Both Actuators stuck on Spa

[peterrietmann]

Hi,

As of yesterday both the actuators for the pool/spa suction and pool/spa return are stuck on the spa setting. The override toggle switches on both do not engage the turning mechanism. A third actuator, for solar/heating, is able to be switched using the toggle switch.

I have compool CVA-24 actuators and driven by Pentair Intellitouch panel i9-3.

Given that both actuators have stopped is it a fair assumption that it's an electrical issue in the intellitouch panel ?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Peter,

Yes...

I suggest that you unplug all three actuators from the IntelliTouch board, and then plug one at a time into the known working port.. See if the non-working actuators work.. Plug the known good actuator into one of the non-working ports and see what happens..

This should tell you if you have two bad actuators or tell you which ports on your automation are bad.

I believe that the small relays that control the actuators are turned on and off by an IC chip.. This chip is plug in, so user changeable.

Run the tests and tell us the results.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[peterrietmann]

Thanks Jim , I managed to troubleshoot some more , turns out when i took off both actuator covers the mechanism just started turning on both, i adjusted the cams on each one slightly , and they switched back and forth 2 times between SPA and Pool successfully.

On the 3rd test one actuator got stuck, when I removed the cover again it just started working, so i replaced the cover and then the other actuator got stuck. Seems the actuators are quite fickle.

 

[mknauss]

Use some pool lube on the ring that goes over the shaft that the valve handle attaches to. I do that to mine every few months and the actuators will not stick.