Circuit Breaker Trips

[Tubblin]

Hi everyone,

I refilled my tub today (2008 Viking Eclipse Balboa spapack) water and air temp was 40deg. I was adding chemicals with the pump on high and on the second cycle of high the breaker tripped. I reset it and it immediatly tripped again. after reading on this fatastic forum I disconnected the heater and the breaker did not trip! I tested the heater posts and I have 120v on each and 240v on both. My question is: I just want to make sure that that is the problem. The tub is only 5 years old. What is the life expectacy of heaters? I keep close tabs on the ph so it won't get scale build up. Thanks for looking!

[Spa Board Doctor]

The heater needs to be replaced. Your voltage measurements are good. An electric heater is not a mechanical device (no moving parts) so in a perfect world it would last indefinitely. The spa environment is not a perfect world - the sanitizer chemicals, filter status, pH, total alkalinity, hardness, etc. all have an effect on how long the heater element will last. I've seen an element still going strong after twenty years of use and I've also seen them fail overnight. Keeping your pH and total alkalinity in the right range and the sanitizer to the lowest acceptable level will prolong the life of the element.

BB