Heater on but not blowing

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grumpiebk

0
Jun 22, 2016
906
FL
Trying to get the spa to heat. Screenlogic, the panel, and the heater itself (Hayward heat pump) all show it on and trying to achieve a 104 temp. But the fan isn't on so it's not actually heating. When I turn it off in screenlogic, it keeps turning it back on (but no fan movement).

No recent changes that could trigger this. Any thoughts? Equipment is nearly brand new - a month old.


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Hi Brian,

If you can hear your compressor whirring, and the fan isn't turning, you likely blew a capacitor on your heat pump. Fortunately, those things are only like $30 each. If you had your equipment installed, they will probably come out and check for a small fee, or nothing. If you did it yourself, cut the power to the heat pump, take the panel off, and look for the capacitors, should be 2-4 silver-ish can looking things. Please be careful, as they can retain (and do retain) charge after you cut the power. Take a picture and make note of all of the connections. See if one of the cans looks bloated near the top, or popped. That'll be the bad one. Take a long insulated screw driver. Short each of the contacts on all the caps, just touch the screw driver to each pair of contacts. You might see a spark, that's ok. Then find out what the specs are, and you should be able to pick one up at your local big box, or definitely online. Don't feel like you have to get the same brand as the heater manufacturer. Just make sure the voltage rating is the same (should be 240/250VAC) and the capacitance is the same (should be listed as MFD).

Good luck!

Take care,
Mo
 
Absolutely no noise from the heater. It's got power, but no whirring. And no movement trying to get the fan going. The pool had been heating all day and is at 85. But it won't kick on to heat the pool either if I set it above the current temp.


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It could also be the 24VAC transformer on the heat pump. Chances are it is an electrical problem. So you might troubleshoot from your controller toward the heat pump. If you have a voltmeter check that your heat pump is getting the 220V it needs. Then if that's the case, check that the signal wire is getting 24VAC to turn the heat pump on. If that's good, check the voltage at the fan to make sure the fan is getting power. If that's all good - disconnect power. And check the resistance of your compressor coils. You can also get a voltmeter that can check the capacitors are holding the rated charge. You basically have to take one step at a time until you find out what the problem is. It might also be a flow switch. Break out the schematic for your heat pump, usually found toward the end of the manual, and trace through to make sure all of the voltages are right.

Good luck!

Take care,
Mo
 
Thanks, Mo. Very helpful. While certainly worth checking it just seems unlikely to me that we would have an electrical problem this early on. I noticed our filter pressure is a bit higher than normal. Any correlation or potential causation there for the heater fan not kicking on?


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If the heater doesn't get enough flow, it will not kick on. That is the flow switch I mentioned earlier. If your pressure is higher than normal by a good amount, might mean you have some sort of restriction, which could conceivably keep your heater from kicking on.

Good luck!

Take care,
Mo
 
I'm not seeing any flow error codes, but when I manually adjust the temp from the heater itself to a temp above current temp the fan kicks on and it starts to heat. So it seems it may be something tied to our automation.


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Your controller should have a 24VAC line to the fireman's switch on your heater. If your controller says "heater on", you should see 24VAC there. If not, then you might have a bad relay or 24VAC coil. You're getting to the bottom of it, though! And, you have a temporary workaround to heat your pool - kudos!
 

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I haven't solved the problem through automation. But it works manually from the heater itself. I'm waiting until our PB comes tomorrow to look at a couple of things.


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As an aside, regarding the elevated pressure on the filter, apparently that occurs by virtue of adding a heat pump to the mix. We just installed our heat pump last week and the pool builder pointed out the jump in pressure (about 7lbs) and noted we will need to backwash it soon.
 
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