Pentair easy touch filter pump button tripping breaker

[carcher]

Hello,

I have done a lot of troubleshooting with my unit and I am a bit stumped as to what is going on.

1. I have all breakers off in the easy touch panel.
2. I turn on easy touch breaker and panel powers up.
3. I turn on filter pump breaker and I am getting power to the pump, and pump runs fine when in service mode, but noticed salt cell is not on.
4. To get my salt cell to come on I need to push the Filter pump button on the easy touch panel, but when I push this button it trips the filter pump breaker.
I immediately thought it has to do something with the salt cell, so I pulled out the volt meter and tested the output from the GFCI breaker to the Transformer, and I am seeing 240v
I then traced it back to the salt cell power board, and I am getting 18v to the power board.

I have tried replacing the Transformer and still seem to be having the tripping issue, and I just recently replaced the Salt cell power board and It did seem to fix the issue, but then a couple of days later, it is tripping again and I do not have a light on the power board.

I have removed the power connector from the salt cell to the power board and it still trips without the cell connected.

Could this be a bad salt cell and the new board it fried again?

 

[carcher]

The power coming out of the board to the salt cell is 0.3v
The power coming into the salt cell power board is 18v

No lights on salt cell power board.

 

[Jimrahbe]

c,

The power into the Surge card is about 18 Volts AC..

The power out of the Surge card should be about 30 Volts DC.. (I think the spec is like 28 to 35 or so)

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[carcher]

so would this suggest the board is bad again after a couple of days ?

 

[Jimrahbe]

C,

Maybe..

Show me a pic of the surge card that you are using...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[carcher]

 

[carcher]

Here is one of the high voltage side:

 

[carcher]

Here is salt cell:

 

[Jimrahbe]

C,

Normally, when the surge card is bad, it does not trip the Pump GFCI breaker, but it does trip the little breaker in the upper right side of the EasyTouch..

Please tell me all the things the Pump/Filter relay feeds AC to..

I can see the white and yellow wires going to the SWCG transformer.. What else is connected to the load side of the pump/filter relay.

I just want to make sure you are not trying to steal 120 volts from the pump/filter that is wired for 240 volts.. Trying to steal 120 will pop the pump breaker the instant you close the pump/filter relay..

Just so you have a clue how this works.. the cell should never get power unless the pump/filter relay is closed.. This relay will not close unless you are in the pool mode or Spa.. When you go into the Service mode, the pump/filter relay should never close unless you push the 'F' button, which you almost never should do.. You do not want the cell to come on if the pump is not running.

If this were my system, I'd remove one of the red SWCG transformer wires from the surge card and see if the main breaker still pops when the pump/filter relay is closed.. If it no longer pops, then I would suspect a bad surge card (and cell, maybe). If it does pop, with the transformer input disconnected, at the surge card, then, it can't be because of a bad surge card..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[carcher]

C,

Normally, when the surge card is bad, it does not trip the Pump GFCI breaker, but it does trip the little breaker in the upper right side of the EasyTouch..

Please tell me all the things the Pump/Filter relay feeds AC to..

I can see the white and yellow wires going to the SWCG transformer.. What else is connected to the load side of the pump/filter relay.

I just want to make sure you are not trying to steal 120 volts from the pump/filter that is wired for 240 volts.. Trying to steal 120 will pop the pump breaker the instant you close the pump/filter relay..

Just so you have a clue how this works.. the cell should never get power unless the pump/filter relay is closed.. This relay will not close unless you are in the pool mode or Spa.. When you go into the Service mode, the pump/filter relay should never close unless you push the 'F' button, which you almost never should do.. You do not want the cell to come on if the pump is not running.

If this were my system, I'd remove one of the red SWCG transformer wires from the surge card and see if the main breaker still pops when the pump/filter relay is closed.. If it no longer pops, then I would suspect a bad surge card (and cell, maybe). If it does pop, with the transformer input disconnected, at the surge card, then, it can't be because of a bad surge card..

Thanks,

Jim R.

I disconnected where the transformer connects to the salt cell board and tried everything again, and pressed the filter pump button and it is tripping still.
So I took some pictures of the voltage on the filter pump relay:
the yellow and white wires are showing 124 volts
the other terminals are showing 242 volts

 

[carcher]

one thing that came to mind is I have an ozone unit as well that I think may be the culprit, as it is hooked up to the filter pump relay I think.
I was going to try disconnecting it tomorrow to see if that fixes it.

 

[Jimrahbe]

C,

Your Pump/Filter relay is bad.. One of the contacts is not closing.. This only allows 120 volts to get through.. The 240 volt GFCI breaker see's this as a fault and trips..

You should just trash your Ozone, as it is not doing anything to keep your pool sanitized... Actually, your Ozone may have shorted, drawing too much current through the relay, and causing it to go bad.. This happens a lot on spas...

That said, it is your pool and you can run it any way you want.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[carcher]

Hello,

I traced the wires today, and discovered the ozonater was plugged into the same slots as the yellow and white wires. After removing them, everything came back to normal and I am getting 246v from the white and yellow wires now to the transformer. My GFCI is not tripping anymore, and the light on the salt cell board is coming on.
I plugged back in the salt cell and it is working as expected.

Solution:
My Ozonator was faulty and was drawing too many amps causing my GFCI to trip from the filter pump relay.
I don't think I will keep the ozonator, as it has been a pain in the but since I had it installed.


Thank you Jimrahbe for all your help, it really helped me diagnose/narrow down where the issue is.

 

[Jimrahbe]

C,

Sounds good...

Do us both a favor...

With the pump/filter relay closed (SWCG on) measure the load side of the pump/filter relay again... Between pins 2 and 4... It should be exactly the same as between the line side 1 and 3.. I ask because you were only measuring 120 before and something had to causes that. Your ozonator is bad for sure, but by itself, it can't cause the voltage to drop from 240 to 120.. I still suspect that your relay has a bad set of contacts.. It just might not matter as the SWCG draws very little current.

Thanks,

Jim R.