was unacceptable but did not blame my dealer. My dealer was actually pretty understanding, they offered to replace the board at cost price ( $205) and not charge me labor. I agreed to it, but informed them that I would be contacting beachcomber in order to get reimbursed as I feel that there were too many variables that could have caused this malfunction.

After speaking with a senior tech and the head tech of beachcomber, they indicate to me that I probably have a valid case. They requested that I take pictures and send to them along with an explanation. Luckily I also had pictures from the board 2 weeks ago that showed the connections and absolutely no damage.

So my dealer comes out this morning with a replacement board. I give them my credit card number so they can run the charge through when they get back to the store. I head off inside my house send off the email with pictures to beachcomber. 10 minutes later I get a call from my dealer, stating that beachcomber has contacted them, looked at the pictures I sent and have determined that the damage caused will be covered under warranty.

It looks like persistence on my part paid off. I just wished my dealer would have been the one who was more persistent instead of me having to deal with beachcomber for warranty.

Anyways, it's all good now, tub is filled and warming up.

Now on to my other threads about chemistry, as I seem to be having a real hard time with it.


Thanx to all who posted here and chimed in on the subject.

[bikz]

Great News Milly.

I have a question about the terminating points on your board. Are they the tension clip style or screws?

Glad it worked out for you. 

Update:

So my dealer called me back 24 hours later to indicate me that beachcomber would not cover the board under warranty. I argued that this was unacceptable but did not blame my dealer. My dealer was actually pretty understanding, they offered to replace the board at cost price ( $205) and not charge me labor. I agreed to it, but informed them that I would be contacting beachcomber in order to get reimbursed as I feel that there were too many variables that could have caused this malfunction.

After speaking with a senior tech and the head tech of beachcomber, they indicate to me that I probably have a valid case. They requested that I take pictures and send to them along with an explanation. Luckily I also had pictures from the board 2 weeks ago that showed the connections and absolutely no damage.

So my dealer comes out this morning with a replacement board. I give them my credit card number so they can run the charge through when they get back to the store. I head off inside my house send off the email with pictures to beachcomber. 10 minutes later I get a call from my dealer, stating that beachcomber has contacted them, looked at the pictures I sent and have determined that the damage caused will be covered under warranty.

It looks like persistence on my part paid off. I just wished my dealer would have been the one who was more persistent instead of me having to deal with beachcomber for warranty.

Anyways, it's all good now, tub is filled and warming up.

Now on to my other threads about chemistry, as I seem to be having a real hard time with it.


Thanx to all who posted here and chimed in on the subject.

[Jimmy Lee]

From the thread, this is a Balboa board. I can tell you that Balboa is a horrible company to deal with, and my spa dealer says the same thing. They have some good technology, but some significent weak points in the execution of their designs. One such place is their connectors on their circuit boards. They are FAILURE PRONE - especially the connection where they use copper bands to go from the board to the heater. You must torque them to 30-35 in-lbs, and even then they are failure prone. And good luck getting any help from the stealer (dealer). They will pass the buck, and you will be dealing with Balboa. And they will spend any amount of time and money to keep from taking care of you in any way.

Just say NO to any products made by Balboa Water group. Stay away from any hot tubs made with their boards. Good technology, poorly executed, badly supported.