Thinking about going Salt - have a few questions

[ajw22]

Is there any good write up to find the easiest way to check what proper voltages/continuity should be?

I am sure there are many Electricity 101 write ups describing the basics of electric circuits. I have not needed to review them.

You need to start at the electricity source, usually a circuit breaker and follow the voltage and wiring from the circuit breaker to the light. You will likely find a point where there is voltage in and no voltage out. It could be due to a failed device or a break in the wiring.

You need to understand basic electrical safety and be comfortable working with live wires that can injure you.

I do have a cheap multimeter. I order everything on Amazon so they will take it back free and clear if it doesn't work but if its easy I'd like to check to figure out if that's actually the problem.

It is easy if you know what you are doing.

My original thought was buy the exact same transformer, then hook it up exactly the same way and see if that fixes it. I guess if they have a snubber in it, I would rehook the existing snubber to it (provided it isn't bad).

Shotgun parts replacement may luck into a fix or not.

 

[Hootz]

Good question. I really don't know for sure but as I look at the picture I took of the inside of it, it doesn't look like it does, though I can't see fully inside. From the attachment you linked, it looks like it would be attached on my left side of wires (the ones running to the 120v). So that means they would of installed it that way without it. I do only have 1 light so no real syncing issues with other lights to worry about but the hiccups about smart relaying could be an issue. All that said, I didn't notice a single issue at all with it until last night when the lights simply didn't turn on.

Is there any good write up to find the easiest way to check what proper voltages/continuity should be? I do have a cheap multimeter. I order everything on Amazon so they will take it back free and clear if it doesn't work but if its easy I'd like to check to figure out if that's actually the problem.

My original thought was buy the exact same transformer, then hook it up exactly the same way and see if that fixes it. I guess if they have a snubber in it, I would rehook the existing snubber to it (provided it isn't bad).

The voltage specs are on the cover of the transformer. 120 volts ac from a breaker in another cabinet and 12 to 14 volts ac leaving the transformer to the light. If you are unsure or uncomfortable please consider hiring an electrician.

 

[bbillingsley1985]

The voltage specs are on the cover of the transformer. 120 volts ac from a breaker in another cabinet and 12 to 14 volts ac leaving the transformer to the light. If you are unsure or uncomfortable please consider hiring an electrician.

Ah didn't realize that was on the cover. Yes though I would definitely classify myself as a novice electrician, I have checked voltages before, was just trying to figure out what they should read. That tells me what I need to know. Appreciate the info from both of you.

I talked to the pool company and they do say the light is covered under warranty for 3 years, telling me that includes transformer and anything having to do with lights. That said they did say only parts are covered, not labor. So I decided to just order the new transformer off Amazon, hook it all up to that, see if it works. It's just one screw to remove and should be pretty quick to rewire it. If it does work I'll be happy with the $100 I spent and call it good. If it still doesn't work, I'll hook it back up to old transformer, return the amazon one for refund, call pool company, and wait for them to get it fixed hoping they won't charge me an arm and a leg for labor.

Based off the symptoms I said above, do you guys feel decently good that transformer is probably the most common thing it could be? Part gets here tomorrow. I supposed just checking the voltages tonight to tell me for sure but will probably just wait until part gets here now. I at least have peace of mind that if its the actual light, the $1500 to replace that is covered under warranty.

 

[ajw22]

Transformers rarely fail.

When transformers do fail they do so in visible ways showing burn marks or signs of overheating.

Nothing in this pic looks like it failed. It looks nice and clean.

I would do the voltage checks on 120V in and 12 volts out before replacing the transformer.

 

[bbillingsley1985]

Well Crud that isn't what I like to hear. I will check them here shortly when I get home and see where I'm at. If it isn't the transformer I'll be a little at a loss on what to do next. I guess check whatever the transformer connects to which I think is the smart relay. The smart relay does turn on and act like it works fine. Again the relay activates when I tell it to turn on lights, the panel thinks lights are on, just in reality the lights are not on. I used to hear a noticeable sound coming from the transformer but now I don't hear anything when I activate lights. If the 12v's are good but the 120v's are not on the transformer what does that tell me. And vice versa?

