it looks like many who were helping you along have bailed on this. and for good reason. i know you are trying to save money, but just hire a pro......
Water gives electrical shock and heater doesn't stop heating...are both connected:
- Thread starter BradRose
- Start date
Wiring from the house would go to the LINE side. The connection to the hot tub would be on the LOAD side.
Yes disconnect the heater and test again. The GFCI is now working as it should because there is a low impedance (low resistance) path to ground through the water bond. Before the only path it had was via you you touching the water and the ground which had a high enough resistance to stay above the 6mA limit of the GFCI but low enough for you to feel a shock.
It looks like he has a bad heating element. I'm guessing the heating element is similar to the ones on an electric stove, you don't get a shock if the element is touched or you stir something in a pot because of insulation. If part of the insulating material is cracked then electricity can flow directly into the water. That should have tripped the GFI but something was wired wrong. It sounds like he might have that corrected & now needs to replace the heating element with a new one. He should have a pro inspect his work, if the insulation had failed while he was using the spa we'd be sending flowers.
I took out the gfi that leads to the shed so the house wire goes to a light switch in the shed that feeds to the hot tub gfi..gfi on hot tub is still tripping. I'll look in the light switch box for any bad wires.
But yes..seems like a bad heating element..2nd one in 5 years.
But yes..seems like a bad heating element..2nd one in 5 years.
I noticed the pressure switch was beeping when I held the voltage testor to it. As soon as I turn the tub on the GFI is tripping and when I disconnect the third black wire the tub runs and doesn't trip the GFI ...is this part of the heating system?
There's no voltage in the tub water or water through the pipes when this third black wire is disconnected...all other wires for the heater are connected and no GFI tripping...
So, GFI doesn't rip unless the third wire down is connected. Seems strange to have 3 hot wires going to this..Could this be my OPEN GROUND problem?
There's no voltage in the tub water or water through the pipes when this third black wire is disconnected...all other wires for the heater are connected and no GFI tripping...
So, GFI doesn't rip unless the third wire down is connected. Seems strange to have 3 hot wires going to this..Could this be my OPEN GROUND problem?
I noticed the pressure switch was beeping when I held the voltage testor to it. As soon as I turn the tub on the GFI is tripping and when I disconnect the third black wire the tub runs and doesn't trip the GFI ...is this part of the heating system?
There's no voltage in the tub water or water through the pipes when this third black wire is disconnected...all other wires for the heater are connected and no GFI tripping...
So, GFI doesn't rip unless the third wire down is connected. Seems strange to have 3 hot wires going to this..Could this be my OPEN GROUND problem?
http://livingbetter.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/part.jpg
The hot tub motor gives off a strange load hum when I turn it on to high ( jets on full ) and kicks the GFI out...This is why I'm thinking the pressure switch is buggered as the heater goes through it.
When I disconnected the heater I still had the gfi tripping...When I disconnected the 3rd wire down on the pressure switch, the gfi did not trip...the heat wiring is through the pressure switch.
I have a heater I was going to wire up outside of the housing and see if the gfi trips. If not, I'll pull apart the heater assembly and install then. This is an old school set up where the heater is inside white tubing and needs to be rotated out, unlike newer heaters that come out easy peasy..