My wife and I had the J345 installed and operational by the end of October 2016. We absolutely love it - when it’s working properly. However, right off the bat, we started experiencing issues with the water not achieving the temperature selected on the controls. It only seemed to get to the desired temperature when we had the jets/pumps running. Being first time hot tub owners, we were not sure if this is how it was supposed to really work. So, we called service and they came out. Turns out that we needed a new circuit board (more on that later). The issue was resolved and the tub had no issues reaching and maintaining the desired temperature. However, in mid-December, we had an issue with one of the pumps cutting out after a few cycles. When attempting to restart, it would sputter and not restart. The first time it happened we thought we got some air in it and it just needed to work itself out. We let it rest overnight and it started up again the next day. We chalked up the incident as an anomaly and thought that would be the end of it. However, about a couple of weeks after that, on New Year ’s Eve, the pump stopped working towards the end of the third cycle. This time, I opened up the cabinet and felt the pump with my hand. Very hot. The other pump was nowhere near as hot. So, I figured that we must have a bad pump or there is some sort of issue causing the pump to overheat and shut off. I made an appointment for service once again. On the date of service, the tech called me in the morning and we talked about the issue. He told me that if the pump needed to be replaced, we would have to drain the tub. Since it was extremely cold that day and I could not be at home, we decided it would be best to do it on a warmer day. That day came yesterday (1-16-17). The tech called me in the morning and came out. After taking a look at the tub and contacting a rep from Jacuzzi, he told me that the pump shutting off after a few cycles in a row was to be expected. He also told me that I should not have the air control on as that could only contribute to the pump to over-heat. He recommended waiting a few minutes between cycles before turning on the pumps and removing the cabinet door to keep the pumps from overheating. One of his comments was that most people do not sit in the tub for that long of a time (an hour or so). This seemed very odd to me. When my wife and I were researching to buy a tub, we never came across this. I imagine that if the pump was running for several hours straight, then it would be logical for it to cut off. But after an hour?!?!? The tech told me that Jacuzzi would likely not authorize a pump replacement based off of the scenario I was experiencing. I asked him if he had ever replaced a pump on a brand new unit and he told me that he had never done so. I asked him about the circuit board and he explained to me that there had been some issues with bad circuit boards (faulty relays) not allowing the water temp to reach the setting. So, that was why I was having the initial issue with water temperature. We have not used the tub since New Year’s Eve. However, we are going to start using it again and keep a log of when it cuts off and how long it takes for it to be operational again. The tech told me that the pump should come back on after 15 minutes of cooling off. However, I explained to him that this has not been the case. He called Jacuzzi again and they said that they could not provide any rule of thumb for when the pump should be able to operate again. At the end of the day, I just cannot come to grips that we should not expect to be in the tub for an hour with the jets running (3 cycles). An hour is typically the max time we sit in it. Can anybody shed some light on this? Any info/comments would be greatly appreciated...
