Have a circa 2003 ProForm "Orbit", model #PFSG51030, that has spent most of its life in storage. I’m not an electronics guy, but here's what we know so far:

Spa is on a dedicated 110v 20 amp GFI circuit.

Control Panel: Balboa ICON 10, is presently wired for 110v, though it may (?) have been wired for 220v at one time.

On circuit board, the Heater Mode Selector, J23, is set for 20 amps (not
50a).

I went through the "Procedure for calibrating a pressure switch when spa is not heating" (provided by Infinity spas) 3 times with no heat resulting.

Still zero voltage going to the heater element terminals (110v?). The heating element does have continuity.

Pressure switch terminals have continuity with pump running and no continuity with pump off. This seems as it should be. There is 5vDC coming from the circuit board to the pressure switch.

I wondered about the two small copper prongs for the Water Level, J21 on the circuit board, not being connected. Should they be? The little black shunt was only covering one prong. I did try connecting them but there was no noticable change in the system.

Except for the dead heater element terminals, everything else, switches/pump, seems to work fine. If there's any kind of reset switch then I haven't found it.

Don't know if the following is significant: The User's Manual says "The word "COOL" will appear in the console display if the temperature of the water is more than 20 degrees cooler than the set temperature". I'm getting a display of 57 with the temp set at 104.

Okay guys I'm stumped, where do I go from here?

Cold Tub owner in backwoods Arizona,
Craig

Do you have the Neutral power line input jumpered into L2 power input?

If not then you'll never get a complete circuit for the heater running on 115V.

One leg of the heater is connected via relay directly to L2.

Just did some light tapping on what appear to be relays and contactor. Now have 119v on both terminals of the heating element. Waiting to see if she'll heat up. If I have the voltage at both terminals, wouldn't that indicate that the heater is working?

yes.
But at that voltage it will take as long as 24 hours to heat.
Be sure you have a decent cover.

Thank you very much for responding, Mr. Pageup.

Do you have the Neutral power line input jumpered into L2 power input?

If not then you'll never get a complete circuit for the heater running on 115V.

One leg of the heater is connected via relay directly to L2.

The spa appears to be wired according to the Balboa diagram for 120v operation. The incoming neutral (white wire) is connected to terminal #2 (L2?)which feeds J8 on the board. I'm thinking that would be a yes to your question.

There is a white wire running from terminal #1 (L1?) to J5 on the board. There is no direct connection between L1 and L2 except what might be connecting inside the circuit board.

According to the diagram, the only connection to be made to L1 is with the control panel's red wire when configuring for 240v.

Hope I'm making sense, and thank you for your time.

Craig

The spa is sitting in a 60 degree room with the cover on. Still getting no temperature rise at all with spa running. We began with it at 62 degrees an hour ago and it still hasn't budged.

Is there any way possible it could be showing 119v at both heater element terminals, and the heating element would still not be heating? I'm baffled.

I had an older 120v Tiger River spa and yes, it took about 24 hours to heat up. But even cold, you could measure a 2 degree differential between the incoming heated water and the water in the spa. Not so with this one.

Craig

No - not unless the element has opened up.

Because the older spa had a lot of restriction in the heater output which is why you were able to feel the temp differential.

You'll never feel one on a heater as large as that one.

The only way to be absolutely sure about your heating, is to use a clamp on ammeter around either L1 or N power input. With a working heater you'll see a draw of at least 10-12 amps on low speed. That said, if your circuit is connected via a standard plug in type of outlet, you should be able to feel warmth on the plug - that'll tell you you're drawing a lot of current, which basically means your heater is operating.

Thanks again.....

No warmth on the plug or 12 ga power cord; all the wiring feels cool to the touch.

Been a couple of hours now and she's still sitting at the same 62 degrees. With all we know, it seems that the heating element, even though it is measuring 120 volts on both ends, must not be producing any heat.

Yes, I had wanted to measure the heater amperage, but my digital mutimeter appears to only be good for measuring DC amps. Don't know what the AC ammeter you describe would cost, but at this point I'm figuring a new heater element would be the way to go. Your thoughts?

