Heater/control panel/ breaker issue

Jump to latest Follow Reply
S

smithchar526

0
May 24, 2018
6
Martinsville IN
Just looking for suggestion, I’ll likely get someone out to service the hot tub.
It’s a royal spa empress. I don’t know it’s history, we bought a house a few years ago and it came with it.
Last year I had some issues with the gfci. breaker flipping and it got worse overtime to the point it would trip as soon as I turned it back. I replaced the breaker and that appears to resolve it but now a year later it’s going it again.

at the same time I also have some issues with the heater/control panel. Sometimes when the heater would kick on, it will just flip on/off/on/off very fast (the light on the control panel also goes on/off). Sometimes it would do it a few times and be fine without me touching it. Others I could get it to stop and heat correctly by moving the temp gauge back and forth until it stayed on. There has been several times I have come out to the hot tub being cold and the heater not on until I move the controller just right.

another thing that could relate to both items is the last couple times we used it the breaker flipped when turning the lights on but that is the first that has happened.

my thought was the control panel could be going bad and maybe I should just replace it and hope that solves the heating problem and just maybe solve the breaker trip issue but after reading some things I could be issues with something else.

im thinking maybe I’d be better off spending the money to have someone come a service it and see what they think the issue is. I should be able to replace the control panel myself but if I start getting into tracking corroded wiring I think I’d rather just have someone else look at it.

Any thoughts on the issue? It could be 2 separate issues but I’m hoping it’s one thing causing both but don’t know much about the electronics of a hot tub.
 
Jimrahbe said:
526,

The main cause for popping a GFCI breaker on a hot tub is a bad heater..

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
Thanks. That was the debate on if it was the heater or the control panel or maybe if moisture was an issue. Do you know of an easy way to tell if it’s the heater? One reason why I thought control panel was when my wife turned the lights off it kicked the breaker two times no but as I said before it wasn’t doing that before so I guess it’s possible both items are an issue
 
Oh yeah, old school. The on/off of the heater is either the result of a dirty/ bad filter or failing component, probably thermostat (you have 2) or pressure switch. That cycling can cause nuisance trip of the gfci from arcing at the relay, which is being destroyed by it. How rapidly does it cycle?
Heaters are the most common cause of gfci trips, and in many cases will trip it immediately. But a bad heater will trip every time it is turned on, not work for a while then randomly trip.
The light tripping the breaker is strange. Most spa lighting is 12vdc and can't directly trip the breaker, but not all. Can you turn off power and remove the cover from the control box and give me a close-up pic of the wiring and components?
 
RDspaguy said:
Oh yeah, old school. The on/off of the heater is either the result of a dirty/ bad filter or failing component, probably thermostat (you have 2) or pressure switch. That cycling can cause nuisance trip of the gfci from arcing at the relay, which is being destroyed by it. How rapidly does it cycle?
Heaters are the most common cause of gfci trips, and in many cases will trip it immediately. But a bad heater will trip every time it is turned on, not work for a while then randomly trip.
The light tripping the breaker is strange. Most spa lighting is 12vdc and can't directly trip the breaker, but not all. Can you turn off power and remove the cover from the control box and give me a close-up pic of the wiring and components?
Click to expand...
As far as the breaker tripping.....last year it would trip once a month maybe then progress to weekly, daily, to as soon as I flip it back on. I’d say that was over a 4-5month period. Then replaced the breaker fuse and it was fine and maybe flipped a couple of times over winter and just now started tripping daily and now to where it flipped as soon as I turned it back on. The one thing I have been trying to track is if it’s worse when it rains. It’s possible but can’t say for sure. The day I just left it off since it tripped as soon as it kicked on it was raining.
The heater part has not directly related to the breaker tripping. It just sometimes doesn’t kick on, or it will sometimes kick on/off/on/off quickly which I can hear happening. Then it will either just stop doing that and heat or I have to mess with the control panel up top adjusting it slowly up and down until it kicks on and stays on. Can’t say for sure how long that works for. It would work for serial days or hours. All I know is I’ll come back to it in a day or two and won’t be heating but sometimes it’s still hot so couldn’t have been off for too long or it’s cold so it was off for awhile. It’s not really consistent.
So far the only thing that is consistent is the breaker gets weaker overtime until it appears to stop working. Unless I have a short thats is getting wet from rain ect and that just happens to be when I notice the breaker flipped and won’t kick back on because it’s still wet.
I’ll try to get a pic of the inside of the panel if I can but I might be best to get someone familiar with the components until I better understand all the parts in the hot tub.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RDspaguy
The breaker will wear out the more it trips. But I agree, you might want to call a pro. This could get hairy. Problem is, there aren't many of us who can work on these older packs anymore. New stuff is all digital, self diagnosing systems. This one takes some knowledge. Look around for that guy, don't just schedule with the first to answer the phone. Tell them it has a dial for a thermostat, that should scare off the newbies.
 
526,

A simple test for the heater is to just disconnect it... Most of them have terminals on the end of the wires from the heater itself..

I agree with RD... Heaters do not tend to be intermittent, they either work or they don't.

To me, it is so simple to disconnect and eliminate them as the possible problem, it is the first thing I would do.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Certainly wouldn't hurt anything to disconnect it, but you may find it stops tripping without a load on it when the thermostat starts to chatter, and then trips again when you replace the heater that you thought was the problem. One of the joys of a non-digital system.
If you have an electrical tester check the heater terminals for continuity to the heater tube or ground. Any reading other than infinite is a bad heater and will trip the breaker. If your heater is bad and it is not consistently tripping you have a bad breaker or improper wiring.
But my money is on contactor arcing resulting from thermostat chatter. Going to need a thermostat or topside, depending on which is causing the chatter, and probably a contactor.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply