Spa wiring / hookup question for older Grandee

[Bill]

My Hot Spring Grandee (old, but new to me) has a junction box adjacent to the main black control box. I'm hooking it up for the first time, and have a "spare" black wire on the spa. I'm not sure what to hook it up to. It's caped off now, and nothing is powering up-no jets, no light, no heater.

The spa uses both 230 and 110. The light is on 110.

The way it is wired now is:

Sub panel wires --> Spa side wires are...

--------------------------------------------------------- Red wire from subpanel to --> Red spa wire Red wire from subpanel to --> Red spa wire Blk wire from subpanel to --> Blue spa wire Blk wire from subpanel to --> Blue spa wire White wire from subpanel to--> White spa wire Ground wire from subpanel to --> grounded to the spa junction box.

THE PROBLEM: -->There is one black wire remaining on the spa, and I do not know what it should connect to.

Anyone know where the black wire on the spa should be connected?

[trader4]

If it were me, and knowing that people are going to sit in this spa full of water, I'd be contacting the manufacturer, not guessing. I also hope you have the appropriate GFCI installed.

[DaveC]

Thus spake Bill:

You need a wiring diagram. They are in the Pre-delivery instruction manual, available (listed by the model/year of your spa) on this page:

They are PDF files for which you will need an application that can view these.

Good luck, Dave

[Bill]

I do have GFCIs, and everything is to code. I contacted the manufacturer twice, and they were no help. I also contacted two of the local dealers. Plus I contacted a local firm that repairs spas, and they said they don't work on Hot Spring. Go figure.

[Bill]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the URL. I had looked there, and got the oldest manual they have, which has the IC 2000 control box. Mine has what looks like an earlier box with a junction box on the side. The wiring diagram for the Grandee shows five wires connecting to the control box, but I have six. It is a Grandee, but they don;t have the manuals. I even called the manufacturer directly. They said they would send one, but did not.

I have electricians in the family, but they're not sure either.

Thanks for the ideas, but I'm still puzzled...

[Bill]

I called another Hot Spring location and spoke with the owner, who knew the model. I need to install another breaker (20A 110). The black wire goes there. This spa is probably a 1990, and back then they had three breakers. Later models had only two breakers, 30A and a 20A. That's all I installed.

Thanks folks,

Ever iterating toward a solution...

Bill

[Steve Barker LT]

OK, how old is older? the owners manuals are available here.

Also, the actual placement of the wires is obviously more important than the colors. The original installer could have used any color of wire. Here's a link to my 3 year old diagram, if the terminal strip on your pack looks like this, you could possibly trace carefully each terminal and see where it goes in the disconnect box. Mine only uses a total of 6 wires (4 hots, a ground and a neutral) and there is no black mentioned.

I left the scan rather large, so you can zoom in to the detail.

hope this helps, and if you have any doubts, get your electrician or hot springs installer out there.

[Bill]

Thanks Steve. I believe it is a 1990 model. They only have 1999 and newer manuals on their site. Their customer service line is useless--in several calls I have not gotten through to a human. On their site they say call the local retailer, and the local retailer says call Watkins Manufacturing. Every time I leave another message on their customer service line requesting the manual I get more frustrated with them and more likely to tell friends the company has issues.

I can't get to the power jumper because the box is very hard to access. I'd have to spend a full day unhooking it and hooking it back up to fine out which wire goes where.

Hot Spr> OK, how old is older? the owners manuals are available here.

[Bill]

Update: have upgraded my opinion of Hot Spring. One of the reps at Watkins came through with flying colors and provided the information. It's now all wired up and fired up.