dcm1975

Replaced gfci with a normal breaker. Spa is running normally. Will let it run a few hours, heat up the water with no one around to get anywhere near it, and then will order a new gfci if all seems still to be normal. Will research what causes them to fail, as I certainly do not wish to replace those at around 100$ per breaker every year.....maybe I just got a dud. Thank you for the help without the snarky comments. Will try to be more clear if I ever post again.

To the best of my knowledge, neither heater is bad, and I've had the spa less than 1 year, so it seems unlikely that both heaters would have failed. I did check to see if there was continuity from the case to the connections, and there was none. Additionally, I looked down each tube and saw no place where the heating elements are touching the case. I do not have an ozonator, and the way I determined the heater circuit is tripping the breaker was to unplug and plug back in each component. I even unplugged the sensors and the topside control, though I cannot imagine those would have tripped the gfci. The heater circuit is the only one that trips it. I can even plug everything in except the heater circuit, and the spa runs normally at that time--jets blow, etc. I will post pictures when I get home later today, and the GFCI was going to be the next place I go. I don't mind ordering a new heater, except I am skeptical that the two I have are bad, so I suspect something else, even though that one circuit is the one that is tripping the GFCI. Thank you for your help.

Yes, I have a multimeter and I checked the resistance of both heaters while they were off the spa, before installing the one I had from first receiving the spa. One read 12 ohms, and the other 14 ohms. So the one installed now read 12, and the one I took off read 14. Neither heater has shorted out, the elements look fine (even though I know sight doesn't confirm that they are), and the first had not malfunctioned at the time of the board failure. My multimeter is not a high quality one, so I don't know if I could trust it to give readings that are 100% accurate, but I am confident the heaters have not shorted. As for the "lecture", I am chill, and if a repairman came to my house and immediately ridiculed the question I was asking him, his services wouldn't be worth any money, and I'd send him on his way.

I did not want to clutter my question with a further explanation of how I obtained the replacement heater. It was a heater that came with the hot tub, but I replaced the entire control board after owning the spa for one month, due to a defect which caused the company to send me another complete control board AND a heater attached. Thus, the previous heater was used for one month. Thank you for your reply, and I'd appreciate further help from anyone who doesn't want to assume things and be a complete jerk.

I have a spa that tripped my gfci. I unplugged everything and plugged things back in until I found the heater circuit is tripping it. I had an extra heater on hand that I replaced the previous one with, but the spa keeps tripping, after replacement. Trips immediately when connecting the new heater, no delay. I reduced the heat to below what the spa water is, and it still trips immediately. No clue what to do. Read a lot of forums....some talk about the check valve to the blower being bad, but the jets blow fine, air or no air. Need some advice. I live in a very rural area--no spa companies around here, and I have not reached out to an electrician. Thank you in advance.