Hi everyone,

I am a poor college kid who got a cheap hot tub from a friend. It worked for them, but when I got the electricity hooked up I had problems

It is around a 1990 Sundance spa with either 110/220 installation. We had it professionally hooked up with 220v. The spa turns on and the blower works fine, along with the light. But when the heater button is pressed, a loud vibrating noise starts and it sounds like it comes from the control box. I didn't leave it on long enough to see if it got hot because of the noise. Is it a faulty heater, bad transformer or something else.

Please help me out with the cheapest solution as I dont have alot of money.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Culvermania

the contactor/relay to your heater is chattering, perhaps when you had it converted to 220, it was done incorrectly and you aren't getting the full voltage to pull the contactor/relay in?

Hey, thanks so much for replying. What can I do about that? What needs to be done so that the contactor/relay will work correctly?

More thanks to you than you could ever know.

Capp

Do you have the circuit board in the control box, or do you have a couple air hoses going to push buttons on the topside controls? If you have the circuit board version (I'm not sure when Sundance switched to electronic control) then I would have to do some research using the board part number. If it has the air switches and push buttons on the topside, then read on:

was the tub origionally set up as 240, and now it is 120? or was it set up as 120 and now working at 240? that is what ya need to know first, and then you need to open the box, and read the numbers on the contactor/relay and see if it is set up as 120V or 240V. If you have access to a multitester (volt meter) it would be a good idea to measure the voltage across the terminals that are usually labeled "coil" when it is on. If your voltage reading is the same as the rating for the coil, then the contactor might have to be replaced.

Now this is assuming that it is indeed the contactor for the heater (the heater is the most common culprit). You never did mention if the motor seems to work ok or not. When you kick the heater on, the motor will turn on as well. That too is controlled by a relay. You may have more than one motor too. One for circulation and heat, and another for jets. Perhaps, like mine, 2 for the jets. And lastly, have you checked to see if the motor is causing a vibration through the control panel? Just a last minute thought.