MasterTemp Heater Auto Bypass Success!

[TonyR68]

Heater keeps flashing Cool Down, and the valve will not open the bypass. I can cycle the power to the heater, and everything resets, and the same thing happens again. I matched the cool down setting in IC to 1 min, to see if that worked, it did not.

So at the moment, I am at a standstill on the on-board heater bypass valve until I can get in touch with Pentair support. Wondering if anyone out there who has a later model heater with this functionality, and has it running, has seen this?

Hi All,

It has been some time that we've had this cooldown issue with the Connected MasterTemp heater and the use of the auto by-pass IntelliValve connected to the heater's control board (not to the IntelliCenter). I've been somewhat persistent with Pentair to get it addressed (I did not have a spare slot for another IntelliValve on the IntelliCenter). Pentair had sent me a version 2.00 Heater Control Board, but that did not solve the problem! Finally I received from Pentair a custom board to test. I installed the board and it worked. The heater no longer got stuck on Cooldown!! I checked numerous scenarios and they all worked. I did have an issue when I switched off the spa, while calling for heat (more on that below, as it does not seem to be cooldown related). All the following scenarios work:
1) Set Spa On, select MasterTemp heater, Set desired temperature above current actual. Action: Bypass deactivates, and Heat is called. (this is the only scenario that previously worked).
2) Once the Set/desired temperature is reached. Action: call for heat is stopped (heater goes idle), Cooldown is triggered (1 minute), bypass is automatically triggered
3) When actual heat falls below set/desired temperature or manually increased. Action: Bypass is automatically deactivated; heater calls for heat again.
4) If I switch off the MasterTemp heater (not the Spa) while calling for heat. Action: Pump continues to work, Cooldown is triggered, bypass is automatically triggered after cooldown.

From my perspective this is working well. Since this was a one-off Heater Control Board (Version 2.00 plus enhancements), I would imagine that one would need to wait for the next official version of the board. By the way, I'm using IntelliCenter Firmware version 2.017.

Now to the issue and may be there is some guidance from TFP members as it might be an IntelliCenter setup issue.

If I switch off the Spa mode while heater is calling for heat (Heating red light on membrane pad is on). The pump switches off immediately. On the heater - even though no water is flowing - it still goes into cooldown mode and after about 1 minute the bypass reactivates. IntelliCenter did not keep the pump on while the heater completed its actions. FYI, I do have cooldown set to 1 minute on the IntelliCenter, even though - I understand - the MasterTemp does not use that setting and has a fixed 1 minute cooldown period. Any guidance on this issue? If my setup is all good, I will follow-up with Pentair.

Very happy that this bug has finally been addressed! It had been quite irritating having to power cycle the heater after each use of the Spa in order to reset the bypass!

Copying a few on this post, as they had previously expressed an interest in this topic.
@Turbo1Ton @rstrouse @tomas21 @kracklow @pskkd930 @MyAZPool @kraigkoobs @thezookman @KevMo @ajw22 @Ahultin @Turbo1Ton

Tony

 

[bradgray]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the issue. Are you concerned about the cool down and valve action in the absence of flow or are you confused by the pump stalling?

If the pump: do you have an underlying Pool schedule? This is required for it to resume Pool mode. Otherwise, the spa off toggle does what it would do if switched in Pool mode - shut off the pump.

Try clicking the Pool toggle to cancel Spa mode instead, like you would do when switching into the Spa mode.

If the pump kept running, I would expect the behavior you've described with the bypass.

 

[ajw22]

Great news Tony.

Pentair is going to need to get that MasterTemp board with your fixes available with some warranty program or Pentair Support will suddenly get a bunch of warranty calls requesting the MasterTemp special Tony board.

I run my pool 24/7 and when SPA mode is turned off it reverts back to POOL mode. So I have never needed to watch the pump stay running for the heater cooldown.

 

[TonyR68]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the issue. Are you concerned about the cool down and valve action in the absence of flow or are you confused by the pump stalling?

If the pump: do you have an underlying Pool schedule? This is required for it to resume Pool mode. Otherwise, the spa off toggle does what it would do if switched in Pool mode - shut off the pump.

Try clicking the Pool toggle to cancel Spa mode instead, like you would do when switching into the Spa mode.

If the pump kept running, I would expect the behavior you've described with the bypass.

Thanks for the feedback. I don’t run the pool 24/7, so when the spa is set to off, the pool does not reengage.

The work around for me is to not power off the spa immediately, but to set the heater to off first, allow for the cooldown period and then switch off the spa. My expectation is that the IntelliCenter should know that the heater is firing and even though the user has requested to power off the spa, it must allow for cooldown before stopping the pump. I’ve never used the fireman’s switch Connection, but what happens in that scenario? Does the IntelliCenter cooldown parameter keep the pump going until safe to power off the pump?

Best regards

Tony

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Thanks for updating us on this, Tony.

I agree, the cooldown delay in the IntelliCenter should keep the pump running (according to the literature) the amount of time you have selected. I would address this with Pentair.

I can't advise any further as I run my pump 24/7 so it never turns off. I've never tried setting this feature up.



--Jeff

 

[Turbo1Ton]

After attempting to decipher pentair-ese a bit more, I think the cooldown mode only applies to turning off the heater, and not turning off the actual spa circuit. I am not sure why they wouldn't link these together but it may be operating the way they intended.

They also indicate that Pentair heaters do not require the cooldown delay.



--Jeff

 

[Turbo1Ton]

It also appears from the users guide snips above, that you have to set the delay time, and also turn on the delay under delay settings. Just setting the time does not appear to actually turn on the heater cool down delay.

--Jeff

 

[TonyR68]

Hi Jeff,

That did it. The heater cooldown delay was set to Off. now everything works as expected.

Thank you!

Tony

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Hi Jeff,

That did it. The heater cooldown delay was set to Off. now everything works as expected.

Thank you!

Tony

Sweet! Thanks for following up!

--Jeff

 

[KevMo]

It is nice to hear that Pentair knows how to address the issue, because it is annoying the way it works now. You have to power down the heater (via the pump relay for me) to get the heater cool down mode to reset. Otherwise, it will never (partially) close the heater bypass. I hope Pentair fully rolls out the fix while my heater is still under warranty.

 

[JulianCaesar]

It is nice to hear that Pentair knows how to address the issue, because it is annoying the way it works now. You have to power down the heater (via the pump relay for me) to get the heater cool down mode to reset. Otherwise, it will never (partially) close the heater bypass. I hope Pentair fully rolls out the fix while my heater is still under warranty.

Did you ever get a resolution here?

Thanks!