Author Topic: 2 Speed Hot tub Motor, High speed problems after rebuild  (Read 1603 times)

jo552006

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2 Speed Hot tub Motor, High speed problems after rebuild
« on: December 29, 2018, 10:15:54 PM »
Hi all,

I put a new wet end on, and bearings in a hot tub motor that came out of my hot tub.  (I could have just done a start capacitor, but found that out after I had pulled the motor apart)

I have a 2 speed motor from an aqua flo xp-2, and the high speed/low speed switch is on the back cover.

When I assembled this back and put it in my hot tub, it made some REALLY bad sounds when trying to run high speed.  It clicks on and off like the contacts are intermittent or something.

This guy had the EXACT same issue, and his videos/pictures are probably better than what I could have gotten, though mine is a 2hp and his was a 1.5, otherwise they appear nearly identical.

https://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/index.php?/topic/48653-caldera-spa-15-hp-relia-flo-pump-clicking-noiselow-speed-onlyno-high/

Also, another video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR304LXwC0g

All these people seem to have the same thing as me going on:  It was fine before we dis-assembled the pump, and now has issues.  Likely we've done something wrong, but for the life of me I can't figure out what, and I haven't seen where anybody else figured it out either.  Does anybody have any ideas?

edit: Ideas outside of getting rid of the tub...

big_owl

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Re: 2 Speed Hot tub Motor, High speed problems after rebuild
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2018, 01:22:13 PM »
Hard for me to tell from the one video I looked at, but is there an integral overload in the unit that is tripping and resetting immediately?  Is the new impeller 100% identical to the old one?  I’m wondering if the new impeller flows more water and is overloading the motor causing the OL to trip.  But it wouldn’t be normal for it to reset so fast.  Can you take the impeller off the shaft and run the motor with no load at both speeds to see if it does the same thing?

405programmer

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Re: 2 Speed Hot tub Motor, High speed problems after rebuild
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2019, 05:55:24 AM »
Are you trying to immediately run it on high speed? I had some trouble with air getting into the impeller and my high speed not working correctly until I let it run on low speed for quite a while.

It was probably a good idea to replace the bearing. They don't last forever after all. My bearing was going out on my only motor on a 96 hot tub and I just replaced the motor and the impeller piece. Call around to several local places and try to avoid the big box stores. Eventually I found one that would sell it to me at a cash discount. It was a single assembled motor with impeller. I just replaced it with the same 3.5 HP motor.

Then again, my motor had been through several start caps and was the original 96 pump. Now the tub is near silent with max jets on :D

If you're looking for a cheap way to cannibalize parts looks for other broken tubs on craigslist and haul the shells to the dump while you pull off pumps and heater cores.

Good luck hope you can get back to a working hot tub.

 

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