wow.. ok, I never even thought of that.

I have oregon hotsprings coming out tomorrow to take a look at it.. it's way beyond my meager skills.

I'll keep you all in the loop in case you're anxiously waiting to hear.

todd

Thanks for the info.

I checked last night, and you were right.. the pump was warm.. the long tube containing the heating element was cool.

I'm just going to have the spa guy come today and replace the heating unit. ( I see them for sale on your site, but can't find the wires coming out of the heater, and I just want to have the tub given a once over.. figure it's a good use of funds.

ps.. I had no idea that the pump could passively heat the entire tub from 70 to 105 degrees.

Yes there are tubs out there that heat only using passive pump heat - no heaters...

And some tubs that are too well insulated can overheat during the summer with the pump being in filtration mode only.

I just had a conversation with the Oregon Hotsprings svc mgr and he feels that it could be the circulation pump that has gone bad.

His reasoning is that the jets operate when the "jets" button is pushed.. but that the heater shuts off consistently within 20 seconds when the temp dial is turned on.

He feels that this is caused by a bad circulation pump. He said that if water wasn't circulating through the pump then the heater usually overheats within 20 seconds and shuts off as a safety measure.

Any thoughts before I shell out a few hundred for a new pump?

Well is this what you told him?:


If you told him this, then he's wrong.

Circ pump not working and a normal overheat sequence does not involve a gfci trip. What he's referring to is the high limit sensor tripping off line because the heater overheated.

Not a gfci trip.

So which is it? Gfci trip or high limit sensor trip?

Pageup:

thanks for the quick reply.

When I first started looking at this problem monday, I thought it was the GFCI tripping.. so what I would do is push in the test button, then pop the reset button each time the tub shut off.

Now when I turn the temp dial on, and I can hear the low buzzing or hum for 20 secons, then when it stops, I just turn the knob all the way off and turn it back on and it comes back on.

so which do you think it is?



by the way.. jet pump is working fine still through all of this, and making the tub warm. Is there any issue with running the pump constantly or as needed to keep the water at about 105 or so until after the weekend?

todd

Ok, so now we've changed gears entirely.

1. We never had an actual ground fault so that eliminates the entire discussion up to now.

2. You hear a hum for 20 seconds and then it stops.

Yes the hot springs guy was right. You have a defective circ pump.

No do not run that jet pump for that long... the possibility is quite high that you could over heat the system, and not know when it happens. Turn it on for a short while, is ok, but you need to NEVER forget that it is running.

You really don't want to know what a melted tub looks like.

http://spapartsnet.com/Hot-Springs-Part ... 8_1_1.html

It has a flow switch in a 1994, the heater generally won't overheat when the circ pump fails. Also, the high limit on a 1994 must be manually reset. Shutting down the power and re-powering will not reset your tripped high limit.

That being said, there is a wierd little flow/sensor fail-safe built into the tub. If it doesn't detect flow for about 20-30 seconds, it will shut down. To reset, turn your T-stat knob all the way up, then all the way down, then all the way up again. If the hot tub comes back to life- you have a flow failure...either circ pump, flow/switch, or circuit board failure. It will trip again in about 20-30 seconds.

It could very well be the circ pump- do you feel water coming out of the output grill? (opposite side of the tub)

Dang it swine... what took you so long???

LOL- you had it if the gfci was actually tripping