Pump system keeps kicking out of spa mode

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J

jimbo01

Member
Dec 27, 2022
10
Anderson SC
I have a 3 month old Pentair Intelliflo system with a pool and attached spa. Lately while heating up the spa the pump system will revert to pool mode and all of the heated water in the spa goes into the pool. It doesn't do this all of time but it happened twice tonight. I read somewhere that this is the freeze protection kicking in. Well that isn't a good thing if your trying to heat a spa. How can I avoid this happening? We are usually in the spa every other night for about an hour. Thank you for any help you could give me.
 
jimbo01 said:
I have a 3 month old Pentair Intelliflo system with a pool and attached spa. Lately while heating up the spa the pump system will revert to pool mode and all of the heated water in the spa goes into the pool. It doesn't do this all of time but it happened twice tonight. I read somewhere that this is the freeze protection kicking in. Well that isn't a good thing if your trying to heat a spa. How can I avoid this happening? We are usually in the spa every other night for about an hour. Thank you for any help you could give me.
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4 basic options in order of best to not-recommended.

You can trick the air temp sensor with a heat source (lightbulb), turn off freeze protect the nights you want to use the spa, put it in service mode and manually engage the heater, or turn the actuators off so they can't change positions.

There are a handful of threads on the topic of you wanted to browse a bit and read others experiences when choosing those options.
 
jimbo01 said:
thank you for the options. I guess my question is... Is this related to the freeze protection. I will be reaching out to the pool company today for any suggestions they have also. Thank you again!!
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What is the ambient temp when it happens? That will more than likely be your answer. Freeze protection is going to kick in no matter when the set temp is reached. If you rely on freeze protection, switching off and on leaves room for error in forgetting to reset. At least, for me and my forgetfulness it would. Also, a gas heater should not be regularly used in such low temps anyway adn at risk of damage to heater.
 
Jim,

Nothing bypasses freeze control. It will automatically switch between the Pool and Spa mode every 15 minutes when on.

Freeze control is based on the Air Temp so I like Brads idea of tricking the air probe into thinking it is hotter than it is.

Do you have ScreenLogic?

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
yes I do. The funny thing is it doesn't do it consistently every 15 minutes while in spa mode. It does when in regular pool mode. It seems very random in spa mode and sometimes it doesn't do it at all. It did it twice last night while heating the spa and then it didn't do it again while they were in the spa for about 40 minutes. I will try Brads idea when we go in the spa again maybe tomorrow night.
 
jimbo01 said:
yes I do. The funny thing is it doesn't do it consistently every 15 minutes while in spa mode. It does when in regular pool mode. It seems very random in spa mode and sometimes it doesn't do it at all. It did it twice last night while heating the spa and then it didn't do it again while they were in the spa for about 40 minutes. I will try Brads idea when we go in the spa again maybe tomorrow night.
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It's possible the heater flue is in proximity to control panel and temp sensor area. Since the heater cycles on water temp, the two, air temp and water temp, would not be in agreement with which is supposed to run at the given time.
 
Jim,

Since you have ScreenLogic, you can go into the SLConfig App, Circuits, and turn off freeze protect for the Spa.

This assumes of course the problem is related to freeze control. :scratch:

And then you need to make sure to turn it back on when done. :mrgreen:

Thanks,

Jim R.
 

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Jimrahbe said:
Since you have ScreenLogic, you can go into the SLConfig App, Circuits, and turn off freeze protect for the Spa.
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But that will leave Freeze Protection enabled for the Pool circuit. So when Freeze Protection is active, won't the pump run in Pool mode only, rather than switching every 15 minutes between Pool and Spa modes as it does now?
 
Drew,

I don't know the answer for sure.

I "think" that as long as the system is not trying to switch between the Pool mode and the Spa mode, it will just stay in the Spa mode.

That said, you bring up a good point that needs to be check out by someone with a pool/spa in freezing conditions. :mrgreen:

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
okay I tried by turning off the freeze protection for the spa. The spa cycled normally for awhile and then reverted to pool mode and dumped most of the heated water into the pool so no go there. I will try next by turning off the low voltage breaker for the valves.
 
jimbo01 said:
okay I tried by turning off the freeze protection for the spa. The spa cycled normally for awhile and then reverted to pool mode and dumped most of the heated water into the pool so no go there. I will try next by turning off the low voltage breaker for the valves.
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You're better off putting it in service mode in Spa if you're gonna resort to killing breakers. At least then, the pump can run with its own freeze protection in whichever mode its left in without changing on you.

If you hit the LV breakers it would be forced to stay in spa mode but the panel will think it's in pool mode when it makes the switch. So your temp presets and pump speeds won't line up anymore and you'll have to then go change all those. Plus, breakers typically have a limit to the number of times they'll functionally trip before they wear out, so this isn't a long term solution.
 
jimbo01 said:
okay this is definitely tied in to the freeze protection circuit. We went in the spa two nights in a row now with the air temp in the mid 50s and no problems whatsoever.
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I agree the issue was Freeze Protect, but the last two nights won't corroborate that conclusion because FP doesn't kick on until you hit around 36 air temp (can vary slightly because pockets of air by panel can be different than ambient.)
 

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