Intermittent Pentair Ultratemp Heat Pump

[Sodium Chloride]

Ultratemp installed 1/2021 worked fine until 3 weeks ago. Intellicenter app shows pool/spa heating but Heatpump(HP) unit is in alarm. HP LCD screen is barely legible, mostly black lines, so I can't read the alarms being displayed. I checked the wiring and found the yellow wire to the J2 gas connector loose at the intellicenter control board. I reconnected yellow wire (green wire is ok) and everything started working normal again, except for the HP LCD screen.

HP was working fine yesterday, heating water to 84. This morning I checked HP again because of low pool temp and HP was in alarm. As soon as I opened top pull down door at intellicenter the HP kicked on and started heating the water. I checked all wiring for good connections, nicks and abrasions, and everything checked out ok. I went to use the spa this evening. App shows water at 83 and I have it set to 98. After 30 mins water was still 83. I went to HP and it is again showing a red alarm. It's dark now, so I will be troubleshooting tomorrow. Has anyone else experienced these intermittent symptoms?

 

[ajw22]

Keep looking. Something is loose.

 

[Sodium Chloride]

Circled in red is the previous found loose yellow wire at the J2 gas jumper in the Intellicenter control panel.
Today I found the red wire from the water temp sensor loose in the Intellicenter control panel. All other connections are solid.
I found a large ant colony in the flow switch cover of the heat pump.
It's hard to see but the bottom half of the LCD is all black, so I can't scroll through alarms. I was hoping to just replace the LCD screen, but it is soldered in place. I'll probably have to replace the entire HP control board.
The heat pump power button is acting up. If you give a quick press the green power light flashes but doesn't change on/off state. If you press it too long it flashes but doesn't change the on/off state. It takes multiple attempts to turn on or off.
Now to the problem:
As soon as pool/spa calls for heat the red service light on the HP control panel illuminates. LCD display reads ALARM STATUS on top line, I cannot read the bottom line it's all black. If I press the down arrow The LCD display will read PREVIOUS ALARM #1, repeated presses of down arrow will bring it to PREVIOUS ALARM 30. Up arrow does nothing. Pressing the MENU/SELECT button will scroll the display thru different readings I can't remember them all but some were, ALARM STATUS, SUCTION TEMP, SPA IDLE, POOL IDLE, HEAT MODE, SENSING WATER TEMP. The sensing water temp display is shown more than any other display, (could this be the problem?).
At this point I went in to the house for about 15 mins leaving all covers and doors open. When I returned I decided I was going to put it into service mode. As soon as I lifted the upper door to the Intellicenter control panel(not in service mode yet) the Heat Pump fan kicked on for about ten seconds (coincidence?). The red service light was off. After about a min the fan kicked back on and stayed on. Minutes later the compressor kicked on. I started putting the panels of the HP back in place. About 15 mins later the HP shut down and red service light was back on. The LCD display was showing sensing water temp.

I entered service mode to run just the VSP and HP. Everything worked fine using the timeout control in the intellicenter. It was set for 3 hrs but I returned to auto mode after 2 hrs of uninterrupted heating. For now everything is working again in auto mode. I can change from pool/spa and the HP is totally happy. I am still very confused. I can't stand intermittent troubles, too many guesses involved. It would seem the intellicenter is causing the issue since it worked flawlessly in service mode, but on the other hand it is working fine right now in auto mode. Any/all ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

[Sodium Chloride]

UPDATE-My pool is set to run from 9A to 6P and it calls for heat when water is below 84. This morning pump turned on but heat did not. Intellicenter shows water temp 79 pool heating, but the heat pump is in alarm and not on. LCD on HP says sensing water temp. I heard HP kick on at 11A and it's been on since. Water is now 83 and I set temp to 86 to make it run longer. LCD says spa heating. Frustrated to say the least

 

[ajw22]

Intermittent problems are the most frustrating, And your blank display panel is not helping you in diagnostics.

 

[Sodium Chloride]

Finally found the problem! I should've started here first. In a previous post I showed I found a large ant nest under neath the pressure switch canopy. You can see the green corrosion on the contacts to the switch, probably from the formic acid that ants produce. When I tested the switch last month across TBL pins 3&4 it worked fine, and the Heatpump continued to work intermittently. I ended up needlessly replacing the capacitor and obviously nothing changed (except now I have a spare capacitor). I started trbl shooting all over again. This time I found the pressure switch was showing various readings between 8k-9k ohms. With a little jiggling of the wires at the pressure switch (shown in red box) resistance dropped into the hundreds but I couldn't get an accurate reading. Eventually the contact on the pressure switch broke off. As a test, I shorted the 2 white wires bypassing the pressure switch. Everything is now working normal and a new pressure switch has been ordered. Until the new part arrives, I am running the heat manually not through automation, to make sure water is flowing through the heat pump before it kicks on.