Author Topic: Heater problem (Read 4635 times)

z71tahoe193 · « **on:** February 09, 2005, 01:32:28 pm »

I changed the water the other day, cleaned filters, etc. After I got it filled up, flipped the breakers, and went to celebrate Fat Tuesday. When I got back the breakers for the hot tub had tripped, so I tried resesting and no luck. Anyone have any ideas.

Hot Tub Forum · « **on:** February 09, 2005, 01:32:28 pm »

wmccall · « **Reply #1 on:** February 09, 2005, 02:17:25 pm »

Let us know the brand and model, I've seen similar posts to this before and techs have been able to mention specific fixes for those models.

newtotubbing · « **Reply #2 on:** February 09, 2005, 02:46:31 pm »

Air lock in the pumps maybe?

Jonathan

hottubber · « **Reply #3 on:** February 09, 2005, 03:24:03 pm »

tahoe,

How old is the breaker? Could it be possible that the breaker is bad? I am sure, based on all of the quality brand spas that everyone has, it can't be the spa. It is not uncommon for a spa to trip the breaker, but if the breaker won't reset, have an electrician check the breaker. Good luck, let us know how you make out... :-/

Hottubber

stabone · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2005, 03:41:15 pm »

Unplug the heater from spa pack, then try it, if the tub runs fine then you probly have a bad heater element. You could have dry fired the heater on the refill, or the element is damaged.
I always unplug the heater on a tub on a first fill or refill for that reason.
Give it a shot, and let me know!!!

Steve · « **Reply #5 on:** February 09, 2005, 04:43:09 pm »

I'm with Stabone on this one. Isolate the element and if the tub doesn't trip the breaker, you've found your issue.

It could be a faulty breaker but go with the most obvious and less expensive fix first.

For some reason (that maybe someone could explain), refilling a tub can cause this problem to occur. If the element had a slight pinhole, it seems to come to light on a refill.

I'm not sure why it wouldn't show up and trip the breaker prior to the refill and it's odd that this happens as I've witnessed this scenario countless times.
OK techies out there...splain it to me Lucy...

Steve

z71tahoe193 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2005, 04:44:43 pm »

I have a tiger river siberian, the breaker and the hot tub are about 1 month old. I have two breakers for the tub 30 amp for the pumps and 20 amps for heater, and the heater breaker is tripping. Before we drained the tub the heater breaker did trip, but I thought it was due multiple cigerette butts i found in the filter. (i don't smoke my roommate does, and had people over in the tub while i was at the bar celebrating my 21.) After i cleaned the filter out it worked and did not trip. After that i decided to drain because i couldn't get the water as clear as I wanted it to be. Tested power on the heater and the heater is grounding causing it to short. Luckily im under warrantee.

Vinny · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2005, 06:10:40 pm »

Steve,

When a heater is submerged in water it doesn't oxidize as fast as when exposed to air (this is with the assumption that when a tub gets emptied all the water leaves the tub).

If the coating on the heater, if there is one, isn't as thick as the rest and the oxidation "pits" the surface of the heater and this "pitting" can cause the pin hole to form because it has stretched the material.

I'm sure there may be other scenarios but this comes to mind first.

Stabone,

I like the idea of disconnecting the heater - almost all manufacturers warn about running the heater dry and it voids the warranty. I don't have a tub yet - Is it hard to do?

Thanks!

Vinny

stabone · « **Reply #8 on:** February 09, 2005, 07:03:14 pm »

Vinny, all you have to do is unplug the heater cord from the spa pack. If you can't see the lables follow the cord from the heater back to the pack.
The pressure switch will usually prevent the heater from firing dry. I like to run the tub and make sure all the air pockets are out of the lines. Then plug the heater in.
Make sure you shut breaker off before pluging in heater.

hottubber · « **Reply #9 on:** February 09, 2005, 07:11:20 pm »

I thought the breaker that you were talking about was the large 50 amp one. I don't think I've ever seen one of the internal breakers trip. Although, I'm not a tech., I've been around this for some time. Sorry, I can't be of more help..

Chas · « **Reply #10 on:** February 09, 2005, 08:08:08 pm »

Sounds like you have it under control, but here's a tip for you and other HotSpring and Tiger River owners:

Always turn off the power before draining, of course. But the tip is this: after the tub is full again, turn on only the breaker which runs your pumps first. For some models that is the 30, for others it's the 20. But it's easy to figure out: just turn on one breaker. If the tub does it's startup thing, mark that breaker 'PUMPS,' and always start with that one after a refill.

Once you have turned on the 'pumps' breaker, run the jet pump(s) for a few minutes to purge all systems of air. If you have ozone, shut off the jets and let the water calm to see if you have the normal flow of tiny bubbles from the floor fitting.

If so - then you are ready to turn on the 'heater' breaker without worrying about overheating the heater.

If you need more info on this, let me know.

z71tahoe193 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 09, 2005, 10:56:19 pm »

Thanks for all the help, ordered a new heater and hopefully should be hear next week.

Hot Tub Forum · « **Reply #11 on:** February 09, 2005, 10:56:19 pm »

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