benny3

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. 5 days ago, I replaced the indoor circuit breaker GFCI as this seemed to be the easiest and least expensive part to rule out and would be something the spa repairman wouldn't touch to replace anyway. So far, no trips, but remember, these trips happen only once every few weeks, so I'm not ready to conclude anything yet. But I think I have another piece to add to the riddle of what might be wrong by adding this new symptom I noticed: Tonight I was out in the spa and I bumped up the spa temperature setting on the cabinet control panel to "force" the heater to come on (the spa temp was 97, so I raised the setting to 99 to get the heater to turn on). Right after I did that, for about 1/2 a second, the display and lights on the cabinet control panel blinked off. I thought right away that the indoor GFCI breaker tripped, but within a second, the display panel was lit again and the spa heater light came on and the two-speed circulation pump started up and I could feel heated water circulating. Although I've never actually been in the spa when the breaker has tripped, I have witnessed the control panel lights blinking on and off on several occasions when I've manually inputted something on the panel (either turning on one or two of the pumps or when I've raised the temperature setting to get the heater running at the same time the 2-speed pump is running. I really never gave it much thought when it happened before, but now I'm wondering if this might be a clue as to what's causing the GFCI breaker trips. Does this control panel behavior help in diagnosing the random GFCI tripping issue I'm having (assuming the GFCI that I just replaced isn't the culprit and something is actually breaking in the spa, such as the heater, ozonator, blower, etc)? I know when the next trip happens on the GFCI, I'll need to start unplugging pieces as suggested in this string of posts, but maybe this extra symptom can help eliminate or narrow down the bigger issue. Any ideas? Thanks again everyone.

Hi all Well, I took apart the indoor circuit panel and the screws to the GFCI for the spa are all tight. Everything looks fine - no obvious loose wires, etc. Also, when I hit the "test" button on the GFCI, it trips fine. The GFCI that I have for this is a GE and the part/model number is: GE THQL2150GFCI 2P 50 AMP HOT TUB GFCI BREAKER THQL2150GFP. Just as a side thought here, all of these GFCI tripping issues started to happen about a month or so after I had the 2 speed pump/motor replaced by a Sundance qualified technician. He told me he replaced it with an original Sundance part so it was exactly the same as the one removed. Could this have any impact on the GFCI? I guess if the GFCI is working as the test button seems to be showing, then the next way to go is to call the technician and have him start replacing parts. I had hoped to make a more informed decision on this, but it doesn't look like there's a sure fire way of figuring this out except to replace parts and play the waiting game to see what happens. I guess my next concern or question would be this: if the GFCI isn't bad, and the spa heater, blower and ozonator are all disconnected/replaced, and the spa's indoor circuit breaker is still randomly is tripping, what's next? Thanks everyone.

Spa Guru states the problem I'm having - it's 29 degrees out and disconnecting the heater for 3 weeks to wait for it to trip or not isn't feasible. I don't mind calling in a spa repairman, but short of replacing the heater, blower and ozonator, it doesn't sound like there's a definitive way to determine what the problem is for something that doesn't consistently create that problem. Is there any way to determine if the GFCI is bad? Any sort of tester?

