Pentair Ultratemp rapid cycling

M,

I suspect that JamesW is using the outside panel to enter this info rather than using ScreenLogic.

I would try using the menu on the outside panel and see if you can get it set up the way he suggests...

What specific model and size of heat pump do you have.. I would like to look up the manual.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
It's a Pentair Ultratemp 120 H/C heatpump (heat/cool).

Once it's connected to the EasyTouch, it should be controllable from the ScreenLogic interface.

Setup Solar Equipment and Heat pump option Solar equipment is configured in the “Configure Other Equipment (Step 3 of 5)” dialog, page 43.
To configure solar equipment:
1. Start the ScreenLogic2 Interface Configurator and tap Configure the ScreenLogic2 Interface.
2. Tap Next on the General Setting page and on the Setup Circuits page. The Configure Other Equipment (Step 3 of 5) page is displayed. For IntelliTouch® Control System i10+3D Dual Equipment, tap the Solar present check box for each body of water with solar heating.

Uncheck solar present. If there's a separate box for enable heat pump check yes.

There might not be a separate box to enable heat pump because it should automatically recognize the heat pump when the comm is connected.

In that case, just disable solar and it should work.
 
Ok, I re-tried and re-confirmed these suggestions.

From the outside unit, pressing on "Solar" displays "Used Heat Pump". the Heat pump section has heat pump <yes>, heating <yes>, cooling <yes>. To test, I turned off heat pump, went back to solar, and both solar and heat pump were "no". I returned to the heat pump section and set it back to "yes".

From the screenlogic interface "configure screenlogic", the four options (solar present, solar is a heat pump, Ultratemp or thermalFlo, Has cooling) were all checked. I unchecked "solar present", which unchecked all the others. I re-checked "Ultratemp or ThermalFlo", which automatically re-checked "solar present" and "solar is a heat pump". I then checked "has cooling" (because it does).

This has been configured this way for the past several months, and only recently started having this issue, so I don't think it's a configuration issue.

For some reason, Pentair decided that a heatpump should use the solar device information, rather than adding a new device type. Why they did this, I have no idea (what if someone whats a heat pump and solar?) but what it comes down to is that they use the word "solar" to mean "alternative heater" (and then things got really confused up when they started offering cooling from heat pumps as well)
 
Uncheck solar present and connect the comm wire from the heat pump to the easytouch then see if you still have the heat pump control screen in screenlogic.

The Pool Main screen should have the following buttons on the bottom.

Off, heater, heat pump preferred or heat pump.
 
Last edited:
Do you still get that when solar is not checked?

Sorry, I didn't understand that's what you were saying. No. I only get Off and Heater. I did not physically disconnect and reconnect the wire.

Just a note (guessing on your line of questioning here) - the ultratemp is displaying the heartbeat, which, from what I'm reading in the manual, only applies when the RS-485 is correctly hooked up (ultratemp users guide page 15)

Also note that the other three options also unchecked when I did that.
 
Ok, it looks like it has to have solar present checked.

Is the system water temperature sensor before or after the heat pump?

If it's after the heat pump, it's going to pick up the heated water from the heat pump outlet.

The system temperature sensor has to be before the heat pump.

Do you have a picture of the system?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Is the system water temperature sensor before or after the heat pump?

If it's after the heat pump, it's going to pick up the heated water from the heat pump outlet.

The system temperature sensor has to be before the heat pump.

Do you have a picture of the system?

Yes, it's before (and that one registers about 2 degrees cooler, which now makes sense to me).

Here's a picture of the system.

Also, note that the solar temperature sensor just dangles beside the air temp sensor, because (in the spade connection note on page 14 of the manual) it says it just looks for resistance on it. I don't see anything about it in the rs-485 section, but I do know when it wasn't there, even though the rs-485 was otherwise correctly connected, i couldn't control the heat pump remotely.
 

Attachments

  • 20200126_152339.jpg
    20200126_152339.jpg
    496 KB · Views: 17
M,

Did you say this has worked fine in the past for heating the spa and it now has this problem???