 

[ajw22]

You will not have 12V if you don't have 120V.

The trasnformer takes the 120V and transforms it to 12V.

 

[bbillingsley1985]

Just tested and 12v is showing exactly 12.0-12.1 range on multimeter. The 120v is showing 122.2-122.6 range. So I believe this means transformer is good. I do hear transformer humming so it's working.

Unfortunately right after my post I was reading a ton of posts right on this forum of people complaining that Hayward Colorlogic lights are very junky with many having to replace often. Afraid the light itself is probably dead. If transformer is good then bottom line it has to be light or the smart relay switch, both of which are expensive to replace myself....so feel like thing to do is call the pool company and warranty the light.

Unless anyone has any better ideas?

 

[bbillingsley1985]

Thought I would give an update on the pool light. As ajw22 suggested, it was not the transformer. It was definitely the pool light itself. The pool light was covered under warranty and it finally got replaced a few weeks ago from the pool company. The only annoyance is the Omni Hub settings. So I have an Omni Hub and control the lights through that. With my old light, I had Omni Direct setup that was very straightforward to do in the settings and it allows the lights to change from say Red to Blue instantly without having to cycle through all the lights. Well with this new light, now Omni Direct does not work. Omni Hub will allow me to set it to Omni Direct and it thinks it will work, but in reality it doesn't. If I go to change it from Red to blue say, no matter what option I select it keeps navigating through all the light options in a pattern, with every button I press. So if I try to change it from red to blue, it may go red to green instead. If I try to set the brightness to 50%, it will change it from Green to Blue.....all options I press either on the panel itself or in the app just makes it cycle through the next light in the pattern.

I did a lot of research on this site and google, deleted the light off Omni Hub, readded it, etc. and nothing works. It will work when its not in Omni Direct mode as its supposed to so I decided to just give up on it for this year and either live with it having to cycle through lights the old way or worry about it next year. I read that you may have to reset your whole Omni Hub system to get it to work, which I really don't want to do since I have a heater, pump, swg and all. I did read a thing saying all lights manufactured before X date (I think it was 2019) is not compatible with Omni Direct. I started to get ticked off thinking did the pool company give me an older light? It's possible but I really don't think so. I saw them open the sealed box, get it out and it is definitely the exact same model #. I guess I could pull the light out and check serial number but I really don't think the light is 4+ years old. It's probably a settings issue but who knows.

As for Hayward in general.....man I just really don't know that I could recommend it to folks. For those counting, all evidenced in this thread, since January 2021 when pool was finished I have had to replace almost every Hayward part (all under warranty at least). My Hayward parts are the VSP pump (replaced under warranty), heat pump (i diagnosed and manually replaced a capactior for ~$15 at beginning of this season), light (replaced under warranty), Aquarite T-15 SWG (bought it last summer, installed myself, and working great for now), and Aquavac 650 Robot (also replaced under warranty with a tigershark qc because they've discontinued it). I think if I were going to do it again, I would buy parts from a brand that's more user friendly to fix when stuff breaks (if that even exists). The pool light for example is a known issue with a million complaints saying that in another 2-3 years that will go out. I have a narrow niche that they installed so almost no 3rd party lights work, so I don't know what I'm gonna do in 2-3 years when the light goes out again. It's like $1200 for that light. Hopefully by then they have a cheap chinese made turn key one that I could use instead because I'm not spending $1200 on it. The only positive I can say is I did get almost everything replaced right at the end of the warranty but I'm basically on my own from here on out as far as cost is concerned.

Just thought I'd update the post and vent a little lol. The help here has been beyond amazing on not only teaching me about pools chemical wise, but also helping me with troubleshooting. One advantage of all this stuff breaking is I am quickly becoming an expert on how to diagnose and fix things lol. If anyone has any additional info on getting Omni Direct to work let me know. Just weird that Omni Direct was set and working perfectly....and now it won't with the new light.

 

[Newdude]

I consider *everything* either pre or post covid shortages. I expect nothing post shortage to last, but hopefully that Era has been corrected and is behind us.