What Does the Control Box Light Mean When My Push Buttons Stop Working?

The green light on the blue control box tells you one thing: whether power is reaching the box. If the light is dark while the outlet is live, the box or its power cord is not passing power. If the light is lit while nothing responds, the box has power but the signal is being lost after it, usually a loose air hose, an unplugged pump or a box that has dropped its configuration and needs a reset. The jets, the heated seat and the deck buttons all pass through that one box, which is why several functions tend to quit together, and the symptom by symptom checklist in What Should I Do If My Walk-In Tub Buttons Stopped Working? picks up where this page leaves off.

What the Control Box Is Doing Behind the Panel

Ella push buttons are pneumatic. Pressing one sends a puff of air down a small tube to the control box, and that air trips a relay inside the box, which switches the pump, the blower or the light. You can hear the relay as an audible click at the box when a button is pressed. The first video on this page walks through two master control boxes and shows where everything plugs in: the heated seat pads, the air pump, the water pump and the main power inlet, plus the air tube connectors for the water pump, air blower and light push buttons, the display port for the digital keypad, the chromatherapy light connector and the configuration switch used to program the box. The green light sits on the box and comes on when power is flowing into it.

The video also shows that the power inlet is not the same on every box. One box takes a standard three prong 15 amp plug, while the other uses a 20 amp plug with one vertical and one horizontal blade, which needs a matching 20 amp receptacle. That matters when a cord looks seated but the box stays dark, because the plug and the receptacle have to match.

The second video shows the push button side of the same system. The red tube must be pushed firmly onto the box and secured to the push button with its locking nut, and when the button is pressed you should hear the click inside the box that says the relay has fired.

Reading the Light: Four Situations

• Light dark, outlet live. Power is reaching the wall but not the box. Check that the power cord is fully seated in the box inlet and that the plug type matches the receptacle. If both are right, the box or its cord is the part, and the massage systems will not run until it is replaced.
• Light dark, outlet dead. The GFCI outlet serving the tub has tripped, or the dedicated breaker is off. Press Reset on the GFCI first. A GFCI can trip without the breaker at the house panel ever moving, so a breaker that looks fine does not rule this out.
• Light lit, nothing responds. Power is fine. Either every air hose has come loose at once, which is rare, or the box has lost its configuration and needs the control box reset described below.
• Light lit, one function dead. The box is working and the fault is on one path. On a tub with several pumps, one dead massage is very often a pump or its cord that is simply not plugged in, or a pump on a different circuit whose own GFCI or breaker has tripped. The pumps are not all on one circuit.

There is one exception to the rule that everything runs through the box. Depending on how your tub was built, the LED chromatherapy light may run from the master box or from its own small control box and transformer. If the light stopped at the same moment as the jets and the seat, look upstream first for a tripped GFCI or a cord pulled loose behind the panel, because the power feed is the only thing the light and the massage systems are certain to share.

Finding the Box and the GFCI

Remove the large magnetic access panel in front of the seat. A butter knife slipped behind the edge will pry it loose. The blue control box is screwed to the frame, with three air hoses, three power plugs and the green LED on its face. The GFCI outlet that serves the tub is often behind the same panel, so check it before you go looking for a breaker.

Turn the power off at the breaker before you handle any hose, plug or cord around the controls, and restore it only to read the light and test a function. Before you test any pump function, fill the tub until the water sits at least 1 inch above the highest jets. Never run a pump on a dry tub, because a dry run causes permanent damage that is not covered.

When the Light Is Lit but the Buttons Are Dead

1. Press the dead button and listen at the box. A click means the relay is working and the fault is on the pump side, so confirm the pump and its power cord are plugged in and that the circuit for that pump is live.
2. No click means the air signal is not arriving. Read the labels on the white face of the box. The Water button connects to Pump #1 Airswitch, the Air button to Blower/Pump #2 Airswitch and the Light button to the Light Airswitch. Push and twist each tube firmly onto its nipple, and check that the locking nut at the button end is tight.
3. If a button stays pressed down, that is an air lock, not a broken part. Disconnect its tube at the control box so the button pops back up, then reconnect the tube.
4. Swap the dead button's hose with the light hose and press the Light button. If the Light button now starts the pump but the dead button still does not turn on the light, the button or its hose is the fault. If the dead button now turns on the light but the Light button does not start the pump, the button and hose are fine and the pump path is the problem.
5. If functions are scrambled, or everything is still dead with the light lit, run the control box reset. After a correct reset the green LED blinks four times, turns off and then goes solid green. Reconnect the labeled lines and test each function.

If Your Tub Has the Digital Touchpad

The touchpad plugs into the display port on the control box and performs the same functions the push buttons would, and its backlight stays on whenever the box has power. That gives you a second indicator to read against the green light. A dark pad with a lit control box points at the display cable: find the display port on the box and reseat the keypad plug, pushing firmly and handling the connector slowly to protect the pins. A dark pad with a dark control box means the power path, not the pad, as Why Isn't My Digital Control Pad Lighting Up? explains. A lit pad that ignores your touch is often a gesture issue rather than a fault, because the pad starts a system with a single touch and stops it with a two second hold. Why Won't My Ella Digital Touchpad Respond When I Press a Button? walks through each gesture, and How Do I Use Every Function on the Ella Digital Control Panel? covers the panel one function at a time.

When to Open a Ticket

If the light stays dark with a live outlet and a seated cord, or stays lit after a reset while the functions are still dead, the box or a pump is the likely part. Electronic controls, including the control box and the touchpad, are covered parts under the Lifetime Limited Warranty on supporting equipment. Ella does not send technicians, so replacement parts ship under the warranty and a local licensed electrician handles any wiring. For the fastest answer, have your model name, your serial number from the label behind the magnetic access panel next to the door, which button is affected, whether you hear a click from the box, and a photo of the control box showing its green light. Then reach your Ella dealer or the team at ellasbubbles.com/support or (800) 480-6850.

Watch: Push Button Control Issues and Repair with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Blue Control Box Has No Power Light, or the Air Pump Runs Constantly: Diagnosis, Replacement and Returning the Old Box
• How to Reset Your Walk-In Tub Control Box Step by Step
• One Push Button Does Nothing While the Others Work: The Breaker Check and the Hose Swap Test

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