Hi, 2.5 year old Sarena Bay spa, a few days ago I noticed a sound that I had never heard before - one of the small circ pumps was 'humming' pretty loudly. I pulled the cover and compared it to the 'water fall' pump which is identical. One is noisy (it can be heard as a "hum" and felt vibrating) and the other is silk smooth when running. Both are secured the same and the one just started this a few days ago. With both running and placing my hand on them, difference is night and day! Any ideas? Is there something in a pump/motor that would happen suddenly to cause this vibration and resulting low frequency hum? I had the dealer come out and they say if it's pumping water it's fine " title="Confused" /> He even called D1 Tech support and they said that if it's running it's not a warranty issue. Hard to believe that a noisy, vibrating pump isn't an issue.. but...? Rather than buy the $200 pump and replace it myself, any suggestions? It's a Laing 909-NHSW-18, 98W, 1/20 hp. thanks...

Well, D1 has now decided to replace the pump after talking it over. I'm still out $110 for the dealer to 'evaluate' the issue. Is it typical for other spa/pool dealers to charge such a fee even when the issue is covered by warranty? Seems kind of backwards to me... like a car issue being under warranty but the dealer charges you to evaluate it.... I guess D1 doesn't reimburse their dealers for warranty service calls. Anyone know???

Typically they don't, or if they do, it's a very NOMINAL amount which will never cover overhead.

It's one of the things that's forced a lot of dealers out of business. No money for support means they have to foot the bill themselves - which is not cheap.

If you got your spa even LOOKED AT, for that price, after 2.5 years, consider yourself very lucky indeed.

D1 took care of me and the dealer! But all can't end perfectly. The dealer tech showed up last Friday with the new circ. pump and I knew I was in trouble when he said: "do you remember which pump was vibrating?". I had drained the system so no way to check. But he said he remembered, swapped the pump and left. Well, 500gallons later - he did the wrong pump " title="Sad" /> plus the mount was a little different so now the new pump is touching the other one and vibrating all the time. (1 pump is for the waterfall and the other is the 24hr circ. pump but they're identical). They'll be coming back to swap them out. More water wasted for me. And since he put this pump in, one of the main pumps wont' come on - I hear a click (solenoid I guess) but no pump action. hmmm