Tiger River Spa. Drained it last summer, forgot to power down unit. When refilled, two months later, unit worked but the flashing red light came on every few days indicating a high limit heater trip. Eventuallly heater stopped working. The problem was a failed relay on the heater control board. Then heater was causing gfci to trip. Replaced no fault heater and now am back to intermittent flashing red light indicating high limit heater trip. Maybe its just coincidence, but seems to trip more ofter with colder weather.

I wonder if being on without water damaged the low speed/recirc pump. I have seen in some post a recommendation to clean a filter for this but cant find one other than the one on the intake. Is there a way for for a mechanically inclined person to check the recirc pump? It is putting out water at what seems to be the right flow so may not be the issue.

Do I need to test one of the sensors running from the heater to the circuit board?

Don't know whether this is an electrical, circuit, pump,or plumbing problem.

Any advice for next steps?

Thanks in advance.

Check the small 24 hour silent circ. pump for flow. If it's flowing properly, probably just a hi-limit thermistor that needs replacement. If there isn't good circ pump flow, replace the circ pump " title="Very Happy" /> The heater is probably fine.

Swine, thanks for the quick reply.

Another point I should have made is that when I do reset by powering off for about a minute or two, I can hear the circ pump rattling a bit from outside the tub. Used to nly last for 3-5 seconds then go away, but just listened the noise persist for several minutes. Can't remember whether or not it used to do this before the problems started.

Thanks again.

One thing that I have NEVER liked about these systems, is the lack of pressure or flow detection.

It is a built in recipe for early heater failure (and future replacement/repair revenue).

One day, I hope that this manufacturer will spend an extra $20 and add a pressure or flow switch to prevent heater burn out. Dual high-limit and flow protection is mandantory (In my preferred scheme), and should be required IMO.

Waiting for a heater to actually overheat... to stop power going to the heater, is blatantly lazy, cheap, and stupid.

In the real world, you PROTECT an expensive component like this - PRIOR to sending in the power, rather than wait for a separate sensor to protect IT after it has detected 'critical mass' operation! Even modern day home central heaters ensure air flow is present prior to turning on the heat!

As far as I know, NO OTHER Spa Manufacturer uses a cheap scheme like this... or has gotten away with it for as long. God only knows they charge enough for their proprietary replacement parts!

BTW, Replace your circ pump - don't push this thing any further lest you burn out a perfectly good heater. It has no real protection other than to tell you that it's bad AFTER, it's overheated.

+1 for the rant, lol