Sundance 880: Waterfall, Heater, Ozone combo ?

[sonomablue]

All Sundance 880 owners.

We have had our Optima for a few weeks, and absolutely love it. We are enjoying it (sometimes) twice per day. We use different combination of Jets and Air controls and enjoy the nice variations.

We are a bit confused by a few things; WATERFALL, HEATER, CYCLE interaction. Let me explain/clarify:

We do not understand how/when the WATERFALL "should" come on, and when it should "not" come on. . I DO understand the dial knob - that turns up to 4 full turns. My question/issue is different from that dial knob. Plz read on.

First, let meet state up front that our HEATER mode is in STANDARD. (I mention this because i think that it may play a role in the issue/question below). And we have left the cycle times to the default 12am, 6am, 12noon, 6pm times.

Last night, the WATERFALL WAS ON AS WE GOT OUT OF THE SPA. We turned OFF BOTH PUMPS - and then THE WATERFALL TURNED OFF at the same time.  (I did NOT turn the waterfall control knob to the off position).  I will repeat, when we turned OFF both PUMPS (last night) the WATERFALL also turned OFF.

This morning, when i went to check the spa, THE WATERFALL WAS ON. (recall that last night, I had left the waterfall control knob in the on position).

This morning:
The temperature reading was only 100. (Last night, someone must have accidentally turned down the temperature set number as we were enjoying the pumps, and lights).
The "ozone" icon was on.
The "heater" icon was NOT on.
THE WATERFALL WAS ON.

We normally prefer the spa closer to 103-104, so i raised the temperatue "set number" back to 104.

3 hours later:
I went back out, about 3 hours later. The temperature was now 105. (Its warm outside)
The "ozone" icon was ON.
The "heater" icon was NOT on.
THE WATERFALL WAS STILL ON.

Since 105 was too high
I LOWERED the TEMP SET VALUE 103.
THE WATERFALL IMMEDIATELY TURNED OFF.
AND, the "ozone" light went OFF at the same time.

This is probably all normal, and i just need to understand how it works.

Can someone assist me, and provide a user friendly explanation of how it works (and if what i am seeing is normal) ?

 
thanks.  

When should the ozone light be on, or not?
When should the waterfall stay on, or not?
There seems to be a connection between the waterfall (coming on after being left in the on position), and whether the ozonator is on or not, and maybe if the heater is on or not ??

[pg_rider]

Got your email but figured I'd reply here for "historical" value.  First and foremost, the waterfall runs off the circulation pump so anytime that pump is running, the waterfall should be running.  And, with the tub in "Standard" mode, the circ pump should be running 24/7 UNLESS your actual temperature is 2 degrees higher that your set temperature.  At that point the tub goes into protection mode and shuts down everything, including the circ pump.  The tub should be dead quiet when this happens.

With that in mind see how your tub acts over the next few days -- hopefully it should all play out according to these "ground rules".  That said, when my tub was new it would sometimes go into protection mode for no apparent reason.  Only did it a couple times and hasn't done it since so I figured it just needed some breaking in!  

Oh, on a possibly related note, keep an eye on the clock.  If you notice it running fast to the tune of gaining 20-30 minutes a day, that means you have a bad "Dallas" chip.  There was a large batch of them that were bad and it should be replaced under warranty.  Not sure if that would also cause the tub to inadvertantly go into Protection mode, but check the clock just to be sure either way.

[pg_rider]

Oh, the ozone and heat indicator are unrelated to the above.  The ozone icon should always be on until you hit a pump button, at which point it turns off.  After the pumps are turned off the ozone icon should come back in within 10 minutes.

The heater icon should come on anytime the actual tub temp falls two degrees below the set temp.  At that point you'll feel hot water coming into the tub at the outlet on the bottom left corner of the tub (as you're standing at the controls; see figure with notes added by me while learning my tub .

[sonomablue]

Thanks for the great info. I will monitor the various pieceparts that you mentioned. Thanks also for the diagram. I may have additional questions, later, or in a few days, but for now, the info is very helpful.

Thanks again.

[Late Innings]

thats correct, when the water temp is 2 degrees warmer than the set temp (ex, lowering from 104 to 101) the waterfall/s and ozone will shut off until the tub cools down.   When turning on one of the pumps ( I forget which one) the waterfall/s and ozone will come back on but only while that pump is running.    Freaked me out at first too...