I have a 1989 Sundance Cameo. Balboa board(600 series)

I recently replaced a bad board caused by a bad pump that has also been replaced. Everything has been working fine now for abaout a month. Last week I noticed the temp was a few dergrees low. I checked the thermostat and when I turned it up the heater turned on. I had to turn the thermostat quite a bit before the heater would come on.

As a result my tub heated to the proper temp but now my thermostat is turned about 1/2 inch more clockwise to maintain this temp.

This morning I found the temp low again so I turned the thermo up some more but this time the heater did not kick on even when turned all the way to it's limit.

I have a spare temp sensor so I put that on but still no heat.

I found that if I unplud the sensor and plug it back in the heat will come on but only for a few minutes. I have a flow indicater on my panel that lights up a second or two after running the pump so I suspect that the flow switch is ok. Any ideas?

Tim in Maine

Hmmm. If it were me, I'd replace the topside control panel. By now the thing's quite ancient and worthy of replacement.

Even if that doesn't fix it, it's good to have an extra one after all these years.

Do an ohms check on your temp and high limit sensors, they should read somewhere between 8000-11000 ohms at various temperatures. If not then your sensors are dead. They should increase in value with colder temps and decrease with hotter.

If neither of the above does it, then your new board just isn't doing the job it's supposed to.

A new control panel sounds expensive. I would hate to spend a lot to find that is not the problem. I just spent nearly $1000 on a new pump and control board. Is there a way to test the thermostat in the control panel?

I know where my temp sensor is but where do I find the high limit sensor?

I swapped out the temp sensor with a new one that came with the board but that had no effect. Is there any type of initial calibration that needs to be done?

Tim in Maine

Nearly a thousand for a 600 series board and a pump? Where on earth are you buying your parts from? That's too much $$$

A topside is only $159...
http://spapartsnet.com/p_Sundance_EXSC5 ... 8_3_1.html

Your heater probably has a separate offboard contactor that is controlled by the circuit board. The contactor may be shot. There's some things you haven't indicated...

Like, are you getting the call for heat light on the topside control panel (is the led lit up that says heat?).

Have you observed the relays at the top right of the board to see if they were activated when the heater LED is on?

Is your controller in economy mode?

Your high limit sensor is inside the heater wiring box itself. Just above the pump discharge. If you've got a picture of your equipment set up, and a photo of the inside of the control box that would be a great help if you upload it because not all of these systems are exactly the same so I don't know what you've really got.

What is a contactor? Is that the relay? When I plug the temp sensor in the heat LED comes on and I hear(and see) the relay click at the same time. After a minute or two the relay clicks and the heat LED goes off.

Both my temp sensors(both new and old) read approximately 26.25 Mohms at 96 degrees F. My High limit reads 0.0 Mohms.

I gues it is the high limit sensor?

Tim from Maine

Like I said, I don't know what configuration of the Sundance system that you have. Zero ohms would indicate that it's a typical mechanical high limit (one with a red reset button on it), and that's ok. But if it's a thermistor type that looks like some kind of metallic suppository with a wire going to it to the board then it's definitely shorted.

Ummm, the reading of your thermal sensor doesn't sound right. You should be reading the ohms with the scale set to about 100K maximum, but a setting of no less than 20K. These things should be reading in the thousands of ohms, not the millions.

If indeed your thermal sensor is reading 26 MEGS, the temperature doesn't matter because your sensors are dead.

Photos will alleviate a lot of the board tag and lead to a much quicker, more informative and accurate answer for you.

It does appear to be a mechanical type hi limit sensor. I have posted the photos below. I have a black button on mine. How does this button work? It seems difficult to push.

Maybe I just do not know how to use my new multimeter but Both new and old temp sensors read the same at the same temp in the water.

I also found that the heater is a retrofit as it does not appear to be the original configuration. I was told the original did not have a tube type heater.

Let me know what you think and thanks for all the help.

Tim from Maine

I went out to the tub this morning expecting the water to be cold but it is holding steady at 96.

I removed the thermostat knob and was able to turn it up a little higher(sort of like an amp that goes to 11 )

The heat came on when doing this but it seems it is at the end of the range for the thermostat. Does this indicate failure in any particular component?

Tim from Maine

After talking to the "spa babe" I found my problem. When I replaced my control board I did not replace the temp sensor that it was calibrated to.

The "spa babe" told me how to adjust the board for my existing temp sensor and the heat works fine now.

Tim from Maine