cary1219

6 gauge stranded copper.

Thanks for the reply! It is a 240v, direct wired to a GFCI disconnect.

I was recently given a hot tub by neighbors that moved away. The tub ran for a week or so after I moved it. One night, I got in it and the temperature was 93 degrees. I had it set for 100. The next morning, it was down to 87. I did some Internet research, and determined that the problem was most likely a bad heating element and replaced it. When warming the tub back up, I noticed that it took the tub a very long time to gain a few degrees. I began to periodically stick my hand in the water coming from the jets and noticed that it would be hot at times, and cool other times. A few hours later, the GFCI tripped. I looked at the power connections and noticed that the neutral and the black positive had both worked their way loose. I reconnected both of them, checked for tightness, and restarted the tub. It warmed up faster initially, then slowed down. I noticed again that the water from the jets was mostly cold, but hot some times. A few hours later, the GFCI tripped. I looked at the power connections, and the neutral had worked its way loose again. I reconnected the the neutral, and restarted the tub. Same thing again, even with the loose neutral. I tried one more time, and the GFCI tripped within 10 minutes. This time, the neutral did not come loose. I took a closer look at the panel and noticed one thing that is possibly the problem. There are two plastic "boxes" near the power connections labelled K3 and K2. There is a wire that connects these two together. The wire shows signs of having overheated just off the K3 box. Near the connection of the wire to the K3 box, the plastic shows signs of overheating also. I tried to pull the K3 box off the board to see if I could replace it. It appears to be hardwired to the board. Is this my problem? Is it fixable? What do I do to fix it? Any help is greatly appreciated. My system is a Balboa WHM-SUV-CCAH. It looks like it was made in 2003.