This morning, I noticed our 2000 Sundance Altamar was silent, so I checked and...yep...no power. I tried a dozen times to cycle the GFCI but couldn't get anything to register. Had to get to work, so when I got home, I opened up the access panel and noticed the light was on the control box. So it has power, but the display was still dead. Then I looked closer, and there was the black round disk lying on the drain. I'd never seen that before, so I looked, and realized that it was the end cap from the circulation pump. And it was wet in the tub.
Now, I've had circulation pumps go before, and all the spa did was shut down or report "FLO" on the display. So I'm trying to decide what to do here.
As background, it's now nearly 13 years old. Two years ago, we had one of the pipes leading to the high speed pump crack, and the repair guy said that we're probably going to have a lot of these problems. Several jets have stopped working over the years (found lots of ball bearings in the tub), and the foam on the gate to the filter has been degrading into foam pellets throughout the tub and filter. Also, when the pipe cracked, there was water in the tub and it caused the wood on the access panel to start rotting.
At that time, we had come to a tentative decision that when something major happened next, we wouldn't fix it. I'm thinking this is it. If it was just a circ pump, I might consider it; typically that's been a $250-$300 repair. But the fact that the display doesn't even operate tells me that it's more than the circ pump and that there is more damage.
I could spend $100 to have the repair guy look it over, but my instinct tells me that's going to be a waste of money. Should I think of this as a 13 year old car and send it off to the junkyard?