Hey all,
New to the forum and have a technical question.
I own a Clearwater spa with Balboa controls which I purchased 2nd hand about a year ago.
It's been a great spa and I have just encountered my first issue.
The power went out a few days ago and then when it came back, my spa went through it's powerup cycle.
First circ. pump comes on, then ultimately it runs the 3 pumps for a few seconds. Then it's all set.
Well, this time, when the 3 pumps turned on, a fuse blew which took out pump 3 and the circ pump.
I found it to be "F5" on the circuit board. The first thing I noticed was it was a standard clear fuse, not a slow blow.
The rating on the fuse was 15A 250v. The curious thing is that there is conflicting information on what the correct fuse rating should be.
The actual circuit board says 10A 250v while the Balboa diagram on the control unit cover states 20A 250v.
I did have a few 10A 250V (AGC Fast Blow) fuses on hand so I put one in. I powered up the spa. The circ. pump came on as before but when the jet pumps fired up, the fuse immediately blew again. In an effort to try and trouble shoot, I unplugged spa pump 3 and replaced the fuse. This time the fuse did not blow and the spa powered up and functioned correctly aside from pump 3 being disconnected. I pushed the button to cycle pump 3 on and off (while it was unplugged) and the relay clicked on and off. I thought possibly, the pump might be shorted. I took the power cable plug end for pump 3 and plugged into the port for pump 1 and it powered on just fine via pump 1's power port on the board.
To summarize,
I am thinking a slow blow fuse might be correct to endure the initial draw of powering up the pump motor without blowing the fuse. But, what value fuse should I go with based on the conflicting information on the board vs. the diagram sticker on cover? 20A or 10A? 10A seems small for this circuit since both a circ pump and jet pump both on this same circuit and they appear to be rated at 12A and 4A according to the diagram which exceed the 10A fuse rating at 16A together. My pumps are "rated" 5.5hp which I have read is honestly usually only 3hp but that would still be about 11-12amps draw on the spa pump alone, not including the circ pump at 4a.
I see Balboa offers (likely rebranded) 20A Slow Blow ceramic fuses. Would this be the correct fuse over a glass fuse?
What do you guys think? Get a 10A or a 20A? Fast blow or slow blow? Glass vs Ceramic? The previous owner must have installed the 15A fuse at some point prior to my ownership, maybe he/she went with 15A to meet in the middle of the conflicting information on rating. It has worked for me for over a year at 15A and a couple of power outages requiring a restart of the spa without issue.
Thanks for your input.
New to the forum and have a technical question.
I own a Clearwater spa with Balboa controls which I purchased 2nd hand about a year ago.
It's been a great spa and I have just encountered my first issue.
The power went out a few days ago and then when it came back, my spa went through it's powerup cycle.
First circ. pump comes on, then ultimately it runs the 3 pumps for a few seconds. Then it's all set.
Well, this time, when the 3 pumps turned on, a fuse blew which took out pump 3 and the circ pump.
I found it to be "F5" on the circuit board. The first thing I noticed was it was a standard clear fuse, not a slow blow.
The rating on the fuse was 15A 250v. The curious thing is that there is conflicting information on what the correct fuse rating should be.
The actual circuit board says 10A 250v while the Balboa diagram on the control unit cover states 20A 250v.
I did have a few 10A 250V (AGC Fast Blow) fuses on hand so I put one in. I powered up the spa. The circ. pump came on as before but when the jet pumps fired up, the fuse immediately blew again. In an effort to try and trouble shoot, I unplugged spa pump 3 and replaced the fuse. This time the fuse did not blow and the spa powered up and functioned correctly aside from pump 3 being disconnected. I pushed the button to cycle pump 3 on and off (while it was unplugged) and the relay clicked on and off. I thought possibly, the pump might be shorted. I took the power cable plug end for pump 3 and plugged into the port for pump 1 and it powered on just fine via pump 1's power port on the board.
To summarize,
I am thinking a slow blow fuse might be correct to endure the initial draw of powering up the pump motor without blowing the fuse. But, what value fuse should I go with based on the conflicting information on the board vs. the diagram sticker on cover? 20A or 10A? 10A seems small for this circuit since both a circ pump and jet pump both on this same circuit and they appear to be rated at 12A and 4A according to the diagram which exceed the 10A fuse rating at 16A together. My pumps are "rated" 5.5hp which I have read is honestly usually only 3hp but that would still be about 11-12amps draw on the spa pump alone, not including the circ pump at 4a.
I see Balboa offers (likely rebranded) 20A Slow Blow ceramic fuses. Would this be the correct fuse over a glass fuse?
What do you guys think? Get a 10A or a 20A? Fast blow or slow blow? Glass vs Ceramic? The previous owner must have installed the 15A fuse at some point prior to my ownership, maybe he/she went with 15A to meet in the middle of the conflicting information on rating. It has worked for me for over a year at 15A and a couple of power outages requiring a restart of the spa without issue.
Thanks for your input.
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