Two Speed Pump Problem

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launboy

launboy

0
Jun 15, 2008
582
S.E. Wisconsin
Debated wether to put this here or in the Spa and Hot Tub Forum, but here seemed better.

FINALLY got my hot tub(nearly) complete and filled with water. Turned on one of the pumps, the two speed 1 HP one that's part of the spa pack, only to find out it's having issues.

The spa pack is made by Pinnacle and can be wired for 120 or 240. I have it wired for 120 because there is no 240v power where the pumps are... yet.

Anywho, the pump runs fine and pumps fine on low, but when I push the button(air button) to switch to high speed it doesn't kick in to high speed. Instead it kind of sputters (is the best way I can describe it). It sounds like someone is flipping a switch to the pump on and off very rapidly, but it's not consistant, more of a random pattern. The motor does turn, sort of... it just doesn't get to speed.

I'm pretty sure it's getting consistent power because the pump plug where it connects to the spa pack has a little orange light on it that goes to full brightness when it sounds like it looses power, and dims maybe halfway when it sounds like it has power.

Anybody ever have trouble like this with their two speed pump before? According to the Pinnacle manual I wired the cord correctly for 120, and I flipped the switch inside to 120, which is I think, all I have to do. Am I wrong on that?

Thanks,
Adam
 
I have wired tons of spa's in my career but i never ran into a spa that you just flip a button for 120 without changing over a few pins in the control panel.. I may be wrong because its been a while since i did a spa and they may have changed the way to wire them finally so just look on the control panel box cover there should be a diagram and see if there is some pins you have to move around..
 
You're right about the pack. Sounds kind of like a relay problem, although I think the only switch between high and low on your pack is the air switch. Switch the high and low speed wires on the back of the motor and see if you get the reverse problem. That will isolate it to one component or the other.
 
Will it be obvious which wires are for high and low speed? I think there's a diagram on the motor along with the motor info. That probably has it. Could it be that I need to change something on the motor because I'm running 120v? The cord has 6 wires if that means anything(well, there are 6 pins on the plug anyway).

I will probably get to it tomorrow because we're going to Great America for the day today. :party:

Thanks,
Adam
 
This particular pack only requires a single flip of a button to change from 120 to 240v because the only thing it changes is the heater voltage. It assumes that all other components are 120v and changes one leg of the heater from N to L2.

The cord going to the pump has 6 wires? Sure you're not looking at the cord going to the topside?

Normally a two speed pump will have 4: Green (ground), White (Neutral for 120v), Low and High (Black and Red or vice versa). The diagram on the pump should lay out which wire goes where. It's hard to tell at first which wire is which speed on a pneumatic system like yours so I test out the tub in filter/heat and jets modes to be sure they're not crossed. Or you could pull the wires from the motor and test with a volt meter.
 
spishex said:
This particular pack only requires a single flip of a button to change from 120 to 240v because the only thing it changes is the heater voltage. It assumes that all other components are 120v and changes one leg of the heater from N to L2.

The cord going to the pump has 6 wires? Sure you're not looking at the cord going to the topside?

Normally a two speed pump will have 4: Green (ground), White (Neutral for 120v), Low and High (Black and Red or vice versa). The diagram on the pump should lay out which wire goes where. It's hard to tell at first which wire is which speed on a pneumatic system like yours so I test out the tub in filter/heat and jets modes to be sure they're not crossed. Or you could pull the wires from the motor and test with a volt meter.
Click to expand...

If the motor is convertible (120 or 240) there'll be two wiring diagrams, two amp ratings and two voltage ratings on the label. The diagram will show which wires inside the motor need to be moved to change to 120v. That doesn't sound like your problem, though. Normally an underpowered motor starts out sounding fine then bogs down, but the noise from it is still constant.
 
spishex said:
The cord going to the pump has 6 wires? Sure you're not looking at the cord going to the topside?
Click to expand...

My bad, you're right. Had a brain fart, the topside has 6 wires, the motor only has four.

I didn't get a chance to look at the wiring today because we were at Six Flags all day.

I'll look closer at it tomorrow and start checking wires. Does my problem jump out like it will probably be a certain thing? Does it sound like the motors High Speed windings(if there is such a thing) are going bad on me or something else that requires a new motor?

Thanks,
Adam
 
I'll go start switching wires and testing with a multi-meter now. This should be fun.

One question though, even though the High Speed is messes up, can I still run on low speed? Me and some friends used the tub last night and afterwards, the water REALLY needed some filtering. Unfortunately, last night I turned the wrong valve to empty a bit of water out of the tub(was to full with three people in it) and I broke the lid for the Filter/Pool pump. :hammer: It would have been REALLY helpful to have ran Spa Pack pump on low to clean the water with the cart the tub came with.

Thanks,
Adam
 

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launboy said:
I'll go start switching wires and testing with a multi-meter now. This should be fun.

One question though, even though the High Speed is messes up, can I still run on low speed? Me and some friends used the tub last night and afterwards, the water REALLY needed some filtering. Unfortunately, last night I turned the wrong valve to empty a bit of water out of the tub(was to full with three people in it) and I broke the lid for the Filter/Pool pump. :hammer: It would have been REALLY helpful to have ran Spa Pack pump on low to clean the water with the cart the tub came with.

Thanks,
Adam
Click to expand...

As long as there's no other way the pump is going to try to switch to high speed aside from manually turning on jets.
 
Ran the pump on low all night the other night with no problems. :-D

Today I did as was sugested and switched the high and low speed wires and powered it up. With the control set to low(sending power to the high speed terminal), it did the "spurting bits of power" thing. Then I pushed the button to switch the pump to high speed(actually send power to the low speed terminal because they were still reversed) and it just Hummed. Uh Oh.

I switched the wires back to their correct terminals and now all I get is a loud Humm from both High and Low speeds. :(

So what does the problem sound like now? I'll get the Info off the pump and a picture.

Adam
 
Last fall when I bought the spa, I tested the pump and if I remember correctly, Low speed worked fine(as it did until a few minutes ago). High speed would only work if it was already spinning on Low speed. It would do the "spurting" thing if I went from Off to High.

Could the capacitor(sp?) in the pic below be causing my problem?
IMG_0996.jpg


IMG_0995.jpg


Thanks,
Adam
 
Update again. I flipped back on the power to the motor on low speed(sending power to low speed terminal) and got the Humm again. As it hummed, I spun the motor with the screwdriver slot on the back and it stayed spinning on it's own.

Adam
 
:cry: Well that stinks.

Don't think that's in the budget now after spending the money to build the hot tub. Well at least the low speed still works so I can use that to circulate and filter the water. Since it's 120v wired, I can only heat on low anyway, not that I plan to do that much anyway because of the cost. All I need to heat from 80 to 105 is full sun for about 4 hrs.

Right now this isn't a problem because I can use one of the other pumps to run the four jets, but when I add the other six, I'll need this pump. Guess I might be putting off adding those extra jets a little longer than I had hoped. :(

Adam
 

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