Hi everyone - thanks for the responses. I guess I need to explain a little further and why this is so confusing to me. The Sweetwater (by Sundance) Palermo spa is from 2000. I've always had it running and never shut down except for water changes and minor repairs that just come with age (all done by authorized Sundance repairman). The spa has an outdoor cut off for the power which isn't a GFCI with a pop-type switch as in other GFCI outlets. The one I have is a metal box where the power lines runs into it and it is mounted on the brick on the outside of my house. When you lift the lid of the metal box, there's a copper plate with a plastic handle. When you pull this completely out of the box, the power is cut to the spa. In addition, my indoor circuit breaker box for my house's electric service has a GFCI breaker included in the box (down at the bottom of the box). This is where the problem is occuring and only randomly with no set pattern. I've never had this indoor breaker pop since I've had the spa for 12 years. Recent repairs to the spa were a new light bulb for the original Sundance ozonator (replaced in September of 2012) and a new 2-speed original Sundance motor/pump (replaced in October 2012), by Sundance repairman. The spa ran well for 3 months, with the ozonator, 2 speed motor/pump, 1-speed circulation pump, and heater all running at the same time and no problems at all. Then in January 2013, once a week for 3 weeks in a row, the indoor breaker popped. We reset the breaker and all was fine each time. We did nothing different to the spa nor the electrical service to the house. Throughout February, we had no issues at all. Then this past Friday, the indoor breaker popped again for no reason. What is confusing me is why does this do it randomly? If it were something wrong with the spa (like a ozonator, heater, blower, etc.), wouldn't it happen all the time? Why would it run fine for 3 weeks then one day pop the breaker, then run again fine for another week or two before popping again? If it were the indoor GFCI, wouldn't it just break and not work versus working part of the time? I'm not an electrician or versed in spa repair, but from the responses I've received, it seems like it could be a bunch of different things, one of which (the indoor GFCI) isn't even related to the spa repairman. I don't mind calling out the repairman for service, but I hate to see him coming 3 or 4 times and replacing various parts and then going 3 or 4 weeks with no problems, then having it blow the circuit breaker again. I guess my problem is that the repairman can replace something and the spa runs great for 3 or 4 weeks, then it starts acting up again. This all just has me really confused, so I hope I explained it further to all of you to help narrow down why this might be happening. Thanks for all of your suggestions and ideas.

Hi everyone - thanks for the responses. I guess I need to explain a little further and why this is so confusing to me. The Sweetwater (by Sundance) Palermo spa is from 2000. I've always had it running and never shut down except for water changes and minor repairs that just come with age (all done by authorized Sundance repairman). The spa has an outdoor cut off for the power which isn't a GFCI with a pop-type switch as in other GFCI outlets. The one I have is a metal box where the power lines runs into it and it is mounted on the brick on the outside of my house. When you lift the lid of the metal box, there's a copper plate with a plastic handle. When you pull this completely out of the box, the power is cut to the spa. In addition, my indoor circuit breaker box for my house's electric service has a GFCI breaker included in the box (down at the bottom of the box). This is where the problem is occuring and only randomly with no set pattern. I've never had this indoor breaker pop since I've had the spa for 12 years. Recent repairs to the spa were a new light bulb for the original Sundance ozonator (replaced in September of 2012) and a new 2-speed original Sundance motor/pump (replaced in October 2012), by Sundance repairman. The spa ran well for 3 months, with the ozonator, 2 speed motor/pump, 1-speed circulation pump, and heater all running at the same time and no problems at all. Then in January 2013, once a week for 3 weeks in a row, the indoor breaker popped. We reset the breaker and all was fine each time. We did nothing different to the spa nor the electrical service to the house. Throughout February, we had no issues at all. Then this past Friday, the indoor breaker popped again for no reason. What is confusing me is why does this do it randomly? If it were something wrong with the spa (like a ozonator, heater, blower, etc.), wouldn't it happen all the time? Why would it run fine for 3 weeks then one day pop the breaker, then run again fine for another week or two before popping again? If it were the indoor GFCI, wouldn't it just break and not work versus working part of the time? I'm not an electrician or versed in spa repair, but from the responses I've received, it seems like it could be a bunch of different things, one of which (the indoor GFCI) isn't even related to the spa repairman. I don't mind calling out the repairman for service, but I had to see him coming 3 or 4 times and replacing various parts and then going 3 or 4 weeks with no problems, then having it blow the circuit breaker again. I guess my problem is that the repairman can replace something and the spa runs great for 3 or 4 weeks, then it starts acting up again. This all just has me really confused, so I hope I explained it further to all of you to help narrow down why this might be happening. Thanks for all of your suggestions and ideas.

