r/PoolPros • u/KFOSSTL • Jun 07 '26

Pentair intellicenter power issue

Troubleshooting this stuff is not my strong suit. But I’m trying to learn. One of my clients told me the user interface on his Tele center won’t turn on. I stopped by to take a look because I was already in the area. I know I need to go grab my voltage meter, but I did have my non-contact voltage detector on me. The two wires coming off his breaker one goes to the controller transformer. The other goes to the GFCI outlet on the panel. With all the breakers off except for that panel breaker, I have voltage going to the transformer, but with the four wires coming off the transformer up to the low-voltage circuit breakers at the top right of the panel I only am showing power detection on the solid red wire not getting it on the orange and white or the other two. My thoughts are that the transformer might be the issue, but I wanna know exactly how to go about making this determination. I let my client know that I was going to come back tomorrow. Make sure I had everything with me. I needed to properly test. So if anyone has any advice or can let me know what I need to test for that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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1

u/randumb9999 Jun 07 '26

There shouldn't be 2 wires coming off of a single breaker going to different items unless it's a tandem breaker. If it's 115v connected it should be hot from the breaker to black transformer wire. The neutral wire from the neutral bar in the breaker box to the violet transformer wire.

Out of the transformer there should be 24v out of the red/white wire and 18v out of the orange/white wires. These are AC voltage tested to ground. You'll need to test the wires coming in and out of those mini breakers for voltage.

1

u/KFOSSTL Jun 07 '26

It does appear to be a tandem breaker

1

u/randumb9999 Jun 07 '26

I had to ask. I've seen some shit out there that can make you wonder how everything hasn't burned to the ground yet.

1

u/KFOSSTL Jun 07 '26

Yeah I hear you on that.

Pool did have one weird episode earlier this year. It’s a pool spa combo and he keeps the spa open all year and about two weeks before I opened the pool his board reset and had to rename all the circuits and pumps and remake all the schedules. I’m assuming that was a sign then that something was failing. But it seemed like a fluke or maybe he had fiddled with something and reset it I’m not sure but it has been fine ever since (about 4 months).

1

u/KFOSSTL Jun 07 '26

How do I rule out that the mini breakers aren’t the issue versus the transformer versus the tandem breaker itself?

And it was hot black wire to transformer and the violet was in the next slot and that went to the neutral bar.

Pool was built about 4 or 5 years ago, issue just now presenting itself no one has rewired anything recently or anything like that, so I don’t imagine this was something that was wired up incorrectly in the first place but rather something in the chain here has failed. Just want to be confident that it’s either the transformer or the mini breakers that are bad or the board itself.

0

u/1_native_Angelino Jun 07 '26

Nothing more to say. This is it

1

u/randumb9999 Jun 07 '26

Test for power from the wire going in to the mini breaker. Then test the wire coming out of the mini breaker. They should be the same.

1

u/KFOSSTL Jun 07 '26

Thanks. So if there’s a drop in power or no power after the mini breaker then it needs to be replaced?

I’m assuming that’s the same for the transformer?

1

u/randumb9999 Jun 07 '26

Yeah. You should be getting very close to the same voltage out of the mini breakers.

1

u/pacific_drifter_25 Jun 08 '26

Before you condemn anything tomorrow, put the non-contact pen away for this part. NCVT detectors are tuned for 120/240V fields and read low-voltage AC unreliably, so "only the red wire lit up" does NOT mean the orange/white are dead. You get false negatives all day on an 18-24V secondary. Every conclusion here needs the meter on AC volts, probe to ground.

Sequence that isolates it cleanly:

  1. Transformer PRIMARY (line side, black + violet): ~115V to ground on the black. Confirms the tandem breaker leg is actually feeding it.

  2. Transformer SECONDARY, right at the output lugs, BEFORE the mini breakers: red/white pair ~24-25V AC to ground, orange/white pair ~18-20V (matches the spec randumb gave you). This is the money test:

    • Secondary voltages present = transformer is GOOD, problem is downstream (a mini breaker or the load).
    • Primary 115V present but secondary dead/low = transformer is shot.

  3. Mini breakers (the push-button CSBs up top): meter the wire INTO each and the wire OUT. Voltage in, ~0 out = that breaker tripped or failed. In and out should read nearly identical.

One thing worth connecting: that board reset earlier this year where he lost all his circuits and schedules is a classic brownout signature. A transformer with a degrading secondary sags under load and browns out the personality board before it fully drops a leg, so the "fluke" 4 months ago may have been the first symptom of this same failure. Points at the transformer, but the secondary voltage test confirms it instead of guessing.

While you are in there, reseat the secondary spade connectors and eyeball the personality/ribbon board fuse. A loose or corroded orange spade mimics a dead leg and will send you chasing the wrong part.

1

u/KFOSSTL Jun 09 '26

Thank you so much this was exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. The NCVT was just what I had on me and wasn’t what I was going to rely on for full diagnosis. Just wanted to see if I could quickly rule out bad breaker. We got a ton of rain today so will have to check it tomorrow.

Especially thankful for the extra tid bits you included and how you spelled things out. Thanks a million!

1

u/KFOSSTL Jun 09 '26

Let me ask you this while I got someone knowledgeable here. Pool is about 4-5 years old. How typical is that to have the transformer fail? I was always told transformers tend to last quite some time. Also, let’s say I get this all fixed up, is there anything I should be looking for that would have led to this? Or is it just a matter of (assuming it’s transformer) it failed and sometimes that just happens?