Just to be clear: Should there be a wire directly connected from the L2 (incoming neutral) to the L1 terminal? Right now there is not.

Mr. Pageup, I really appreciate your good counsel here. I'm hopeful that we'll get to the bottom of a warm hot tub here pretty soon.

Craig

You need to verify that you actually have voltage -across- the two heater terminals. The meter I use is similar to this: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d... mber=95652 Give this thing time. And your cord/wiring should never get warm, I was referring to a PLUG - In, that is, if yours uses one. Best way for me to verify your connection scheme is for you to take a digital photo of what you're looking at and upload it here.

Sorry, don't have the capability to get a picture to you right now. Will correct that ASAP, as I need it for other applications as well

Hey, that clamp on ammeter is a must have now. I'll pick one up right away. Thanks for the link.

It seems like we've done about all that can be done for the moment. I'll get that ammeter and go from there. Again, I thank you for your help. At least at this point there's a bunch of money I haven't spent trying to troubleshoot at the parts counter.

Thanks again,
Craig

Okay, trying to move forward here....

With a clamp on ammeter I measured 4.19 amps on the incoming hot (black) wire and 4.11 ams on the neutral (white). Both leads to the heater element terminals measured zero amps, but they're showing 119 volts.

Never uploaded photos before, but I'll try to attach ones of the connections/control panel/wiring diagram. If that doesn't work, then I know I can email them. I have 8 photos, but your program only seems to want to download 5. The images are much clearer via email than they are on the "Preview" of this post. Hey, I'll go ahead and email them to Pageup.

You need to verify that you actually have voltage -across- the two heater terminals.

Does this indicate the heater element is toast? Are there any more tests I need to make?
Craig

With the power off do an ohms check on the heater element.
You should have something in the range of 9-15 ohms.

That's a ROGER, 14.8 ohms

Then you must measure voltage ACROSS the heater terminals -

not terminal to ground or neutral...

Check it again.

Not exactly sure what you're asking for here. When I touch the test leads to the two heater element terminals the reading is zero volts. Is that measuring "ACROSS the heater terminals"?

Craig

Yes.
Zero volts means no power to the heater.

Which in essence means your system board is not doing what it's supposed to do.

For an icon it's the blue screen of death... The only thing that can be done at this point in time is to replace it.

Pageup,
That's probably the one thing I most didn't want to hear. So what's a ballpark on the cost of a new or rebuilt controller? If it has to be replaced, is it possible to replace it with a better model of control panel?
Who do you recommend as best source to get one?
Craig

Well I try to make these things easy - this one here: http://spapartsnet.com/Spa-Packs-Contro... 8_3_1.html is the best way to go IMO. It should almost drop in and replace what you have easily. Comes with new cords, topside control, as well as a 2 year warranty. We can walk you through it easily. Especially since you've got a camera and know how to use it.

Well, this sets us back a little " title="Sad" />. Gonna have to stack a few dollars up in order to continue on. Well, Mr. Pageup, I really do apprciate your help on this one and for the money I didn't spend on parts that wouldn't have fixed it. It's been an education, and you've been a patient teacher " title="Wink" />. I'll be back when we're ready to order the spa pack. Craig

Been studying things over.

How would you compare the ACC ePACK to the Balboa VS 501 in terms of quality and longevity?

About the same. However the Epack has a lot more programming options, is much easier to use, install, and service.

I think that Pageup is right on the money when he says that you need to have neutral jumped to
L2.

Update: After ordering a new spa pack (but before installing it, luckily), another forum member was kind enough to point out that I had not correctly followed your earliest instructions here. After doing the above, well, everything started working. Duh! It's obvious that what my hot tub needs most is some basic education in AC circuitry for the owner. With PageUp's help, I surely know a lot more than when I began.

Everything appears to be working properly except for one thing: Although the digital temp display shows 104, the real temp, measured by two other thermometers, reads a steady and consistent 100/101. My body also tells me that we're way short of 104. This would seem to be some kind of calibration thing. I will begin a new post and hope we're able to correct the problem.

Thanks again for all your good counsel.
Craig