Filled artic spa 36 hours ago. not heating properly. what should I check?

Hi,

please check that the control panel can control other things outside of the temperature. If this is the case, then maybe the pool components (ie thermostat) were not added properly or are incompatible with your control panel. If the control panel does control anything, then the full re-installation needs to be done. Thank you.

Sarct, the question is, was the freezer side ok, if it was, I would suspect the damper not opening. If the freezer side was warm too, then I would suspect the evaporator thermistor not sending the signal to the board to terminate the defrost. Have the tech first check the continuity at connector J3. He should have 400ohms at J3-1 to J3-2 and the same at J3-3 to j3-4. If he doesn't get those readings have him check at the damper motor itself. If he doesn't have it there, replace the damper motor. If the damper motor passes all the checks then it's on to the evaporator thermistor. Have him check the resistance. At 5 degrees it should ohm at approx 36K ohms. The evap thermostat is redundant to the defrost operation. It's there as a back up in the event the evap thermistor fails to terminate the defrost. It's normally closed and will open at 140 degrees.

It should be OK. These units should have a flow switch to prevent activation of heating element without water flow. Yes, heating elements can be relatively easily be changed if needed.

This spa is heated by waste heat from the pump. The manual says it can take up to 20 hours to get to 100F. I assume that is starting from 60F. Keep the cover on and let it run at least a day and you should have 100F+ water temperature.

This is normal with the dream maker spa. The dream maker spas are poorly insulated, and only run 120 volts with a very small heater.
When the unit is first filled, the hot tub will not heat full time either. Most new hot tubs will have freeze protection below 50 degrees F. They will recirculate automatically using the friction and the pumps heat to warm the water above 50 degrees, and then the heating unit will kick on. These hot tubs do not heat while the jets are on high either, so once you are in it using the jets on high, the temperature will start to fall.

Now that you are up to 80 degrees, it should heat up fairly quick however.

HL is normally a "high limit" fault. If your filter is clean and you have sufficient flow, you may have a faulty high limit sensor. It should be mounted on the heater itself. The high limit sensor shuts the heater off if it senses excessively hot water. Check to see that you have sufficient flow, clean the filter, and make sure the filter pump is running. If everything else is running properly, you may have to replace the high limit sensor.

If the battery was dead for more that 36 hours, or if you had the battery out of the car for more than 36 hours, you will have to have it towed to a dealer and have the ECU anti-theaft system reset. It may be less than 36 hours. Maybe it's 12 hours. Something like that. Call the dealer and ask about it. They'll be gald to fill you in.