Hot tub GFCI tripping

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dwellselectric

dwellselectric

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Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Hello everyone I have an interesting problem at my inlaws. They have a Thermo spa about 8 years old or so and a few weeks ago it tripped and it wouldn't reset so I checked the voltage and removed the cover checked to see if water got into the control box. It was bone dry in there. The display panel on there tub has not been working for about a month so it's not possible to see what the temp is set it. But if I leave the cover to the control box open for about half hour or so I can reset the GFCI. Almost like the tub is getting to hot? Any ideas or help?
 
From my experience it will be hard to troubleshoot this if it only happened once. See if they/you can see a pattern as to when it trips. If it is consistent then you can probably troubleshoot it easier. If it is a GFCI breaker, is it tripping because of over load or N-G fault that makes the GFCI trip?
 
I am having a hard time understanding what is going on. Is there a switch on the door that shuts the system down when it is ajar? Did this only happen once. Is the display off all the time,? If so It appears a board in the unit may be out.
 
One of most common problems with GFCI tripping on spas if heater element failure, or at least starting to fail.

Try disconnecting element and see if unit functions otherwise. Good place to start anyway. If that doesn't help you may need a megger and test the element, and motor's first.
 
No it's a typical outside hot tube. It has tripped twice already when I let it sit for awhile I'm assuming enough time for it to cool down the GFCI will reset. This is my guess the touch pad on the hot tube hasn't worked in about a month so my guess is the the water temp is set really high and when the temp gets to high the GFCI resets as a saftey. Does that sound like a good guess or no? I'm at a loss here....
 
dwellselectric said:
No it's a typical outside hot tube. It has tripped twice already when I let it sit for awhile I'm assuming enough time for it to cool down the GFCI will reset. This is my guess the touch pad on the hot tube hasn't worked in about a month so my guess is the the water temp is set really high and when the temp gets to high the GFCI resets as a saftey. Does that sound like a good guess or no? I'm at a loss here....
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What do you mean when you say "the GFCI trips" ? Do you have a GFCI breaker or a GFCI protected contactor?
  1. If the GFCI breaker trips, then you need to find out if it is overload that makes it trip or it is neutral to ground fault that makes it trip? I would replace the GFCI breaker with a regular breaker and see if the regular breaker trips. If it does then you know there is a fault to ground or an overload. If the regular breaker doesn't trip then replace it with a new GFCI breaker and if IT trips then you would know there is a N-G fault.
  2. However, if there is already a regular breaker protecting the circuit but you have a GFCI protected contactor trips, then it may be a neutral to ground fault.
A GFCI device will not open against overload. I am 99% sure.
 
dwellselectric said:
No it's a typical outside hot tube. It has tripped twice already when I let it sit for awhile I'm assuming enough time for it to cool down the GFCI will reset. This is my guess the touch pad on the hot tube hasn't worked in about a month so my guess is the the water temp is set really high and when the temp gets to high the GFCI resets as a saftey. Does that sound like a good guess or no? I'm at a loss here....
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Time to meg the heater and pumps and anything else not containing solid state circuitry.

You realize that for water to get hot enough to be an issue for GFCI tripping you would be able to cook dinner in the tub?
 
dwellselectric said:
No it's a typical outside hot tube. It has tripped twice already when I let it sit for awhile I'm assuming enough time for it to cool down the GFCI will reset. This is my guess the touch pad on the hot tube hasn't worked in about a month so my guess is the the water temp is set really high and when the temp gets to high the GFCI resets as a saftey. Does that sound like a good guess or no? I'm at a loss here....
Click to expand...

It seems like it is easy to measure the water temperature.
 
As Kwired noted it usually is the heater element going bad that cause this problem. To troubleshoot ..............if you look at the board you will see all the components plugged in. Just remove one at a time until your fault clears and start with the heater and you can get your parts here http://shop.hottubparts.com/

andy
 
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