Balboa controlled hot tub..heater woes...

[Jame5m]

Hey guys I've had a balboa controlled hot tub (bp 2000/ tp 800 combo) it keeps blowing heaters!

Theplace we we got it from doesn't seem to have any real engineers, they just seem to come and replace parts not actually find out what the cause is?

I'm a mechanical engineer by trade and now work in software. I'm so frustrated, got the tub in September, this will now be the 4th heater!

Any ideas?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jame,

Welcome to TFP... a great place to find the answers to all your spa equipment questions, no matter how you spell the word 'color'....

I can't think of a single thing that a controller board can do that would 'blow up' a heater... I can think of many reasons that a heater might not work correctly, but I doubt the control board can actually hurt the heater.

Two things that could damage a heater would be that the wrong voltage is applied to the heater. For example an 120 volt heater being connected to 220 volt power.. (I suspect that is not an issue in England)

I would also think that if the heater circuit was never turning off, then the heater might be damaged, but I would also think this would be pretty obvious to the user and I assume would trigger a high temp alarm or other failure code..

If this were my spa, I'd want to ensure that the heater was being turned off and on according to the temperature I requested.. I'd take a volt meter and measure across the 220 volts input to the heater. I'd set the desired temp so that the control board applied voltage to the heater.. I'd make sure it was about 220 volts..

Then I'd continue to monitor the voltage until the water temp got to the desired temp and ensure that the control board removed the 220 volts from the heater..

Tell us more.. do you get any fault lights or numbers? What symptoms do you have when it fails? Does it work at all and if so how long?

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[Jame5m]

Hi Jim, thanks for the response!

You may may drive on the right side of the road but we drive on the correct side ��

Basically..... everything works fine for weeks, then the rcd will trip and the heater will stop heating, also I've had the control panel go blank twice.

The he Input voltage into the tub measures well within the "limits"

ive had 2 control boards and 3 heaters since September, there are no fault codes and nothing shows in the error log.

It it says it's heating but it doesn't appear to be and gets cooler and cooler as the hours pass.

 

[Jimrahbe]

James,

I was stationed in Iceland and they also drive on the 'correct' side of the road... It did not take me but about 5 minutes until I was facing the wrong way into oncoming traffic... Apparently I am a slow learner...

I can't believe that you have gotten 3 bad heaters, or 2 control boards, nor do I believe that anything can cause the heaters to be going bad.

I assume the RCD is what we call a GFCI breaker.. It will pop when the amount of current leaving the breaker is not the same as the current returning.. So it seems to me that you have an intermittent current leak. Or you could just have a bad breaker... I'd try the breaker first, just to eliminate it..

Not sure of your wiring, but if there are any junction boxes between the breaker box and the spa, I'd want to make sure the insides are clean and moisture free.

At this point I would have to assume it is not the controller board and not the heater... So maybe an intermittent connection at one of the motors or whatever else you have that uses electrical power.

The obvious problem is that being intermittent, it will be difficult to find.

Thanks,

Jim R.