So happy to have found a forum with such impressive wealth of knowledge. Hoping I can tap into some of the expertise to help me figure out a problem I have been having for about a year with our pool/spa system.
System:
Problem (Detailed): About 1 year ago we started to notice that our spa would take a long time to heat up to desired temperature. I am a hospitalist in a relatively busy 45 bed ICU hospital in semirural Texas and we were inundated with Covid patient's with transfers from as far as New Mexico to our facility. Needless to say, figuring out the spa issue was not first priority or even 100th for a long time.
We had a local pool company that does our regular cleaning and chemical maintenance come out and the service tech thought the issue was the speed setting on the VS pump was too slow or not setup correctly, details are a little vague, and he said that he fixed the problem and everything was working.
Tried the spa after the first fix and again could get it to heat but would take forever to reach temp and then while using the spa I noticed that the pump would shut off randomly and then come right back on usually within 20-30 seconds. Heater would stop heating each time the pump would shut off then would wait until the pump restarted and pressurized the system. I did some trouble shooting over the next couple of days and found that the first time I would turn the Spa mode on each day the pump would run for about 5 to even 30 minutes then it would start a random shut off and restart cycle about every 1-5 minutes but would always restart without any additional interventions. Eventually it would reach desired temperature yet still the pump would shut off randomly.
I called the pool service company and they sent a tech out. I described the shut off issues in detail and again the tech evaluated the system and said the programming was wrong and that they spent a while on the phone with Pentair tech support and again said everything was fixed. The same problem persisted. 4 service calls later over the course of the past 6 months and about $1000 in service bills later I still have the same problem. The pool company has recommended replacing the board to the tune of about $3000-5000 depending on how advanced I want everything. Crazy in my opinion.
I spent the past 2 days aggressively troubleshooting the problem with Pentair tech support, each representative was phenomenal by the way, and unfortunately we were unable to get the issue resolved. In researching online I found TFP and figured it was worth asking the question here to see if anyone has similar issues. I searched the forum and found some similar complaints but nothing seems to exactly replicate my scenario.
Completed Troubleshooting:
Pentair tech feels we have eliminated all variables and that either the J20 comm cable is bad, unlikely since everything runs fine in pool mode, or the EasyTouch control board has malfunctioned and I need to replace.
Any additional insight or troubleshooting recommendations from the forum experts? Anyone with similar issue find a solution?
Thanks,
Will
System:
- EasyTouch 8 Pool and Spa shared equipment control center (legacy version 2010) P/N 520540
- Intelliflo Variable Speed Pump, VS, 2017, P/N 011018
- EasyTouch Wireless Controller Kit for 8 Circuit System, IC: 4249A-EZHNDHLD
Problem (Detailed): About 1 year ago we started to notice that our spa would take a long time to heat up to desired temperature. I am a hospitalist in a relatively busy 45 bed ICU hospital in semirural Texas and we were inundated with Covid patient's with transfers from as far as New Mexico to our facility. Needless to say, figuring out the spa issue was not first priority or even 100th for a long time.
We had a local pool company that does our regular cleaning and chemical maintenance come out and the service tech thought the issue was the speed setting on the VS pump was too slow or not setup correctly, details are a little vague, and he said that he fixed the problem and everything was working.
Tried the spa after the first fix and again could get it to heat but would take forever to reach temp and then while using the spa I noticed that the pump would shut off randomly and then come right back on usually within 20-30 seconds. Heater would stop heating each time the pump would shut off then would wait until the pump restarted and pressurized the system. I did some trouble shooting over the next couple of days and found that the first time I would turn the Spa mode on each day the pump would run for about 5 to even 30 minutes then it would start a random shut off and restart cycle about every 1-5 minutes but would always restart without any additional interventions. Eventually it would reach desired temperature yet still the pump would shut off randomly.
I called the pool service company and they sent a tech out. I described the shut off issues in detail and again the tech evaluated the system and said the programming was wrong and that they spent a while on the phone with Pentair tech support and again said everything was fixed. The same problem persisted. 4 service calls later over the course of the past 6 months and about $1000 in service bills later I still have the same problem. The pool company has recommended replacing the board to the tune of about $3000-5000 depending on how advanced I want everything. Crazy in my opinion.
I spent the past 2 days aggressively troubleshooting the problem with Pentair tech support, each representative was phenomenal by the way, and unfortunately we were unable to get the issue resolved. In researching online I found TFP and figured it was worth asking the question here to see if anyone has similar issues. I searched the forum and found some similar complaints but nothing seems to exactly replicate my scenario.
Completed Troubleshooting:
- Reset EasyTouch control board using on board reset button
- Power cycled control board by shutting off breaker to panel
- Reset Intelliflo pump using the factory reset function
- Disconnected comm link cable to Wireless Control Link antenna (this thing doesn't really work well in our setup anyways)
- Cut back and rewired J20 communication cable to pump at EasyTouch board
- Disconnected J20 communication cable and ran pump manually at 3050 RPM while in Spa mode on the EasyTouch board with heat on and was able to run pump for an hour without shut off. As soon as I reconnected the J20 cable to the pump and let the EasyTouch control take over and restarted in Spa mode the pump started the run stop cycle again.
- Pump runs fine in Pool mode with or without heat on and will run for hours with no random shut offs but as soon as I switch to Spa mode the run stop cycle starts again
- Used different speeds for Spa mode from 2000 RPM to 3450 RPM
- Deleted all schedules and speeds and reprogrammed everything
- Programmed an Egg Timer for Spa mode to see if I could force pump to stay on
- continuity across Pump Aux relay does not change when pump shuts off (relay remains active)
- 24VAC is sent to Pump Aux relay even when pump shuts off
Pentair tech feels we have eliminated all variables and that either the J20 comm cable is bad, unlikely since everything runs fine in pool mode, or the EasyTouch control board has malfunctioned and I need to replace.
Any additional insight or troubleshooting recommendations from the forum experts? Anyone with similar issue find a solution?
Thanks,
Will
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