Leisure Bay Ind.
Pro-Shield
Model# G151522LSS015-H
SERIAL# H104363
MFG.DATE 5/22/96
VOLTS 230
AMPS MAX 40
CIR.BREAKER 50
A friend gave us this spa but the heater had quit working. When I opened it up I found the pressure switch on the side of the heater had melted off, the pipe nipple on the switch was made of plastic. I replaced it with a new SS one along with a new Grd Fault breaker. When I hooked everything back up the heater worked great until I went to turn the temperature down, the pump stopped but the heater stayed on and boiled the water in the heater tank it also fried some of the wiring. I had to shut it off at the main breaker to get it to turn off.
I then replaced 2 of the three contact switches and the high limit switch and repaired the damaged wiring. When I turned it on this time the heater did not come on so I adjusted the pressure switch down until it switched on, the heater came on but something else popped and started smoking at which time the heater went off again.
Since one of the contact switches I had replaced was the same as the one I didn't change, I swapped it out with the old one.
The heater light still did not indicate that the heater was on and it still did't feel to be heating but when I checked the heater terminal to ground with a VOM it read 125v at I'm not sure but shouldn't it be reading 230v at this terminal?
Would you have any suggestion as to what to do next?
Also is there somewhere I could get a wiring schematic on this panel?

Sorry about the long post but I wanted to try to give you the whole scenario.

Thanks for any help.

I do wonder why everyone seems to believe they should measure voltage to ground... ground is just a safety net (of sorts) and not a return path for electricity. You need to be checking this voltage between the terminals, since you need both for power.

With the mass overheat it is possible that your element burned out.

Could be a contactor probelm as well, originally fused in the closed (on) position, allowing it to run amuck

What smoked? dunno, haven't seen a photo of the part that smoked.

Hi Shing,
Were there two single pole contactors, and one double pole? Or were there two doubles bridged with alluminum?
Also is this a Convertable 110v - 220v Hurricane pack?

As Charger said - FUSED contactor. This heater is most likely dead as IHW's title suggests.

You've got more problems with this thing than meets the eye.

The plastic faced pressure switch wasn't part of the problem - it was a symptom of the heater getting power when it shouldn't have been.

Same thing with the rest of the wiring that you've had to replace.

and I'll go ahead and reiterate - the only way to measure voltage on a heater (for heater power troubleshooting purposes) is ACROSS the terminals, NEVER terminal to ground or to neutral.


Perhaps....

Although you were doing great until your heater dry-fired (internally fried). However this is where you need to be careful when troubleshooting a problem of this type. Not that the heater gets power, but that it DOESN'T, when it's not supposed to!

In a situation like this you either need an assistant next to the breaker, or have a cut-off close at hand to shut this thing down to prevent all the damage that's been done. Replace your contactors, control relays, etc. Be sure the wiring that you have replaced is rated for the current it needs to carry.

By this time there's no telling what else has fused itself in the box contactor/switch/relay wise - Your only alternative at this point is to replace everything in there. If your tub has a circulation pump, which most of these do, then replace that as well.

Or you might try replacing the controller altogether and get rid of this headache...
http://spaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=868
http://spaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=832

Best of luck on that thing. It needs a lot of help. Let us know if you have anymore questions.

Thanks to everyone for the quick response.
The panel contains two single pole contactors and one double pole. I had replaced the one double pole and one of the single pole contactor. The second single pole looked ok so I didn't change it. (hind sight) I'm going to order one now.
I don't know what you mean by Convertible 110v-220v Hurricane pack.
It does has two 230v Hurricane pumps on it which both are working fine.

I disconnected heater and checked the element with an ohm meter it checks out to be good, is there anything else on the heater that I need to look at?
The smoke looked like it may have came from around the old contactor that I had not replaced.

On both single pole contactors there is a jumper wire with what looks like a resistor inline that runs from on side of the contactor to the other side. Is this something that I should be concerned about?
FYI the cat. no. on the single pole contacts is 45CG10AFB and 45FG20AFB on the double.

I did replaced the burnt wire with wire of the same rating and after the first start-up, I did wise up and have my assistant (my wife) stand by the breaker just in case.

If it would help, I can send pictures.

Thanks again for the advice.

A convertable pack allows the owner to use either 120V or 240V. Since you have 230V motors, yours would not be convertable.

I am going to assume the resistor you see is actually a capacitor used to help prevent arcing when the contactor opens under load. Do they help? marginally.

I would check the contactor contacts using the ohm setting on the meter by pressing them closed and doing a resistance check across the poles. Anything more than zero I would replace. This is assuming that the contactor coil is good. You can either do a resistance check on that or you probably already know if they are good or not if they pull in when the spa calls for heat.