Hello everyone. This one is weird for me. I've worked on my own tubs for about 6 years now and have mid-level electrician experience (ran 220 lines, can test with various circuit testers, replaced breakers and motors)
I found the GFI tripped and it refused to reset. Disconnected the tub, opened the main breaker, and it physically could not be reset. The breaker was about three years old. We have had power issues, brown outs and power loss due to weather. Maybe even a close lightening strike. I assumed the breaker was bad and replaced it.
The tub is a 4 year old Jacuzzi J-235 set up in the 50hz mode. No circulator pump so pump 1 runs in low to heat. There isn't any signs of water leakage anywhere around the tub.
After replacement, the tub powered up fine and began reheating. I checked back the next day and the new GFI was tripped. I re-set it, everything powered up fine and it began heating again. I checked back a few hours later, tub temp around 90 and still going well. Checked back the next morning and the GFI was tripped again. The short version is that the tub appears to heat up to around 100F and then trips the GFI breaker.
I tested the heater and the resistance was in spec. I replaced it anyway with the same rated heater but in titanium.
I isolated the flow sensor and temperature sensor that are in line with the heater and the breaker still trips.
I disconnected the UV sanitizer, still trips.
The temp sensor and over-temp sensor are spliced together at the plug, so if I disconnect them from the board I get the temp sensor failure error and the heater wont' come on. - not sure if there is a way to test them individually without cutting wires.
I can run the pumps in all speeds and it runs fine. In the 50hz mode the heater turns off if both pumps are in high at the same time.
I checked the connections in the control panel, the main line black wire wasn't in all the way, just up to the lug but not all the way in the cradle. I fixed that, turned he temperature set point down to 98 and turned it on. It ran for two days so I though I had it fixed. Turned the temp up to 100, three hours later the breaker was tripped.
The pumps do not run in high speed unless I select it so I'm guessing the low speed pump is tripping the breaker on overload when the water temp gets high enough. Is there a way to test this? Can I wire the high speed up to the low speed supply lug and let it run to see what happens without damaging the circuit board? Any other ideas?
Thank you for any help!
R0M0
