Dead spa pack

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Bosley

Bosley

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Nov 23, 2018
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Edmonton, alberta
I have a newer arctic spas hot tub with the Gecko IN.YE 5th Generation pack. My 50 amp breaker had an issue and shorted. Thats a long story in itself. I replaced the breaker but now the tub is not working at all. No lights on the control panel nor on the circut board. I have tested and confirmed there is 240v at the spa pack.

I tested the 3 fuses with an OHM meter. the meter shows a value of 1 or 2 then immediatley drops to zero. I believe this means the fuses are not bad?

Not sure where to go from here.
 
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You're skipping over too much (potentially) important information. The long story about the breaker's "issue" may be relevant.

But my first question is whether you pulled out the fuses before you put the meter across them, and in fact whether you know how to use a meter and interpret what it's telling you.
 
dogsbody said:
You're skipping over too much (potentially) important information. The long story about the breaker's "issue" may be relevant.

But my first question is whether you pulled out the fuses before you put the meter across them, and in fact whether you know how to use a meter and interpret what it's telling you.
Click to expand...
Whoever installed the 50amp breaker broke the bottom clip and ziptied it into the box. One day the pump and heater wasnt working so i checked the breaker, gave it a push and everything worked. Left it as is and as it got colder outside the pump and heater stopped working agin. Pushed on the breaker agin, it sparked a bit and that was it.
Went out and bought a new breaker & box.
Installed it, tested power at the spapack and it is indeed getting 240V.
Turned off the breaker, Pulled out all 3 fuses and tested them with an OHM meter. They seem to be getting continuity as notd in my first post.
I wonder if when the breaker shorted if it cooked the main control board. On the front side i dont see any visual burn marks.
 
Okay, that all pretty much makes sense so far. I'm glad to hear that you replaced both breaker+box, because otherwise - if the breaker wasn't seated properly - you could get arcing between the hot rails coming into the box and the breaker itself. I had a breaker in my main house panel that wasn't making good contact, and the result was months of flickering lights that I ascribed to bad LED bulbs - until they all went out one day and I realized they were on that single breaker, which had now burned its rail so badly that it couldn't be used with a replacement breaker. Anyway...

I have the Gecko In.xe pack, and I'm pretty sure it has five fuses. Are you sure there are just three and you're not ignoring the smaller ones that may be supplying the controller (rather than the high-power 240 V stuff like the heater and pumps)?

And since you're only referring to it as a "breaker", is it a GFI breaker or not?

But to answer your question, the old breaker's rail contact getting funky and cutting out on you shouldn't have any potential for downstream damage.

Also, "ohm" is all lower-case - capitalizing it is weird.
 
Interesting - thanks. Totally unlike the in.xe , in which the fuses (and input barrier blocks) are over on the left side of the board in an area isolated from the rest of the electronics (in it's own compartment). Are you sure that there aren't any other fuses in there? I can't see enough detail in the photo to spot any. They may be glass fuses, or the little "picofuses" that look like resistors - or some other style. You need to know what to look for.
 
dogsbody said:
Interesting - thanks. Totally unlike the in.xe , in which the fuses (and input barrier blocks) are over on the left side of the board in an area isolated from the rest of the electronics (in it's own compartment). Are you sure that there aren't any other fuses in there? I can't see enough detail in the photo to spot any. They may be glass fuses, or the little "picofuses" that look like resistors - or some other style. You need to know what to look for.
Click to expand...
Absolutley no other fuses. It looks like there are a few relays on the bottom left. I was thinking that could be a culprit but am unsure of how to test them.
 
A bad relay isn't going to keep your control panel from lighting up. A bunch of the stuff on that PCB is what's called a "switching power supply", which generates the low voltages (5V, 12V, etc.) for powering the computer, front panel, etc. My thinking would tend toward that switcher not getting power due to another fuse that you may not recognize as a fuse because it isn't in a fuse holder. It's not unusual for picofuses to be soldered down to the board. I don't know whether Gecko does this or not.
 
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Pro tip: Don't just look at components that may be unfamiliar to you. The silk screen (that's what we call the component designations on the board identifying each component, usually white, sometimes yellow) is your friend. The big fuses you checked each probably have "F(something)" next to them, indicating F(use)1, F(use)2, etc. Look for F(something) everywhere else on the board.
 
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dogsbody said:
Pro tip: Don't just look at components that may be unfamiliar to you. The silk screen (that's what we call the component designations on the board identifying each component, usually white, sometimes yellow) is your friend. The big fuses you checked each probably have "F(something)" next to them, indicating FUSE 1, FUSE 2, etc. Look for F(something) everywhere else on the board.
Click to expand...
great tip. I will have to pull the whole control panel out and get it on my bench. Hard to see all these little things in the hot tub when its 0 degrees and snow on the ground.
 
Ok. Have someone else turn on power while you listen for clicks. Do you hear anything from the board?
A stock pic is not a pic of your pack. Please post that, and the wiring diagram on the inside cover.
From what you've said, I'd say transformer or board. Not sure if that one has a separately replaceable transformer but it looks like it might. Try that first.
Yes, the voltage fluctuations caused by intermittent arcing at the breaker can damage electronics.
 
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