TROUBLESHOOTING : BLEEDING THE PUMPS TO REMOVE AIRLOCK in your Sapphire Spa

Here we run through the troubleshooting steps you can try yourself to bleed the air from your spa pumps to remove an airlock. If you need any further assistance, please give our Melbourne service department a call from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday or your local Sapphire Spas retailer.
If you turn your spa on & the touchpad gives you an error message, it will be the filtration pump that needs attention, so let me show you how to do that now.
If your priming is complete, & you turn on one of the massage pumps but no water comes out of the jets, you will have an airlock in the boost pump. This pump is easier to bleed and I’ll show you that next.
For safety purposes I’ll get you to turn off the main power supply to your spa.
Then you can release the all cabinet doors by undoing the screws with the allen key supplied with your spa. Lift out the cabinet doors to give you access to the workings of you spa.
Let’s take a look at the componentry under the cabinet.
This is what your filtration pump will look like; it’s the smallest out of all your pumps.
This is what the boost pump looks like, you can see it’s bigger compared to the filtration pump.
And this is the blower, which supplies air to the air injectors that are usually placed along the bottom of the seated areas.
This is the control box which is usually located in the cabinet door that’s directly under the touch pad.
This is a typical set up for a spa pool, the only difference is some have one boost pump and other larger spas have multiple larger boost pumps.
If you have a swim spa, you’re best to open the cabinet door which is under the seated area, as we need to install your equipment where we can find some space.
Locate the filtration pump first. As I mentioned earlier, if you’ve got an error message on your touchpad, it will be the filtration pump that needs attention.
On the left side of the pump, this is where to find the release valve. Open the release valve to about half way but be careful not to completely remove it. You should hear the air purging out and when you see water coming from the valve, the air has been released. You can then proceed to tighten the valve clockwise.
If the valve on your spa is not easy to access, loosen the barrel union on the right angle of the spa pump instead. This can be done using a screwdriver and hammer or monkey grip pliers as we can see being done now. When water is seen coming from the pipe, this shows that the air has been released. You can then proceed to tighten the barrel union.
Your spa is now ready and these troubleshooting steps should’ve rectified the air lock error. Replace the cabinet doors and turn your spa back on to enjoy.
If, when you initially turn you spa on, the priming sequence successfully completes but, when you turn on one of the massage pumps, no water comes out of the jets, you will have an airlock in the boost pump.
This pump is easier to bleed and I’ll show you that now.
Remove all the cabinet doors in the same way and locate the larger boost pump.
This boost pump has the same blue bleed valves and we are going to follow the same process using the top lug. Turn valve, release air, wait for water to dribble out, tighten back up, turn pump on at touchpad and jets will fire up. Keep note you may have more than one boost pump in your spa.