This forum has been a wealth of information as I search through the posts and find answers to most of my questions until now.

This is my first spa that I bought used, it is a 2002 Sundance Cameo. When I bought it the only thing that would not work was the blower. When demoed at the previous owners house pushing the button nothing happened. The price of the pump was reduced from the selling price plus a few other things and the deal was made.

Got the spa delivered and hooked up / filled. At my house the GFI would trip whenever the blower motor was turned on. After installing a new blower motor it still did not work but the GFI no longer trips. The was a little bit of water in the pipe that the blower attaches too but it did not seem excessive. I swapped the wires back and forth on the blower but it will not kick on.

So with no functioning blower the spa worked great for a couple of months.

Last week my wife noticed that the temp was at 96 when she went to get in. The set temp is 101. She used it and the temp was about 98 when she got out.

Over the next few days it lost a few degs a day. I called the repair place and made an appointment (12-13).

Last night it was at about 85 when I was doing weekly chemical maintenance. The interesting thing is this.

The panel has an indicator that shows when the heater is on. I has not been on.

Then I noticed this: when pump 1 was running the heater was not on but when pump 2 was on the heater would function. After a 20 min pump cycle I went back out and checked. Temp was up to 88. I stick my hand in where the heater inlet is and can feel the circulation pump running. Kick on pump 2 and after another 20 min the temp is 91. Checked again 2 hours later and it is back to 101. Used it last night and the circulation pump for the heater was still cranking when I got out.

This morning it is at 96 and turning pump 2 on did not kick the heater on this time.

Other relevant information. We have just had our first real snow in Colorado Springs with the winter being pretty mild till now.

Does it sound like a board issue causing the both the temp issues and the blower issues?

I am tempted to cancel the appointment for the spa guy to come out but not sure if I should.

I welcome any opinions and thank you for reading all of this story.

Larry

I have a 2002 Optima and had somewhat similar issue when delivered. On the Sentry Control, on the upper right side you will find the two power leads in a white clip to the board.

Check your owners manual in the back - you will see the wiring schematic. Look for the device labeled BLOWER and you will see where it connects to the board. A fingernail or small screwdriver helps you pop the clip.

Remove the leads since you blower does not seem to be functional anyway. Does the spa work as expected with this lead off?

Secondly, not sure about the Cameo but how do you have this wired? 30 amp? 50? 60? I also assume that you followed the wiring of the tub to a T -- no neutral lead to the load (tub) (just three leads - two hot and ground) and a pig-tail neutral in the breaker panel?

AGE

Regarding the blower problem:

On the main circuit board, there is a little electronic component, called a TRIAC, that controls the blower. These are nice little devices, until the blower shorts out. When the blower shorts out, it takes the TRIAC with it. Most of the time the triac shorts out and causes the blower to run continuously, but there are situations where it causes no function at all. Chances are you will either have to replace the TRIAC yourself (if you are good at board-level component soldering), take the board in to a mom-n-pop electronics repair place (big named places won't touch spa parts), or replace the whole circuit board. Last time I checked, used for the Sundance was around 500 bucks, new around 900. Oh, and how much for a new TRIAC? About 5 bucks, with shipping.

Regarding the heater issue:

The pump 1 and pump 2 will not affect the function of the heater. Only the circulation pump will affect this. Next time the heat is dropping, put your hand over the circulation pump outlets. If you don't feel flow, it's likely that your circ pump is on it's way out. Sometimes it works, and when it does, you have heat. But when it doesn't, it won't engage your flow switch, which in turn, turns on your heater.