Spa draining and filling on its own

[Maresa]

Yesterday I put the spa on spa fill in order to run the waterfall. (I first had to turn it off automatic and onto service mode.) The valves (don’t know which ones) made a lot of hissing sounds and the pressure rose like 7-8 pounds. Then it would be ok for 30 seconds and then repeat. The spa was filling very very slowly (now realize it was filling and draining at the same time). This whole thing went on for about 5 minutes and then corrected itself. Maybe a one-off? No such luck!
Today, while on automatic spa mode, it started to seriously drain and fill at the same time... so that the water level did not rise at all. I heard the jets blowing into the air for maybe a half hour - thinking it was rain or the irrigation system. I don’t know how long before this it had been draining/filling since we were not home.
I switched to service mode - spa fill - and it self corrected! We didn’t do any more investigating because the whole system was now off the automatic time cycle.
Can someone point me in a direction as to what to investigate. I know nothing about the whole plumbing system. Hubby knows more plumbing stuff but we are still pool newbies.
Thanks so much!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Maresa,

You should have two valves that automatically rotate to run either the pool or the spa mode... I suspect one of these valves is either bad or out of sync with were it needs to be.. These valves operate in the following manner:

Pool Mode......... The pump sucks water from the pool through the Intake valve and then pushes the water through the filter (and heater ) and then through the Return valve and back into the pool...
Spa Mode......... The pump sucks water from the Spa through the Intake valve and then pushes the water through the filter (and heater ) and then through the Return valve and back into the Spa...
Spillover Mode... The pump sucks water from the pool through the Intake valve and then pushes the water through the filter (and heater ) and then through the Return valve and back into the Spa...

If this were my pool/spa, I would set the automation to both the Pool mode and Spa mode and confirm that both the Intake and Return valves are moving as outlined above...

Each automatic valve has an actuator attached to the top of the valve. Each actuator has a little 3 position switch that can be used to initially set the valve to the right position. The switch is on - off - on, and the switch should always be in one of the two "on" positions.. If the valve is in the wrong position, simply move the switch from where it is to the opposite on position. If the valve does not turn the actuator is bad or the automation system is not operating correctly.

Go check your system and report back your findings..

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[Maresa]

Thanks so much for your suggestions. We checked what you said and everything was ok. And just now we watched as it transitioned from pool to spa without incident. Hopefully it was a fluke, but now I will know what to look for if there is a future problem.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Maresa,

When actuators goes bad, they generally become intermittent first, and then finally just quit..

Hopefully in your case it was just a fluke..

Jim R.