bad heater relay or bad heater relay board?

[grandee ny]

 I have a question on how to verify what is exactly bad on my tub. Im not getting any heat at all. On the power side of the heater relay i have the correct 240 v,on the heater plug in side i have no voltage,no matter where i set the thermostat. This is a hot springs grandee. Any help would be greatly appreciated,thanks.

[Chas]

Sounds like the heater relay (or heater relay board, depending on the age of your Grandee) is bad.

Put the meter on the leads to the heater (with both disconnected from the relay/board) you should have something like 10 ohms if the heater is good.

 

[jdave]

I'll reply here just to help others out who may be searching for this issue, because I just went through the process before reading this here.

This is the symptom of what appears to be a common problem with Hot Springs spas. The problem is that a relay or a connection on the relay board burns out. Visually nothing may be seen on the front, but when the board is removed, the back is burned underneath a relay(s) where a connection has vaporized.

WARNING - 220 volts is present - know what you are doing or have a competent electrician troubleshoot this for you. The condition is: the heater LED (red) on the board is lit, indicating the control is calling for heat. Checking the voltage on the heater cord terminals shows zero volts.

WARNING - before trying to look at the back of the board, be sure to shut off all power to the spa and CHECK with a reliable instrument that there is no power present. Then you can remove the relay board to inspect the back side. You can also disconnect the heater from the board and test the resistance at this time.

The good news is that the relay board is not too expensive and can be ordered online. Apparently it's an improved version over the one in my 2008 Grandee. Hopefully it will last a little longer...

[Chas]

I have replaced a lot of these boards. The new design is much better. I have had a total of ONE of the new boards go bad, and the factory was so interested to hear about that they sent me a replacement, free of charge.

 

[destep]

What a fantastic forum to have!  I'm new to this board but wanted to ask a follow-up in this thread.

I have a 2001 Jetsetter with the IQ2020 control panel.  I too just suffered from the heater control relay burnout.  I have recently replaced the heating element (last year) and the circulation pump (last week).  Would the heater control relay burnout possibly affect the main pump from turning on?  Before I removed the heater board to check the back of it, the pump wouldn't turn on when I tried to put it in the "Clean" or "Run" mode.  I'd hear a click somewhere on the main IQ2020 board, a red light would come on right in the middle of the main circuit board (not the lights that deal with heater on/off, etc) until I turned off whatever mode I was trying to put the pump in.

I'm thinking since the main power suppy comes into the heater control board, that after a burnout, power supply to the main circuit board could be compromised and all bets are off (so to speak) on whether anything that draws power from the main circuit board would actually work.

Bottom line - should I go ahead and order an ENTIRE IQ2020 replacement (comes with the heater relay board)?  Or would you suggest just replacing the heater control board at 1/3 the cost to see what happens?

Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance offered!