MasterTemp 400 running but barely heating the water

[JJ_Tex]

My plan tonight was to watch a movie from the spa. I started it around dinner, and we all finished up and got our suits on and went outside to a cold spa.

I did some basic investigating:

• The water coming from the jets is flowing normally
• The water from the jets is a tad bit warmer but barely detectable.
• In total, the spa has heated up 3 degrees in 30 minutes, usually it is about a degree a minute
• The filter pressure is good (<20)
• Nothing is leaking at the pad that I can see
• There are no error codes from the heater
• The heater is constantly running and not cycling on/off
• The heater is running, and I can feel the exhaust and it is pumping out hot air like normal
• Exhaust temp is reading as 296
• All other gas appliances in the house are working fine and we are not running anything else at the moment
• I do not have a heater bypass in my system
• Water chemistry has been good

I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

 

[mknauss]

Check the valves. Is all the water coming from and going to only the spa?

 

[JJ_Tex]

Yes, the actuators are all in the correct position and I can see no water going into the pool and all of the spa jets are bubbling just fine. Also I assume the drains are correct as the water level in the spa is steady and normal.

 

[mknauss]

If the heater is running, then the heat has to be going somewhere.

 

[ajw22]

Reach down into the pool and put your hand by a return and confirm you feel no water coming out when in SPA mode.

To me it sounds like your return diverter broke internally and you are trying to heat the pool and spa.

 

[JJ_Tex]

I just rebooted the intellicenter and I noticed some debris in the pump basket so I emptied that.

Here are some pics if that is helpful, but the pool is still (except for the robot running) and I reached into the water and confirmed nothing coming out of the returns. You cannot see the screen of the heater in the pic, but no error codes and it is displaying the temp of 62 degrees (pool is 58).

Sadly, the kids just went to go change and I'm left with a cold spa. At least I still have bourbon.

 

[ajw22]

I think your suction valve is set to pull water from your pool and not your spa.

The red dot indicates the diverter is blocking your spa suction. You are heating your pool water and flowing it to your spa. You should also see your spillover running which it should not do in spa mode.

The SERVICE MODE yellow lower right LED is on the Intellivalve. You should have a green LED on the lower left LED as you do on your return valve.

Press the center MODE button to get the valve into AUTO mode.

Your return valve shows the red dot by the pool return with water going to the spa return.

One of your valves is not in synch and misset for POOL or SPA modes.

 

[JJ_Tex]

OMG, I cant believe I missed that. Thank you!!!! Our spa is not raised, so I just missed that it was indeed spilling over (more of a trickle).

We had some friends watch the house while we were out of town a few weeks ago. Their little one was playing by the equipment for a few minutes (I have a camera watching the pool equipment and he triggered it). I'm guessing he flipped up the actuator and hit a button. Thankfully it was an easy fix, I just wish I would have caught it when we all were ready to get into the spa.

Thanks again!

 

[JamesW]

I just missed that it was indeed spilling over (more of a trickle).

The flow should be at least 40 gpm, which is more than a trickle.

What is the pipe in the center of the spa?

It seems dangerous and easy to break off.

 

[JJ_Tex]

The flow should be at least 40 gpm, which is more than a trickle.

What is the pipe in the center of the spa?

It seems dangerous and easy to break off.

Thanks. The trickle I referenced was for the spillover not the jets. Since my spa is not raised and 2 sides of the spa are the spillover, the spillover is just a trickle and not very noticeable.

The white pipe is just a fountain I made that screws in return in the floor so that it creates a bubbler effect. I unscrew it when we use the spa, because it is very fragile when kicked.