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How Do I Figure Out What's Wrong?

The key to figuring out what is wrong with your spa is done systematically. OFTEN I have customers, in their zeal, just start throwing parts. Example: pump doesn't come on so I'll buy a new pump. Result often is a new pump when that is not the problem. So let us take you through a basically universal approach to solving your spas problem.

"My Spa Is Dead"

If the spa is doing NOTHING, unfortunately the first step is obvious but for some, out of their ability. First just try turning main power to  the spa off and then on. ALWAYS off and then on. If you have a GFCI protected breaker (has a Test button), the reset is turning all the way OFF then ON. That was easy.

Next step isn't. If the spa does not show any sign of activity, you MUST check incoming power. The ONLY way to check is with a voltmeter. This might be out of your ability. If so, have electrician or someone familiar with electricity check the power AT the spa.

IMPORTANT: You MUST use a voltmeter with a reading. Those little penlights that light up when voltage is present is nice but useless it this case. You must have actual voltage. I have seen breakers and gfci's reduce but not stop voltage. So the meter will show, say 35vac. You know power is bad. The penlight will light up and make you THINK all is OK. Its not.

If you have a spa running on 110-120vac, check the voltage with a meter on the two HOTS. It should read somewhere between 110-120vac.

Now, if you have a 220-240vac spa, you must make THREE voltage tests. First, hot to neutral for both hot leads: 110-120vac. Then check the hot to hot (critical test): 220-240vac. Then neutral to ground (if you have a 4 wire gfci): -0- volts.

If proper voltage is going to the spa, then you KNOW its the spa's problem.

If improper voltage is going to the spa, then you KNOW the spa is not the problem, its incoming power. This is assuming the spa isn't tripping the breaker/gfci. If the breaker or fuse immediately trips, again, you must perform a test that again, might be outside your ability. The two HOT wires must be physically disconnected from the spa and capped. Then you power up again. If the breaker now does not pop, then you know the fault is the spa. If the breaker STILL pops, you know their is an electrical problem. (It is not unusual for the line from the main panel to the spa gets corrupted. When that does, it trips the breaker. So you must know that the line is fine. Separating the line from the spa and turning on tests whether the short is before the spa or not.)

Just a footnote; if the gfci breaker pops when the spa is hooked up and does not when its disconnected from the spa, most likely its a heater problem.

If the power IS correct and the spa does nothing, most likely its the board. If rare cases its the transformer. Most common its the board.

"I'm getting error messages. What do I do?"

Error messages are design to make life easy, and usually does. You assume the message is correct.

Power is on, topside IS working, but nothing works and you are getting error messages. If so, those messages usually are telling you what the board sees as wrong. Very good place to start. See Topside Error Codes for help.

Once you have error codes, usually those codes point correctly to the problem, or get you started.

Several things to note:

First, if all of a sudden you are getting random errors or errors not listed on the link above, its usually the board. There are no secret codes.

Second, if you are getting changing errors or several errors at once, its usually a board issue. Its fairly uncommon to lose 2 components at once. The exception to that is lightning and voltage spikes. Those can and often do take out several components.

"My spa seems OK but XXX doesn't work."

You can have failures the topside doesn't report. If so, its a matter of reason. Example: if the spa works fine but you can't get any response when you push any buttons. Either the pcboard or topside. If the spa works fine but one button on topside doesn't work: likely the topside. If one pump works and other doesn't, either the board or pump.

Tripping breakers or blowing fuses can often be isolated by unpluging components and turning on spa without that component.

Summary: Therefore, just be systematic. I often have customers write things like "its not working. What do you think it could be?" Hard to respond to that. But others with the same problem will list steps or things they noticed or even error codes that allow me to pinpoint the problem.

So just be systematic and feel free to contact us at Live Chat