Eric.
The spa gets all of it's filtering and heating from the small pump. There
is no filtering in the large pumps. The filter cycles on the spa should be
set to 1 hour, just to stir up the water a bit.
The small pump is the main filtering and heating. If the water isn't going
through the heater, it is not going to heat, and it will go into HL high
limit and shut off. It is also not going to filter.
There are no "rubber stoppers" in the spa. I don't know what it could
possibly be.
If one of the valves are closed it causes problems.
Dave has a service technician there who is going to go check out your spa.
Here is how the spa is supposed to work. The water goes in the filter
housing, into the front of the small pump (that runs all the time). It is
then pumped through the heater. It goes out the right side of the heater
into a manifold then puts filtered water into the spa. There should be
enough stirring action to keep the water clean. If there is sand on the
bottom of the tub, there is no action on earth that will pick it up, except
for a spa wand, hand vacuum. The normal dirt will be put into the filters.
If the valve was closed at the time of install, we normally check all of
that at install. It is part of the install process to make sure all the
valves are open and check all the unions are tight. We have not had any of
the valves closed at the time of install on any of the spas, so I didn't
think it could be that.
They are supposed to be easily closed, but we put a piece of hose on them to
keep them open. So, it sounds like the whole problem is a closed valve that
wasn't noticed at install. If the valve is closed it can cause the High
limit sensor to overheat and it can be ruined by continual overheat.
Normally all of our customers help with the install. We have never not had
one participate, as it is part of the learning process on the spa.
As part of the learning thing on this spa, when you open the cabinet, the
small pump should be running all the time, except when the temperature is
two degrees above the set temperature.
If the smaller pump is not running, it is not good.
You should see it running at all times.
When the water goes into the heater it actuates a pressure switch attached
to the heater housing. If the valve is closed on the right side of the
heater, then the heater will come on because of the pressure inside the
heater caused by the pump. Because there is no flow out the right side, the
heater will overheat and the high limit will turn off the heater.
I would open the cabinet and look to see how the system is working.
Is the smaller pump running all the time?
Is there water moving out of the smaller jets attached to the 24 hour pump?
There should be nothing on the readout but the temperature.
The jet pumps are not attached to the filtering at all.
Jim
----------
>From: "Erik W. Selberg" <selberg@cs.washington.edu>
>To: jim@spaspecialist.com
>Subject: Re: spa: day 2!
>Date: Sun, Sep 10, 2000, 1:38 AM
>
>Hey Jim,
>
>Hope you're back from your trip soon! Some info on how the spa is
>going:
>
>1. Got the new pillow, thanks! Shipping out the old one Monday.
>
>2. In attempts to fix, or at least isolate, the issue with the HL, a
>buddy and I took off the lounge-side and pump-side panels. We noticed
>that one of the cutoff valves was closed, and another was partially
>blocked. The rubber stopper was also missing from one; when the spa
>came, I noticed the random bit of rubber while stripping off the
>packing, but didn't make the connection that it was a spa part. Have
>another one you can ship me? Anyway, we opened them up in attempts to
>determine if the pumps were working too hard and tripping the HL
>because of it.
>
>3. We noticed that the air blower was leaking a fair amount of air
>around the seal to the PVC. Looks like they didn't quite make an
>air-tight seal.
>
>4. HL is still triggered. Basically, after running anything (pump 1 on
>high, pump 1 on low, pump 2 on H or L, blower, etc.) HL triggers on.
>Turning off any of the equipment typically causes it to trigger off.
>Spa temp is now pretty much outside temp plus about 10 degrees, which
>isn't great now that the weather is turning in Seattle. :|
>
>5. The tub does not appear to be properly filtrated. I upped the
>filtration cycle from 4 hours per day to 8. There's a fair amount of
>sediment on the botton and flotsam floating on the surface. However,
>while looking at some of the flotsam on the tub with various jets on
>(or the filter cycle) there was no discernable suction in the filter
>housing. The filters had some dirt and grit on them, but seemed clean
>for the most part. Any ideas here?
>
>I must say, I am getting a bit frustrated with all this. I can deal
>with some of the water issues; they're annoying but not unexpected for
>a rookie getting a tub all set up. However, the filtration and heating
>limit are something that isn't part of the course, which has been
>confirmed by my future father-in-law who also has a similar style tub.
>I'm also aggravated that I'm spending several hours trying to fix or
>work around the tub's issues.
>
>One of the reasons I purchased the spa from you is because I believe
>in supporting online ventures that advertise not only good prices but
>solid customer service. That's why I went with the package and am not
>bitching about the obviously good profit margins you're getting on
>the components --- you gotta put bread on the table just as I do. But
>I _do_ expect that the customer service you promise will be there, and
>quite frankly the status of the tub and the length of time it's been
>like this indicate that the service has been lacking.
>
>Please call me at your earliest opportunity to discuss how we can
>rectify this and remedy the situation. And as I mentioned in my
>previous e-mail, I'd like to discuss how much is going to be on the
>remainder of the bill.
>
>Thanks,
>-e
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>--
> Erik Selberg
>"I get by with a little help selberg@cs.washington.edu
> from my friends." http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/selberg
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sun Sep 17 2000 - 03:14:41 PDT