If so, maybe it is a simple as a bad water temp sensor... Works fine at low temperatures, but when it gets into the spa temp range it fails???

When you ran the heater manually, did you ever look at the EasyTouch's water temperature reading??

Jim R.
 
Can you post a few more pictures of the system?

Are you sure that the configuration of the valves is correct so that the heat pump is getting enough water flow?

What is the pump speed and the filter pressure?

Maybe you need to clean the filter if it's restricting the flow?
 
Is the heat pump bypass closed?
Yes

QUOTE="JamesW, post: 1741880, member: 18171"]
What is the solar temperature reading?
[/QUOTE]
Where would I find this? Given that it is not being used as solar, I don't think this is presented anywhere (it's not immediately obvious on the outdoor unit, the app or on screenlogic):
1580078938050.png

M,

Did you say this has worked fine in the past for heating the spa and it now has this problem???

If so, maybe it is a simple as a bad water temp sensor... Works fine at low temperatures, but when it gets into the spa temp range it fails???
Yes, I said that. And I don't think it's temperature related (at least not related to the temperature of the water). Regardless of how hot the water gets, or the ambient temperature (at least within the ranges I have tested, which are about 45-65 F ambient, and 82-98 spa), it runs for about an hour, then goes into the crazy trying to start situation. However, I am going to test your theory here - since the pool is at 65, I wonder if it will run for longer before going wonky, or not go wonky at all. I'll try that. Thanks for the suggestion.

When you ran the heater manually, did you ever look at the EasyTouch's water temperature reading??

Jim R.
Yes, absolutely. This is how I knew it was working (and confirmed by actually enjoying it in the evening, finally!)

1580078273698.png

The red arrow is where I disabled the RS-485. you can see that as soon as I did that, it started heating again. I then let it cool down for a few hours to see if it would recover, and it had no problem bringing it back up to heat after that. when it's being controlled by the easytouch, after that delay, it would run for about 5-10 minutes and then go wonky.

Can you post a few more pictures of the system?

Are you sure that the configuration of the valves is correct so that the heat pump is getting enough water flow?

What is the pump speed and the filter pressure?

Maybe you need to clean the filter if it's restricting the flow?

I'll post some more pics in the next message (including the filter pressure - it's right on "start") - I'm on my PC right now, and need to post them from my phone.

These were some of the first things I checked. Unfortunately, none of them came to fruition - the flow is 32 GPM (since it's a VSF, I set flow directly) and the ultratemp is not throwing an error. when I shut off the pump (in the above test, when I was controlling the ultratemp directly), it does throw an alert for low flow.
 
I'm not seeing any obvious problems.

I'm not sure what else to check.

Part of the problem is that we don't know why it's turning off. Does it think that it has reached the set point or is it detecting an error?

Maybe time to place a warranty claim with Pentair.
 
M,

Filing a claim makes sense to me...

But if for some reason you do not want to file a warranty claim, you could always use the standard two wire control system used by most pool heaters... It would still do everything you need to do. I am not sure what advantage you get with having your heater under RS-485 control. 95% of all pool heaters are controlled without an RS-485 link.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
4. Remote Mode Screen
Allows the operator to select the Remote mode, Off, Relay or RS-485 (serial).

In RS-485 Remote mode, the heat pump is controlled by an automation controller.

The local Pool and Spa set points are
not active (displayed as “N/A”) in this mode.

Make sure that the heat pump is set to RS-485.

9. Alarm Screen
Shows if an alarm condition is present.

If no alarms are present the screen will display ALARM STATUS NONE.

The control board has the ability to store a 30 Alarm history of previous alarms that have occurred.

At the alarm status screen, press the DOWN arrow.

The first alarm will be the most recent alarm that has occurred.

Successive presses (up to 30) of the DOWN arrow will display the alarm history in the order of occurrence.

The operator can scroll back up using the UP button. There is an option to erase the history.

Check the alarm status in Heat Pump control panel to see if there are any alarms logged.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: meatty

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.