Tripping Breaker

[Biggs]

I own a 1997 Optima which has been great until this past winter. Since then, it has been tripping the main breaker at various times. I have replaced pump 1 based on my spa repair service advice, but that has not made a difference. We have disconnected the blower, heater, pump 2 in different scenarios and still get the breaker tripping. Sometimes the spa will remain on for a couple of hours, then trip the breaker, or the breaker will not reset and trip within seconds. There is no one thing that I can pinpoint to cause this. The spa service tech was here yesterday, and said I should replace the main breaker (another $$$ item), because he does not think it is the spa. After he left, I went to check the spa and saw the breaker was not tripped, but the control screen was messed up, with the numbers all messed up, and the other icons lit up. No pumps were running. I decided to shut the breaker before there was additional damage.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Could it be the breaker? I was thinking it was the breaker until I saw the control panel issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[n1oty]

Someone needs to do proper ground fault testing with a high quality megohmmeter. Are you equipped with an ozonator?

John

[Biggs]

Yes. I have an ozonator. Do you think it would be easier to replace the breaker?

[mrfixit]

If the display is messed up, it could be that the control pad is bad, but it could also be an indicator that the circuit board is bad. I agree with the above post, have the GFCI tested and if all works out well then I would be focusing on replacing that circuit board.