GFCI Trips after Poweroutage

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hottub2024!

Member
Jan 4, 2025
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2024hottub
Here it goes: 2010 Sundance Optima, recent power outage of course tripped the GFCI breaker
Now everything's dead.
Replaced the GFCI with a new one (60 amp).Went through all the troubleshooting steps, disconnected pumps, heater, ozonator, circ. pump.
Power goes to hot tub.
GFCI seems to trip first and then I gear a relay clicking at the hoot tub control panel.

What am I missing?
Thank you in advance for everyone's help.
 
Welcome to TFP.

Is there an electrical circuit diagram for the tub on the inside of a panel that you can post a picture of?

Maybe @RDspaguy knows that model.
 
Did you disconnect TB1, TB5, TB2, TB6 and TB4?

All that should be connected is the control panel with J3, J4, J6, J7, and J8.
 
How long does it take to trip?

hottub2024! said:
Replaced the GFCI with a new one (60 amp).Went through all the troubleshooting steps, disconnected pumps, heater, ozonator, circ. pump.
Power goes to hot tub.
Click to expand...
So, you disconnected everything and now it doesn't trip?

hottub2024! said:
What am I missing?
Click to expand...
I'm not even sure what you found, much less what you're missing.🤣
Top 3 causes of old gfci trips are; faulty heater, wet blower (usually from overfill), and wet ozone generator (check valve, mazzei).
Top 3 causes of new gfci trips are; wiring, wiring, and wiring. Bad breaker comes in about #17.
So, are you sure it's wired correctly?
All components are 240v and must have the common (white) wire disconnected as well as the switched "hot" (black/red) when troubleshooting.
Power outages rarely damage components, unless it happens when the heater is on which could possibly cause a boil-out and damage some stuff. Power surges, on the other hand (including nearby lightning strikes), can and do damage multiple system components. They also usually damage other stuff in your home. Anything else not working? If so, call your homeowners' insurance.
Give a detailed and clear description of what it's doing and I might be of more help.
 
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Alright then: disconnected all TB (1, 2 , 4, 5, 6 - pump 1 & 2, circ pump, heater & ozonator).
Still trips the breaker.
I had replaced the gfci breaker with a newer one (spa is 14 years old and the local electrical wholesaler luckily had 1 that fit the box).
For kicks and grins I disconnected the power supply for the control board, still trips the gfci breaker.
Checked the wiring in the gfci box -didn't find any issues (multimeter).
Checked all the fuses on the control board - they're all okay (multimeter).
Odd that even with all pumps, heater, blower & ozonator as well as the power to the control board disconnected, it still trips the gfci.

It takes about 2-3 seconds to trip the gfci
 

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  • 2010 Sundance Optima 880 Control Board (Jan 2025).jpg
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JamesW said:
Is this a varistor wired in?

If yes, who did this and why?

View attachment 624214
Click to expand...
The factory.
hottub2024! said:
For kicks and grins I disconnected the power supply for the control board, still trips the gfci breaker.
Click to expand...
Disconnect the main power wires from the spa and test breaker. If it trips it's not the spa.

hottub2024! said:
Odd that even with all pumps, heater, blower & ozonator as well as the power to the control board disconnected, it still trips the gfci.
Click to expand...
sounds like a breaker issue to me.
 
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The GFI would be my first guess as well - when I installed mine, I was moving a little too quickly (it was getting late and cold, but that's not an excuse not to RTFM) and missed that extra terminal that passes the neutral through the GFI. And I'm an EE, making it a little embarrassing...

The only thing that suggests this isn't the case with yours is that you say it's tripping out a few seconds after you power it up. In my case it threw out immediately.
 
Sectionalize, sectionalize, sectionalize.

Disconnect the load wires from the GFCI and see if it trips

Reconnect the load wires, but remove them entirely from the hot tub (and cap them) and see if it trips

etc, etc, etc
 
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Still not making Any progress (slightly frustrated and pride being to fix something doesn't let me call an electrician😁).
Here is my GFCI breaker box setup - took a pic before exchanging the old GFCI breaker with this new one.
It still trips.
I can hear the circulation pump come on for 1 second and then it trips.
My thought is that power from the breaker panel in the garage supplies power to this breaker, there shouldn't be an issue there.

One more question: how do I test, with a multimeter, if the GFCI is faulty ?
I showed 122 on both the red and black wires (from the main breaker box)
What am I missing between the GFCI breaker and the hot tub?

Thank you all for your help.👍👍
 

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  • Optima 880 GFCI Breaker Box.jpg
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Last edited:
You're missing the point. It's not the tub that needs the neutral, it's the GFI. Take a closer look at the breaker, or even better, RTFM. It's a little hard to tell from the photo what's going on with all the white wires, but there's another neutral terminal on the GFI, apart from the white pigtail. One of them is for the incoming neutral, the other goes to the load.

And you're not going to perform any meaningful test on the GFI with a VOM/DVM. It's too complicated (internally) for that.
 

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