Complete Loss of Electrical to Pool...

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JustRuss

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Apr 25, 2010
4
I promise to leave an introduction [in the "Introduction" section- :p ] but in the meantime, I had an "interesting" [more like maddening] electrical issue for which I have no answer [or at least no answer so far].

I'm running a "second hand house" that features a 32K gallon pool/spa combination. The cleaner system is predominantly an Anthony/Sylvan Apollo DE filter system with an Anthony electrical control box/assembly on the exterior of the house and an Antho-Touch 2040 control panel on the inside...

I went to crack open the DE filter tank in order to hose off the filtration vanes [all of which went without a hitch] I reassembled the components and went to flip on the auto/manual switch to manual and....

Nada- zippo, nuthin', bunko, buppkis...

Checking from the root up, the pump's fine, nothing was smoking/smoked but oddly enough, there was no electrical to the sockets built into the case- the breakers inside the panel doesn't have any trips either...

Checking outside the box, I went to the house main breaker and the dedicated breaker [30 amp] wasn't tripped either.

The only thing that seems to be totally out of place is that the Antho-Touch has no digital display at the moment- and since I've owned the house has never worked right to begin with... Would a "dead" Antho-Touch be the culprit or is there something else I may be missing that is notorious to Anthony systems?

All I know is that when it comes to Anthony Pools, it's "every man for himself" and I have no manuals for even being able to take the "feldercarbing" AT 2040 control off the wall in order to check the wiring...

I know I'm probably far too vague concerning my problem- if I'm not, wow- that's a relief... Suffice it to say, all systems were [relatively] normal until I went to to turn the system back on and right now there appears to be no power getting to the control box and there's no tripped breakers...

Please point me in possible dirrections I might try to fix this and at the same token, please point me as to how the AT 2040 control panel is mounted so i can try to default what may actually be wrong with it.

Many thanks in advance as I'm very encouraged by the breadth and depth of pool knowledge I've seen on this site so far! :goodjob:
 
I wouldn't begin to know what to tell you about your controls, but I do know that sometimes breakers can trip without appearing to have tripped. One in my daughter's apartment is a recent case in point. Until it was physically cycled off/on (twice), it was tripped, but the handle was not in the 'tripped' position. I've heard it referred to as a partial trip.
 
Welcome to TFP!!

Sounds like you got the outside outlet wet in hosing off the grids -- as a result' a GFI tripped :(

I've seen houses that (for some unknown reason) have the pool equipment on the same line as an indoor GFI outlet. If the outlet trips, the entire circuit goes, and the breaker won't trip at the box.

As this is an 'inherited' house/ pool, you might want to look into that possibility :-D
 
Checked on a couple-more culprits...

1] The GFI [GFI outlet, water sealed] located right on the breaker panel next to the filtration equipment was 100% dry and had not been tripped. No electricity is running to it and therefore is incapable of a test-trip [is that also possible under LSD? :shock: ] at this time.
2] ALL household electrical is working at 100% nothing has been tripped from the various GFI connections that I can find.
3] ONLY the pool equipment, service box, control panel [Antho-Touch 2040] and breaker at the main source [house main box] appear to have electricity cut to them...

I'm well on my way to thinking I may have a blown 30 amp breaker...

The only other avenue I've yet to explore is cutting the entire MAIN home breaker and then resetting every piece of time-telling and Tivo junk in the house...
 
It may be...

First things first though-

I managed to find the initial problem after replacing the dedicated 30 amp breaker at the home main panel; but it involved going back to the main dedicated panel next to the pool equipment...

Turns out when you crack open [unfasten all the screws from the poorly designed box, actually] the case, in behind the switch panel control module there is a small but significant 3 amp automobile fuse connected to a small transformer and then to the electronics module.

Replace the little fuse into that automotive pin-tube and the system went back on! :whoot:

Get this- if you try to activate more than one item off the Antho-Touch 2040 it burns out that little 3 amp automobile fuse out in the electric box next to the pool equipment! yeah, yeah, the reason i know is because I tried.

Fast forward to today... :|

Things have worked for 24 hours with what appears to be no real issue... Cleaned out DE filter tank and put in new DE through the skimmer- all appeared to be normal until about thirty minutes later...

Fuse burnt out- no real reason. Could be the load placed on the pump motor but I don't see how that's possible... I can't tell if there's some kind of excessive pressure switch [though there is an attachment on the piping leading TO the tank- not sure what it's for] but in either event, I've popped open the case, munged with the fuse [which had burnt out] and closed everything up.

Now I'm right back to where I started from- the system doesn't function. I'm almost adamantly certain it's the [ :rant: ] modular panel or some component there-abouts. What's the chances of finding a new[er] modular part? Anthony parts seem to be available depending on what exactly they are- I'm not sure if I've got the acumen for putting in a brand new model [I'm sure the connections alone will not line-up from the original]

Any ideas on what could be putting a load strong enough to send a 3 amp surge through a system that seemed to work for the last 15 years? [Age comes to mind, sure- but anything else?!]

Incidentally- I've had this thing working for the last EIGHT [8] years with none of these issues.

I'm really wishing there were schematics for this junk- if anyone knows where some PDFs for Anthony equipment might dwell- send me that direction as well, PLEASE! :mrgreen:

Replaced it but nothing works
 
Poolsean said:
A bad transformer can also repeatedly burn out that fuse.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly...

I've pulled the plate that holds the transformer to the electrical equipment box and I'll try shopping around for a replacement here where I live- I'm not sure if this'll be a Home Depot/Lowes type item or if I'll have to go to a pool source/store to see what they may have. A couple of the Pool places around here are of the "Anthony Pools? Oh, well, we can sell you a whole new system so you can get parts for it when it breaks down."

Kinda like saying "Chevy? Oh, well, we can sell you a whole new Toyota so you can get parts for it when it breaks down..." :roll:

"We're off to see the wizard..." :whip:
 
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