Pump not working but looks like have power to it. Hayward 2.7 VSP. Behavior of bad capacitor on a pump?

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T

tsxchef

Member
Aug 24, 2021
12
Austin, TX
Hi, looking for help please on Hayward 2.7 Tristar VSP pump, little less than 2yrs old.

Symptom = pump looks completely unpowered, pump control panel has no display. Ran for 30min or so, then it tripped breaker when it happened. Using Omnihub setup

Troubleshooting = 1) turned all breakers back on and staying on, 2) tried running the pump, no activity, 3) opened wiring to the motor control box and I believe I am reading 120v red wire, and 120v black wire to circuit board, so it looks like I'm getting power to the motor (so shouldn't display unit be working at this point at least?).

Observations = I also see couple of alarm messages on Omnihub display unit = 1) Comm Loss MSP to Device... HUA-Wiring Hub, and sometimes 2) Comm Loss MSP to Device... HUA Smart Relay. I believe #2 may be causing my pool lights from working correctly also.

Questions = would this be a capacitor issue? if capacitor issue, shouldn't I at least get display unit to work on pump? Could motor have overheated? (live in Texas)

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!!
 
Tx,

Either the pump is bad or you are missing one of the two input phases.

You can't test between the inputs and ground.. You MUST test between the two hot input lines, L1 and L2. Your meter should read 240 volts. If it measures zero volts, then most likely you are missing a phase.

Testing to ground often will give you a false reading. Having 120 volts on each line to ground, does not mean you will have 240 when you test L1 to L2.

If you do measure 240 volts right a the pump, then your pump is bad.

If you do not measure 240 volts, then test the output of the breaker.. Again, only test between L1 and L2, not to ground.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thank you Jimahbe, makes sense. I'll retest to ensure I go direct between L1 & L2 to see if I get 240.

Update = just checked between L1 to L2 and it reads 261. So I'm assuming I'm getting power to motor but there's something wrong with the motor itself.

Is it safe to assume that with 260 coming to motor, I should at least have power to motor control itself and be able to manually turn on correct? Which I cannot at the moment.

Maybe then something wrong with the motor circuit board itself? or will it be the entire motor? Thanks again

1000004511.jpeg
 
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Tx,

If you have 240 to the pump, then obviously it has to be some kind of failure with the pump itself.

I don't have any experience with your pump, but I doubt the problem is the motor, more likely the control head or maybe just a failed display.

Do you have the ability to disconnect any automation control and see if the pump will run as a standalone pump?

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks JamesW & Jim, appreciate your feedback. I think you may be right on multimeter being cheap, I'll try to borrow another for 2nd read.

Side note, I'm still seeing below error message on Omnilogic device, would this be a contributor of motor not being powered in some way?
MSP_DEV_COMM_LOSS,Comm Loss Device:a0410bcb82 HUA:Wiring Hub

Also noticing below Remote amber light which may be causing my pool light to come on when light switch breaker is on.
Not sure if there's some type of diagnostics I can run in Omnilogic panel

1687360882146.png1687361035708.png
 
Power off both the controller and the pump with the breakers. Turn on the controller breaker first, wait 10 seconds, then turn on the pump breaker. See if the alarm goes away or remains.
 
You need to measure the voltage with a good meter.

If you don't trust your meter, the reading is useless.

Many variable speed pump have alarms for over or under voltage.

Check the alarm log.

Maybe it is not working due to voltage out of range.
 

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Thank you mas985, I tried powering on relay module first, waited 10+ sec, then turned on pump + controller (it's same breaker), but error is still there.
Thank you James as well, good to know.

Luckily I am able to get a technician to come out tomorrow(most were overbooked due to summer), so they'll help assess the situation.
Technician told me that pump display doesn't necessarily work in conjunction with the control box (one or the other?), so he'll check it out tomorrow.

I'll come back and share the outcome so this post can be closed. Thank you all!
 
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tsxchef said:
Thank you mas985, I tried powering on relay module first, waited 10+ sec, then turned on pump + controller (it's same breaker), but error is still there.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, when they are on the same breaker, it doesn't always reset properly. Another thing to try is to remove the control line on the main board and then plug it back in again.

tsxchef said:
Luckily I am able to get a technician to come out tomorrow(most were overbooked due to summer), so they'll help assess the situation.
Technician told me that pump display doesn't necessarily work in conjunction with the control box (one or the other?), so he'll check it out tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Yes, that can be true. My pump display is off when connected. Do you ever remember it being on while connected to the controller?
 
Hey all, (mas985, Jim, James). First, want to say thank you to all of you for helping me and the community. It's awesome to hear back from pool experts (especially for 1st time pool owner like myself), thank you.

Solved = in short, replaced the motor section (motor + control box area) and everything is back to running. Technician was super cool in explaining, and he had to uninstall backend of the motor (left front-end still connected to pipes).

Details, those of you interested = Motor was getting 250v. In pump wire housing, there's connections to Ominhub and to local Pump control panel. He swapped and plugged local pump control panel but showed no display. At this point Omnihub still did not see the motor via IP (I guess that was the result of Comm Loss communication).

Rather than further troubleshooting, he swapped the backend of the motor section as it was advised to not further waste time in troubleshooting because the motor was still under warranty (3yr, and I was on 2nd).
After motor swap, Omnihub found the motor as expected, no configuration required, and back to normal.

Luckily for me the ordeal only costed me 2 days out of service, thanks to someone cancelling their appointment to slot me in. Learned few things here, so I'll take the positives :)
 
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