Hello, I have a Aber/Pacific tub with a separate circulator for the heater. I changed the water a couple of days ago, heated up as normal. Two days later the temperature dropped from 101 to 90. If I run the 2 main pumps the water will raise a couple of degrees then go back to around 90 in an hour. The control indicates that it is calling for heat each time I check. This unit also has a pressure switch in clear tubing so you can clearly see that there is sufficient flow through the heater with only the small circulator running. I am stumped on this one, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hot tub not getting up to temperature
- Thread starter Mcpacific
- Start date
- May 23, 2015
- 24,380
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
How old is the tub? Electric heaters do fail after a while. Also, can you independently check the water temp?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
Thank you for the reply
We bought it used but I think it is a 2004, it has worked great for the last 4 years. The heater was working then overnight this issue started. I have read that heaters either work or they don't but I have little personal experience with this. It does have this type of Laing heater.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,380
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Your image did not come through. Try using PhotoBucket to share images, it works better and, as a new TFP user, you have very little attachment space granted to you.
As for "conventional wisdom" that says heaters either "work or don't work", I say bunk! Conventional wisdom also says you can use trichlor/dichlor/cal-hypo all you want in your swimming pool as long as you maintain the FC at 1-3ppm and that is a complete falsehood. So, I can think of many scenarios where an immersion heater would have a slow fail.
So, if your tub is calling for more heat and power is being supplied to the heater (you can try to measure the voltage across the heater to see what the value is when the heater is being called to heat) and the heater is "kinda, sorta, not really doing a great job of heating up", then I'd bet the heater is shot. If it's an easily replaceable component, then I would get a new one and swap it out. It would seem that you've gotten at least four years out of it and, assuming the previous owner never had to change it, it's been operational for 11 years. That's a pretty darn good component life in my book for an immersion heater.
Just my $0.02 opinion anyways....
Good luck,
Matt
Thanks Matt, the heater being on its way out does match the symptoms. I am going to get an amp probe today to see what the heater is drawing and make sure I have the correct voltage.
It has been a very reliable tub considering the age
It has been a very reliable tub considering the age
- May 23, 2015
- 24,380
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Your Google search is as good as mine. Is the hot tub vendor still in business? If so, perhaps they have a supplier?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
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