EasyTouch 8 randomly shutting off pump and all circuits

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Flybriz

Flybriz

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Bronze Supporter
Apr 18, 2010
59
Tulsa, OK
Hello! I have an interesting intermittent problem that I'm trying to solve. My original pool build was with an EasyTouch 4, and everything was operating swimmingly. Last year, we added a pool chiller and I was in need of an additional circuit, so I upgraded to an EasyTouch 8 motherboard. Initially, all was well. Now, at random times, all circuits and the pump shut off and I have to turn them back on manually. Specifically, landscape lights, waterfall, pool lights (2 Pentair Intellibrites), and some string lights above our pergola - all shut off along with the pump. I can immediately turn everything back on and all is well until the next random time, which could be a couple hours later, or days later - I've found no pattern. Has anyone encountered something like this? Here are a few things that I am pretty sure are NOT the problem:

1. Drawing too much power - I have a 40 amp 240V line running to the pool equipment area. I've never had a circuit breaker trip, and my back of the napkin calculations tell me that I am well under my maximum amp draw (I'm certain that's not the technical term, but you get the drift.)
2. The new circuit/pool chiller - The chiller has never been running when the "lights out" scenario happens, so I doubt this is a factor. This also affirms item #1 for me, as there is no additional equipment drawing more power compared to my 2+ years of trouble-free use of the EasyTouch 4.
3. Schedules/egg timers - I don't have any schedules or egg timers setup that would shut things off after a certain period.

I have not been lucky enough to observe the EasyTouch control panel when this power off event occurs, but I have thought about setting up a camera to record it for a long period of time in hopes that it happens and I an gather additional clues depending on any message or activity on the control board or screen. One more item of note, and this is a long shot... Sometimes when I connect to my Screenlogic app remotely (not on local WiFi), it appears as if I've connected to someone else's pool. The circuits are named differently, water and air temps are different, and it shows equipment that I don't have. If I'm connecting to a random pool that doesn't belong to me, could someone else be connecting to mine?

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but if anyone has any thoughts on additional troubleshooting, I would be greatly appreciative!
 
Fly,

Tell us what you do to get it to fire back up??

Do you reset a circuit breaker?

Do you do one thing and everything starts working or???

Keep in mind that any circuit that you manually start will run until the egg-timer times out. Every circuit has a default of 12 hours unless you set it to something else. So, if you manually turned on your pump and your pool lights, then about 12 hours later they would both turn off..

Do you have ScreenLogic???

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Hi Jim! Boy I'm glad you swooped in on this. No circuit breakers are tripped. I just have to open up my ScreenLogic app and turn the circuits (and pump) back on individually. They all fire back up immediately without delay - and I will say that on occasion there could be no more than 20-30 seconds of time that passes between when everything shuts off to the time when I get it back on and running. I've also tried to run back to the equipment immediately after it happens to see if maybe the EasyTouch system has rebooted - but from what I have observed so far there are no alerts or useful information on the ET screen. There have been occasions where the shut down occurs twice within a period of a couple hours, so it's most likely not the egg timer.
 
Is your pump is controlled by a relay? If so, you should re-wire it to the Line side of the relay so it gets constant power. Then at least it would stay on during these events.
 
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Fly,

Show us a couple of pics of your EasyTouch so that we can see all the relays, breaker and wiring.

Not sure anything is wrong with your wiring, but we need a place to start..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks Rocket for the advice on wiring the pump for constant power. I may just do that if I can't sort out what's causing the power off event.

Jim, thank you as well! I've attached a few photos of the wiring inside the EasyTouch, plus one with cover on as a reference for the breakers. It's pretty messy in there, but I did check all the wires and lugs and everything is nice and tight. You'll notice two additional relays just floating around in there - I put those in place for the pool chiller. The chiller manufacturer's instruction recommends a 30 second delay between opening the two valves to prevent cavitation. Those two relays create that 30 second delay while keeping the entire chiller system on a single Easytouch relay. And just to restate, the chiller system is always OFF when the power out even occurs so I'm pretty certain it is not at fault.
 

