Need help - Spa empty after filling and running on freeze protection

[OfficeReefer]

Hello, TFP. I some help before my pool freezes over. About three months ago, our spa randomly went low after using it and accidentally having left the heater on for a full day. The heater has not worked but once since, usually gives off a buzzing sound at best and will not start manually. However, the weird part isn’t the heater but the the water loss. I filled the spa, only to have it almost empty one day about six weeks ago. I filled it again and cleaned the massive seasonal leaves off the pool. I also cleaned all the skimmers, cleaner and pump basket. However, we noticed just before leaving on a brief trip that we lost all the water again. Filling it doesn’t seem to help once the system comes back on. I had to put the system in maintenance mode to ensure the pump doesn’t attempt to come on again with no water or little in the basket.

Other than I know I need to clean all the filters this time of year, what else could be causing such loss of water (and salt)?

 

[ajw22]

Your return actuator may have died or become flaky so freeze mode is sucking from the spa and returning to the pool.

Change from POOL mode to SPA mode and back to POOL mode while watching both actuators and see if they both turn 180 degrees when changing modes. If only one turns then replace the one that is dead.

Freeze mode puts a lot of wear on the actuators and this is a common failure.

 

[OfficeReefer]

Thank you, @ajw22 for your response. I was able to return and refill the spa before the temps dropped below freezing... It seems this may have nothing to do with the heater but rather something that appears to be well known across several Jandy articles and at least one Pentair. Until I looked into this more closely, the freeze protection was set at 37F. I presume what has occurred is that the freeze protection would kick in repeatedly and lower the spa too much on the timing between the two. I have come across many articles talking about freeze protection and these JVA's not being timed properly to switch between spa and pool. I think I read @Jimrahbe suggested in one of the threads to see if the pump could be turned off while the JVA are doing their thing and others suggesting the spillover function as a solution to this known problem. I have read that this might not be enough for certain pipes and components shown here but would welcome any advice on this.

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