Spa Builders - LX-15 Issue

17 years ago

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for any feedback. I have an LX-15 that has not been working in a while. It started last summer with the breaker tripping immediatley upon "power on". I didnt mess with it until this week. The spa was dirty so I drained it, cleaned it and refilled the spa. In turning it on again (hoping the problem went away..lol) the breaker kept on tripping. I followed many of the tips from the posts here to no avail. Here is what I did and the outcome. I will tell you now that I think it is narrowed down to the xmr but its tough for me to think that went bad. So before I spend money on parts, I wanted to run my findings by the forum folks here.

1) I disconnected everything to the LX-15 panel (Pump1, pump 2, Ozone, blower, light, pressure switch, temp/high limit, control panel, heater). The breaker still kept on tripping

2) I checked the heater for connectivity and the reading was "open". But, the breaker kept on tripping (I may have a couple issues). I could not check the power as it is running through a couple of relays (L1 and L2) and a rectangular connector to the xmr.

At this point, I disconnected the rectangular connector from the relay to the xmfr and breaker did not trip. So this is why I think it may be the xmr. But, nothing else can be checked (heater, pumps, etc.) as power flows from breaker to L1 (fused), L2 and N to the lug connectors. From there, the power (l1 and L2) flow goes into two relays (I think). From there, power flows into the rectangular connector and into the xmr (Red and Black in, yellow and yellow out).

I checked voltage going into the xmr (120v each leg, 240v total). I had to hard wire from the connector (Male) to the connector (Female) so I can use my meter and not trip the breaker. The output from the xmfr was 5-6vac on each leg. I then plugged the connector back into the board and the breaker tripped. (not sure if this is a normal reading).

I did check the R in the heater and it read open, so maybe the heater is also bad.

So, I am not sure if my xmfr is bad.

Thanks again for any input.

Jim

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Comments (2)

repair_guy
17 years ago
With everything unplugged from the box and a power up causing an immediate trip, you probably need to be looking at the gfi. You really can't put leads on a heating element for resistance while it is in a tube as they usually touch the tube itself. Pull both leads off of the element and see what happens. No trip = bad element. Trip = bad gfi. Rarely would a transformer go bad.
Newbie56
12 years ago
I am also having trouble with a Spa with an LX-15 control. I have a two speed motor installed, with black and red power wires, and a white common wire. The motor has a nameplate amperage rating of 2.8 amps on slow speed, 8.5 amps on high speed. When I energize the LX-15 by closing the circuit breaker, my clamp on ammeter shows 9.3 amps on the black wire out of the unit to the motor, 9.3 amps on the white wire, and no amperage on the red wire. After about 10 seconds, the current stops (presumably due to a thermal overload tripping). My theory - the motor/pump unit is bound, and is not rotating, causing the high current and the overloads to trip. The red wire has no current because the LX-15 is trying to start the motor at low speed, and only the black wire gets energized at low speed. Any comments or suggestions? I think the next step is to disassemble the pump and look for binding.
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