Hot tub trips GFI breaker?

Question

Anyone have any ideas for what might make a hot tub trip the GFI breaker when there is no water anywhere near the electrical circuit? I ran three wire 220 from my panel out to the hot tub in the back yard. Again, bone dry everywhere except inside the spa. no leaks. Is there a typical point of failure? Its a 4 person older spa, I think the brand is polynesian spas or something like that.

Thanks!

Answer 1

220 can be fatal, a tripping breaker is telling you that something is seriously wrong with either the wiring, or the components in the spa, get a qualified electrician to check it out, the life you save could be someone other than you.

Answer 2

You are leaving out a lot of critical information, forcing us to do a lot of guessing to answer your question. For example, you don't tell us if it trips immediately every time or randomly.

First, make sure your have the correct sized breaker for your hot tub. Too big is unsafe, and too small will cause the breaker to trip.

Do you have an ozonator? Does the problem occur even if the ozonator is disconnected? (That's one of the most common points of failure.)

I can run through the troubleshooting procedure with you, but it's completely different for an always immediate trip than it is for an occasional random trip. (Basically, you disconnect or shut off things and see if it still happens to isolate the problem.)

Answer 3

Sometimes if the breaker is trying to pull to much electrcity it will flip.

Here is a way to solve it ... cheap but probably not safe.. I did it for my house. (not on a spa though)

change the GFI breaker with a normal outlet and it will not trip.

Answer 4

Regardless of what a GFI breaker is wired to, it will trip when it is either improperly wired or there is a short to ground.  It does need the presence or lack of presence of water to trip.  That is why it is called a Ground Fault Interrupter type breaker.  The breaker itself may be defective.  Mechanical things fail in time.  If it is new or recently installed, remove wire from the spa and cap off the wires.  If you turn the breaker back on and it still trips, you need to check the wire from the breaker to the spa.  You may find a nick in the insulation.  If the breaker only trips when connected to the spa, there may be a bad ground connection there.  Check for frayed wires, loose connections, or wires cross touching.  If you are uncomfortable with doing this, call your local electrician to check the exact cause.  They are qualified to do this kind of work.  Electrical work is dangerous if not done correctly and safely.

Answer 5

Test the system by plugging it into another outlet that still has a breaker.  The last thing you want to do is bypass your safety net and end up with an electrical meltdown or fire.  If it functions properly, replace the GFI breaker.  If it does, there is likely a short within the motors or miles of wiring in your tub.  It may take some hunting, but with an ohm meter/voltage meter from Radio Shack, you should be able to find the issue.

Make sure the GFI is rated for the Amperage as well as the voltage.

Answer 6

It could be that your GFI breaker is undersized for the circuit.

Did you split up the 220 with one side going to each side of the panel? If you put both 110 sides or the entire 220 circuit on one side of the panel - it could be that that side is overloaded. We often try to balance each side of the panel with about the same load.

Make sure your panel on the hot tub does not have the heater, jets all turned out at once - try turning off all features on the hot tub and then just turning them on one at a time.

You also could have a bad start capacitor on the pump itself.

It also could be the length of the circuit. If you use the correct wire size for the length of the run you will be ok. Let's say you have 25' run, depending on the amps pulled from the hot tub, I would have used a #6 or #8 wire. If you used #10 or #12 your wire size x length of run may be causing the problem.

Good Luck

Answer 7

one possibility is a bad gfi breaker... they don,t last forever

the other is a bad motor or pump( do these work at all?)  Any little ground fault is suppose to trip the gfi so check all exposed wiring for any nicks etc. especially in contact with metal.    Also hot tub must have a good ground ,separate from the power supply