No circulation after drain and refill

[carveitup]

In my new to me house, I have a Gulf Coast 864 LEi hot tub (dated around 2008). It was "empty" when I bought the house and was closed when we moved in in december. Sure enough, the previous owner didn't drain it properly and water got in, froze and cracked one of the shutoff valves. Anyway, after fixing that, I filled it and turned it on, only to discover that one of the two jet pumps wasn't working. But the tub got up to temp and ran off the one pump ok. Circulation and little waterfall ran normally. Anyway, I finally got around to draining the tub and replacing the second pump (motor was frozen and previous owner had disconnected it). But now, after refilling and powering it up, the circulation pump isn't running. There is no sound from it. The other pumps work and the heater will come on but it quickly shuts off due to no flow. I checked for power in the circulation pump plug on the board and didn't get a reading so I wonder if there is some sort of sensor that is stopping the pump from running. Any ideas?

Control unit is a Balboa Equipment Pack VS510SZ w/4kW heater.

Thanks,

Derek

 

[bdex]

Air lock?? Have you tried to bleed the air out of the line that leads to the pump? Of not crack the union on the inlet side if the pump open. If you hear a big woosh of air, likely your issue. Very common when Tubs down all the way.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

While air lock would be a good guess if you could hear the motor running he's saying the motor isn't running.
The circulation pump worked and after you replaced the other pump the circulation pump doesn't have power ??
I'm guessing you tripped something. Did you have the breaker for the spa turned off at the main fuse box when you did the work ??

Maybe some troubleshooting help here, page 47 :lookhere: http://www.pinnaclespas.com/pdf/PinnacleSpasOM_New_Complete.pdf

 

[bdex]

While air lock would be a good guess if you could hear the motor running he's saying the motor isn't running.
The circulation pump worked and after you replaced the other pump the circulation pump doesn't have power ??
I'm guessing you tripped something. Did you have the breaker for the spa turned off at the main fuse box when you did the work ??

Maybe some troubleshooting help here, page 47 :lookhere: http://www.pinnaclespas.com/pdf/PinnacleSpasOM_New_Complete.pdf

Yep. Missed that part. Sorry. If the pump spins freely then you may try the fuse in the control panel. Mine was a 30a slo blow type fuse when it blew. I had installed a new pump and wet end and had wired incorrectly due to incorrect instructions from motor manufacturer.
You need a volt meter, and (with the power off) check the continuity of every fuse in the control panel. If it worked before and does not work now and all the fuses are good turn the power back on. make sure you have power at the pump. If so the starter solenoid on the pump may have taken a dump. Just went thru this.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Yep. Missed that part.

Been there, done that and I'm sure I'll have many more :uhh: Good idea on checking out the fuse
Just so no one gets confused that lump on the motor is a capacitor. Usually there is only one but some motors will use two, one for starting and another for running. If the caps gone bad and you split the pump motor from the pump and turn the electricity ON and CAREFULLY spin the shaft or impeller and it starts it's a bad capacitor. Just make sure you are ready for the motor to start and a little bit of torque if it does. I'd wear safety glasses if you try this as there might be some sand, seeds, misc debris in the impeller that might come shooting out.

 

[carveitup]

Thanks for the replies. The plot has thickened. The circulation pump is fine. Hooked it in in place of jet pump 1 and now it runs. It got up to temp but then started getting sns errors and it has since shut down. I'm starting to think the board has died and maybe the relay on the circ pump is shot. Might be time for somebody with some better test equipment.