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Fly,

Looks to me like your pump is wired directly to a breaker, which is good..

Unfortunately, your SWCG transformer is also wired directly to the same breaker.. This means your SWCG never shuts off and "could" explode.. Look at the note on the side of the SWCG transformer where is says that power to the transformer MUST be wired through the pump /filter relay. This would not cause your current issue, but something that needs to be fixed.

Tell me what is connected to your pump filter relay as I can't follow which black wires is which? :mrgreen:

Show me your schedules page. Like this..


Schedules1.JPG

Schedules1.JPG



And your Circuits Set up page like this...


Set up page 2.JPG

Set up page 2.JPG



Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Hi Jim! Still waiting to check on the pump filter relay and black wire. It's been raining here so I didn't want to pull the cover until the rain stopped - should be later today. In the mean time, here are screenshots of my schedules (only two) along with the circuit setups. For reference, the "Bar Light" circuit is a single 120V recep that turns on string lights on a pergola. The "Oasis" circuit turns on an additional set of string lights as well as a small garden fountain pump. From the specs, the fountain pump pulls about .1 amps. Thank you!

Schedule 1.jpegSchedule 2.jpegCircuit Setup.jpegCircuit Setup 2.jpeg
 
Fly,

I don't see anything obvious, but don't understand why you are running the pump 23 hours a day.. I can understand 24/7, but not 23.. :mrgreen:

If you want the Pool Circuit to be on 24/7, just set the schedule to 8 am until 8 am.. the pump should then run 24/7..

I don't understand what you are powering with the pump/filter relay... ??

Even if the Pool Circuit shuts off, I can't see why it would shut off all the lights. :scratch:

We need to run a couple of tests.. Set the pump to run 24/7.. Let it come on by itself, do not manually turn it on...

I'd leave the light schedule as is..

I'd run it for a couple of days and see what happens.. If the light go off, just leave them off and see it they com back on when they should.

In theory, the Pool Circuit and Light circuit should have noting to do with one another.. I just want to make sure the problem is you turning things on manually and getting the EasyTouch confused..

Plus it will be interesting to see what shuts off and when.

Where did you get the new ET8 card?

How about your ScreenLogic History.. What does it show?


Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Didn't you know it's bad luck to run your pool between midnight and 1am? That's the witching hour... ;). Actually, I recently had to redo my schedules and it just sort of landed there because I was in a rush and using my phone to do it. Anyway, that's fixed now so the pump runs 24/7, and so is the SWG to the pump relay. The mystery black wire actually powered our string lights at the bar. I disconnected the first relay module from Pool and connected it to Aux Extra back when I had an ET4 and was desperate for another circuit. Since I didn't follow instructions correctly during installation, I thought that I didn't need the pool relay, and relied on the SWG flow switch (bad idea) to keep it from running when the pool is off. So now the string lights have been moved to an extra relay, that one is now back to being the pool relay, and all is right with the world - at least in that regard. I tested it and the SWG goes lights out when the pump isn't running - thank you for the advice.

The ET8 board came from Amazon - but I was careful to order one from the Amazon "Pentair Store" which by all accounts seems like a legit sales channel for Pentair. If I ended up with a refurb or bad board, that's on me.

The Screenlogic history doesn't tell me much. I do see some interrupts in the "Lights" section on certain days (likely when things powered off and I manually turned them back on, but I didn't see any correlation to anything else.

I'm going to monitor things now that the schedule and SWG pool relay are as they should be. I'll report back in a few days!
 

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Happy 4th! Just wanted to let you know that the power off issue has not happened in the last few days. I did discover that one of the circuits is powering a GFCI outlet that permanently tripped just after I reworked the SWG relay. I replaced it with a new one - maybe it was on its way out and somehow contributing to the issue? Anyway, tonight will be the big test - everything will be on for many hours for a pool party. I’ll report back!
 
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