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GFCI breaker randomly tripping


johne3819

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Hi,

 

Just bought a new hot tub.  After electrician running all the wiring and hooking it up, it ran fine for about 3-4 hours.  Temp rose from 60 or so to 85.  Then it tripped the GFCI breaker.  I couldn't reset it for a couple minutes, and finally it did and the hot tub ran through the self test.  this time it ran for about 2 hours before tripping the GFCI again.  Again could not reset the breaker for a couple minutes.  After waiting a few it reset, and ran - again for 2 hours or so.  During this time the temp rose to 100 (where we want it).  Electrician says its the heater, but spa place says if it ran for hours heating up, then its not the heater.

 

Any ideas?

Facts:


Spa runs for 2 hours at a time, with all jets, all lights, ozonator, and heating the water

GFCI breaker trips and I cannot reset it for about 5-10 minutes.

When I can reset it, it will run for 2 hours or so and then trip again.

I can press the test button on GFCI and it trips

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Intermittent electrical issues are tough and can be frustrating.  If you are not comfortable with wiring call an electrician.  If you are capable then you may want to try the following to help isolate the issue. 

I would disconnect the wiring at the spa (first turn off the breaker at the disconnect) get a GFCI receptacle and temporarily connect pigtails from the spa wires to the GFCI receptacle.  Understand you are only connecting ONE of the hot wires at a time with the neutral & ground to the GFCI receptacle.  Cap the other Hot wire, don't leave it connected to the spa.  Plug in a hair dryer or heat gun and let it run to see if it trips.  Repeat the test with the other hot wire.  If one or the other trips the GFCI receptacle then check the wiring carefully, that's probably where the problem lies.  If the disconnect GFCI trips but not the receptacle then it could be the GFCI breaker in the disconnect, try a replacement GFCI breaker.  If neither trips while running the hair dryer or heat gun then it points to the spa.

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On 8/14/2017 at 0:49 PM, johne3819 said:

Thanks for the response. I had an electrician out Saturday. He took the load off the gfci breaker.  After about an hour and a half, the breaker tripped with no load and he said that means it's a bad 

I am confused because it seems to me you had your answer on Saturday before you posted the question on Sunday....have your electrician replace the bad gfci breaker that trips with no load with a new one.  

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