Pentair Easytouch automation won’t turn on - trips main breakee

[Muhly2003]

hello all,

I have a Pentair easytouch automation panel. I bought this house with the pool at the end of last summer. When I opened the pool on Friday, the Easytouch worked fine, but on Saturday I noticed the pump shut off before it was scheduled to. When I looked, the main pool breaker in the basement had tripped. I reset it, but when I flipped the breaker for the Easytouch in the outside pool panel, the lights on the Easytouch flashed red and the the screen never turned on...the main pool breaker in the basement tripped again. I thought maybe it was all the rain, but it’s all dry now and it’s still tripping the main breaker when I try to turn the Easytouch on.

any ideas?

 

[Muhly2003]

hello all,

I have a Pentair easytouch automation panel. I bought this house with the pool at the end of last summer. When I opened the pool on Friday, the Easytouch worked fine, but on Saturday I noticed the pump shut off before it was scheduled to. When I looked, the main pool breaker in the basement had tripped. I reset it, but when I flipped the breaker for the Easytouch in the outside pool panel, the lights on the Easytouch flashed red and then the screen never turned on...the main pool breaker in the basement tripped again. I thought maybe it was all the rain, but it’s all dry now and it’s still tripping the main breaker when I try to turn the Easytouch on.

any ideas?

 

[Jimrahbe]

M,

How many breakers does your EasyTouch have? What is each one for??

Show us some pics of your EasyTouch showing the breakers and relays..

I would start by turning off all the breakers in the EasyTouch, and then resetting the breaker in the main panel.

Assuming the main breaker does not pop, I would turn on each EasyTouch breaker one at a time and see what happens.

Could be a bad breaker in the main panel, but my guess would be your pool pump..

Was your pool pump removed for the winter? If so who re-connected it??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Muhly2003]

Hi! Thanks for the reply. My Easytouch panel has its own dedicated breaker in the outside panel. Then there are breakers for the pump, underwater pool lights, the heater, external lights, and receptacles.

I did as you suggested and turned off all the breakers in the Easytouch panel, reset the main breaker in the basement. The only breaker that trips the main breaker is the one labeled Easytouch. I changed that breaker out for a new one and it still trips.

The pump itself wasn’t removed for the winter, but the intellichlor was. It was reinstalled by the guy that opened my pool. He’s the same guy that’s opened and closed this pool since it was put in by the prior owner. I can’t really vouch for him, but the prior owner did.

when he opened it Friday, everything worked fine...
Again, thanks for the reply. Since I replaced the breaker that feeds the easytouch, I’m guessing either the transformer is bad, or the Easytouch panel itself? Or maybe a relay?
The pump is on a different, dedicated breaker. The only one tripping the main breaker is the Easytouch dedicated breaker.

sorry, I’m not the electrician I should be...lol

 

[Muhly2003]

 

[Jimrahbe]

M,

The one marked "EasyTouch" may just go to the System transformer, but it may also power other stuff..

Assuming it just goes to the System Transformer.. It could be a bad system transformer.. But you don't see many bad ones...

Let's see some pics with the cover removed.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Muhly2003]

There are 2 wires coming out of the Easytouch breaker. One is brown and it goes to the transformer. The other is black and it runs up into the Easytouch control panel itself.

 

[Jimrahbe]

M,

We need to know where the black wire goes.. You need to step back a little and see if you can get pics that show the breaker and where the black wire goes.

You could also, turn the breaker off and remove the black wire, but leave the brown wire connected. Then turn on the breaker.. if the black wire is the one with the problem, the EasyTouch should fire back up.

Do you have a voltmeter?

If you find that the black wire that comes from the "EasyTouch" breaker goes to an aux relay... Tell us what that relay is for..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Muhly2003]

M,

We need to know where the black wire goes.. You need to step back a little and see if you can get pics that show the breaker and where the black wire goes.

You could also, turn the breaker off and remove the black wire, but leave the brown wire connected. Then turn on the breaker.. if the black wire is the one with the problem, the EasyTouch should fire back up.

Do you have a voltmeter?

If you find that the black wire that comes from the "EasyTouch" breaker goes to an aux relay... Tell us what that relay is for..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks Jim,

I did remove one wire at a time from the breaker. They both trip the main breaker together and singularly. I will get a pic of where the black wire goes in the daylight. It goes up into the Easytouch (panel bay) so I’ll have to take that off to see what it’s hooked into!

appreciate the help!

mike

 

[Muhly2003]

Jim,

you mentioned the pump earlier. If the pump quit, would that stop the Easytouch from turning on? I’m sorry, my knowledge is limited here.

mike

 

[Muhly2003]

Ok. Here’s some more pics. The brown wire goes into this little metal box. And the black wire goes into the low-voltage part of the panel and into this taped off box behind the low voltage circuit breakers.

I tried both wires in the breaker one at a time and they both tripped the breaker in the basement.

 

[Jimrahbe]

M,

OK.. The circuit breaker labeled "EasyTouch" is feeding two things... Your small and hidden System Transformer and your larger SWCG transformer...

The Black wire feeds 120 volts into the System Transformer, the Violet wire should be going to the Neutral bus bar, and the Yellow wire should be capped off. That all looks good..

The Brown wire from the circuit breaker feeds 120 volts into a noise filter (the little silver box). The Brown wire out of the noise filter should connect to the Yellow and Black wires coming from the SWCG Transformer.

The Neutral bus bar should be connected to the Blue Input wire to the noise filter. The Blue wire out of the noise filter should connect to the Violet and White wires coming from the SWCG Transformer. That also appears ok...

I am puzzled as to why your main circuit breaker would pop if either the black or brown wires are connected by themselves..

Is your main breaker a GFCI breaker?? If not, how are your pool lights GFCI protected? Does your EasyTouch have an outlet on the side of the outside box??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Muhly2003]

Thanks Jim! The main breaker is a GFCI breaker! The optional Gcfi is not installed on the side of the box.
Could it just be that the gcfi in the basement is bad?

 

[Muhly2003]

 

[Jimrahbe]

M,

I do think the problem is GFCI related.. Not sure if it is just the GFCI breaker or if you have some GFCI issue on the EasyTouch side.

The problem is that a 50 amp GFCI is pretty expensive.. You could just install a new 50 amp GFCI or......

If you can get a cheap standard 50 amp breaker, as a test only, I would install it and see if everything works.. This would verify the problem is either a bad GFCI breaker or some GFCI issue inside the EasyTouch.. If the standard breaker pops, then you'd know it is not a GFCI issue..

Assuming the standard breaker works, then I would install a new 50 amp GFCI and pray...

If still bad with a new GFCI, then we'd have to try and find the GFCI issue...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Muhly2003]

Jim,

thank you! I ordered a new gfci breaker and will install tomorrow. Appreciate the help. Will let you know if it works!

mike