Hot Spring Spa Surging Jet Pump

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N

n0reaster

0
Apr 28, 2015
10
Santa Cruz CA
Hopefully I can get some direction from you folks.

I have an approximately 1990 Hot Spring spa Jetsetter serial# J-201122.

When you turn the pump on the jets surge, and after a short the main breaker pops not the GFCI(This is brand new). If you unplug the small circulation motor the surging appears to stop and the jets work great. There are new filters installed and the when the jets are running without the filters installed one of the filter holes has no suction, the other two do. A bit perplexed and I'm sure it's something simple.

I addition, it appears that after it's been off for a while and you turn on the jets the jet pump pulses, then turn off and remove filters and the pumps runs great.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

David
 
Hot Spring Spa Surging/Pulsing Jet Pump

Hopefully I can get some direction from you folks.

I have an approximately 1990 Hot Spring spa Jetsetter serial# J-201122.

When you turn the pump on the jets surge, and after a short the main breaker pops not the GFCI(This is brand new). If you unplug the small circulation motor the surging appears to stop and the jets work great. There are new filters installed and the when the jets are running without the filters installed one of the filter holes has no suction, the other two do. A bit perplexed and I'm sure it's something simple.

I addition, it appears that after it's been off for a while and you turn on the jets the jet pump pulses, then turn off and remove filters and the pumps runs great.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

David
 
Re: Hot Spring Spa Surging/Pulsing Jet Pump

Do you have the old or new E5 style circulation pump? Old style is larger, new style the wet end will twist off from the motor by hand with a large knurled ring? Either way I would suspect the circulation pump, these have a 3-4 year typical life expectancy, in fact I just had to replace one on my tub that was under a year old, the fitting on the end of the motor shaft had snapped.

Ike
 
Re: Hot Spring Spa Surging/Pulsing Jet Pump

Isaac-1 said:
Do you have the old or new E5 style circulation pump? Old style is larger, new style the wet end will twist off from the motor by hand with a large knurled ring? Either way I would suspect the circulation pump, these have a 3-4 year typical life expectancy, in fact I just had to replace one on my tub that was under a year old, the fitting on the end of the motor shaft had snapped.

Ike
Click to expand...

Hi Ike and thanks for the reply. I'm new to this but I would say older. It does work, a little noisy though. But when it's plugged into the control panel it will make the GFCI pop from time to time.

David
 
Re: Hot Spring Spa Surging/Pulsing Jet Pump

Continued troubleshooting…Left filters off last night. Turned on jets this morning, pulsing. Unplugged circulation motor and then jets ran properly. So could this be attributed to this being a 110 van system and if the circulation pump is not working properly it's dragging the available voltage to the jet pump???

Just thinking out loud.
 
Re: Hot Spring Spa Surging/Pulsing Jet Pump

I suspect it is the circulation pump, that one does appear to be the "new" E5 styles circulation pump which was introduced 3-4 years ago (or so). One nice thing about that pump is you don't have to remove the plumbing, you can buy a new pump, and reuse your old pump wet end top piece and never have to disconnect the hoses. These pumps run about $180 online
 
Re: Hot Spring Spa Surging/Pulsing Jet Pump

Isaac-1 said:
I suspect it is the circulation pump, that one does appear to be the "new" E5 styles circulation pump which was introduced 3-4 years ago (or so). One nice thing about that pump is you don't have to remove the plumbing, you can buy a new pump, and reuse your old pump wet end top piece and never have to disconnect the hoses. These pumps run about $180 online
Click to expand...

First let me say Thank You Very Much for your time and help. Second, pump still surges and that is with filters out and circulation pump unplugged. How about the start capacitor on the jet motor?

David
 
And one more thing to add…This surging/pulsing is hard to replicate and is quite random. It's like the motor is struggling or does not have enough power to kick up to speed. I'm assuming that the jet motor is single speed as well, do to the fact that there's just an on/off switch for it.

Thanks again.
 

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Isaac-1 said:
Are you sure it is not sucking air?
Click to expand...

If it were sucking air I certainly don't know where it's coming from. I think I would noticed, I've been over every connection in compartment and water level is high.

Capacitor is good and motor is healthy. I believe there is an issue in the control box with power. The GFCI plug, which is new is quite warm and the heater plug that goes into the control is quite warm as well.

It seems I've done what I'm capable of doing. Guess it's time to call someone else in.

I really appreciate all of your help!!!

David
 
Sure although with age of your Jetsetter I suspect most of the advice you get will be to replace it. I have a 1998 model which was the first/second year of the IQ-2000 digital controller, so I suspect yours has the old mechanical control box for which there are not many parts available. It may be possible to go back in and retrofit a complete IQ-2000 or IQ-2020 controller although the control panel cutout might not match up. Complete take out controllers often show up on ebay, I bought one (IQ-2020) for my tub last year that came out of damaged tub when I thought my IQ-2000 was starting to go flaky, I think I paid around $350 complete with control box, control head, front panel, and LED tub light as it turns out only the light control circuit was bad (stuck full on) along with the control panel which had a small bit of broken plastic wedged between it and the control head.

Ike
 
Isaac-1 said:
Sure although with age of your Jetsetter I suspect most of the advice you get will be to replace it. I have a 1998 model which was the first/second year of the IQ-2000 digital controller, so I suspect yours has the old mechanical control box for which there are not many parts available. It may be possible to go back in and retrofit a complete IQ-2000 or IQ-2020 controller although the control panel cutout might not match up. Complete take out controllers often show up on ebay, I bought one (IQ-2020) for my tub last year that came out of damaged tub when I thought my IQ-2000 was starting to go flaky, I think I paid around $350 complete with control box, control head, front panel, and LED tub light as it turns out only the light control circuit was bad (stuck full on) along with the control panel which had a small bit of broken plastic wedged between it and the control head.

Ike
Click to expand...

Well it seems to be a bit more reliable suddenly. You mention sucking air…From where and would it be noticeable?

On a separate note, I'm looking got start a new career and I seem to enjoy this whole spa thing. Where's a goo place to start??? It seems that is what you do for a living, that's why I ask.

David
 
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