This question is related to an earlier post I have running about issues I am having with my Sweetwater Palermo Spa by Sundance. It runs on a 220 line and is occasionally tripping my indoor circuit breaker. That is a separate post, but it created a thought in my mind. Is there any type of circuit breaker or alarm for the 220 line that solely services my spa that can be hooked to or is part of an audible alarm system tied into the indoor circuit breaker panel? In other words, when this circuit breaker trips, I'd like to have an audible alarm go off that I can hear (sort of like a smoke detector alarm). This way, I don't have to keep running out to check my spa in freezing and snowy weather to know if it is still running and I don't have to keep running down to my basement to check that the breaker has tripped. Having some sort of alarm that goes off once it trips would be convenient and put my mind to ease until I resolve this tripping issue. Is there such a thing out there like this?

Thanks everyone for the advice. The problem with the circuit breaker tripping is so strange to me since I've had this spa for so many years with no problems. Recently I replaced the ozonator and high-speed pump and a few years back had the circulation pump replaced. I've never had an issue with the circuit breaker in the house tripping, so this does have me concerned. I'm just not sure how to tell what the issue is - in this day and age of scams, I don't know who to trust. Since it is an intermittant issue, I don't know if it's an electrical issue or a spa issue. To add a little to my original post, in August I replaced the bulb and fuse for the ozonator. It seems to run fine and I never had a problem with the indoor circuit breaker tripping. In October, I replaced the high speed pump and did a water change in December. Even then, still no indoor circuit breaker tripping issue. The tripping of the indoor circuit breaker just started up in January and only did it about 4 times. Each time it tripped, the spa was not in use, but I do have the circulation pump set to run every 6 hours. I keep the temperature set at 97 and it has never gone above that. The filter is a new clean filter and the spa is only used 2 or 3 times a week by one person. I do, however, keep the water on the high level. I read somewhere that if water is kept high in the spa, it can flow back toward the ozonator and cause tripping issues. Does this sound possible or true? On a rare occasion, when sitting in the spa and I first turn on the high speed pump, the lights and display on the spa's control panel blink off for about 1/2 second, then come on again. I get no error messages displayed. Then, after 20 minutes of the high speed pump running, if I turn it back on again after it shuts off, there is no blinking of the lights on the control panel. It acts normally. I've tried to notice when the indoor circuit breaker trips, but being in PA, it's been cold all month and snowy/freezing rain, so it's hard to tell if it's a weather related matter. As money is tight, I don't mind calling the spa tech on this, but I'd like to try to troubleshoot the issue if possible to save where I can. Also, if this is something that can be a matter of 5 or 6 things causing it, the more I eliminate, wouldn't it be better then to call the tech with a narrowed down list? Thanks everyone for your help.

I have a 2000 model Sweetwater Palermo 200 volt spa made by Sundance. I purchased it new and have had it running now at the same location with no changes made to it since 2000. It's been a great spa with only a few repairs needed over the years. However, something puzzling just started to happen during the last couple weeks. 3 times for no apparent reason, the circuit breaker for the spa has tripped. The spa runs on its own dedicated 200 volt line and has an outdoor GFI installed. Nobody has gone near that to touch it nor the indoor circuit panel to "accidentally" pull the circuit. I can't figure out why the circuit is randomly tripping. It's only happened 3 times in the last 3 weeks, but being that I live in Pennsylvania and the winter, cold, dampness and snow has arrived and will be here for a while, it's not the best time to have problems with the power shutting off. This is the first time I've had any tripping issues in the 12 years I've had the spa. One other thing I noticed that just started to happen randomly as well is sometimes (maybe once out of every 20 times), when I push one of the buttons on the control panel (either for low jets or the other motor for high jets) the lights on the control panel (the ones that show the temperature, motor 1, motor 2, heat, and lighting) flash on and off for just a second. Could the control panel being going south on me and causing issues? (This is the kidney shaped decorative panel users use to control the jets, heat, and the temperature display). Anybody have any ideas what the problem could be? My husband thinks it's probably the power company doing something at their end and since the circuit is so sensitive, it just trips. Could that be the issue? Any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening? Thanks for your comments.