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Caldera Utopia Geneva Jet 1 & 2 tripping 30 amp breaker


JoshF

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Hi all,

We recently got a 2004 Caldera Spas Utopia Geneva from some friends, built a deck and had it wired up but I'm having a problem. After turning both the 30 and 20 amp breaker on, the spa starts up. The 'LIM OK' light comes on and the 'HTR OK'  as well. The circulation pump starts working and after 5 minutes it goes into the auto clean routine. The air blower starts and runs for a minute but when Jet 2 turns on low it trips the 30 amp breaker after a second or so. If I manually start Jet 1 or 2 it trips near immediately. I released the union on top of both pumps and only found one to have a small amount of air in it. I know several have stated disconnect each component and then try but if the air blower and heater can start without tripping either the 30 or 20 could it be one of those? I'm just puzzled as to why both pumps would be bad. As a test the electrician bypassed the 30amp GFCI breaker and wired the 10AWG lines directly into the main 50amp feed coming into the subpanel. The pumps will run fine that way but it's not a permanent solution. Does this point to a GFCI issue? The load neutral is connected to the 30amp breaker. The only wiring deviation is a convenience GFCI outlet wired off the 20amp breaker. The electrican says he tried running it with that disconnected with no luck but I wasn't standing over his shoulder at that point.

We know the tub was sitting for some time so the goal was to run it long enough to heat the water and then use a jet purge and drain afterward but if I can't get the jets to run without tripping. So that's not an option unless I go back to that 50amp GFCI bypass just for cleaning if that's recommended.

I know you guys get a lot of random drop-in 'Help' questions but any advice or direction is helpful. At this point we have several thousand plus dollars into a non-working hot tub.

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You should have your electrician test the jet pumps for leakage current.  The GFCI breakers are doing their job by tripping with too much leakage current.

Always have you spa wired as shown in your owner's manual for your safety and to prevent equipment damage.

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Does your electrician have it wired correctly?  To have 2 bad pumps would be really unusual even for spa that had been sitting for a few years.  The heater should be on its own separate breaker (20A) and not be effected by what the pumps or blower are doing.  Disconnect the blower and try running the pumps to see if the same issue occurs.  

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I did some troubleshooting and found Jet Pump 2 will come on if Jet Pump 1 is disconnected as seen in the picture. However if I connect Jet Pump 1 and disconnect 2 I can trip the 30amp breaker by trying to turn either 1 or 2 on. I was also able to connect 2 to the Jet Pump 1 connections and turn it on(high) using the Jet Pump 1 button. Does this sound like I need to replace Jet Pump 1 to you guys? 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't tell you definitively to replace that jet pump but it sounds like a pump 1 issue. The white wire (common 120v) shares a relay on the control board. So if you aren't fully disconnecting all wires during your troubleshooting then that could be why you're still tripping when moving wires to pump 2 terminals.

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 As an update, I opened jet pump 1 and found the starter capacitor had a small hole just shy of the middle of the base and between the two terminals. I would have just replaced the capacitor but I decided to inspect the wet end. The impeller shaft had a small crack in it. Neither would be an expensive fix but given the age of the pump I just replaced it. I've never seen a capacitor do that but the new pump works fine.

One additional question I had, the new pump has a low speed and the control board has a Jet Pump 1 Low Speed. If I ran an additional wire is there a jumper setting necessary that would let me run jet 1 on a low speed?

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14 minutes ago, Jwyrick85 said:

I can't tell you definitively to replace that jet pump but it sounds like a pump 1 issue. The white wire (common 120v) shares a relay on the control board. So if you aren't fully disconnecting all wires during your troubleshooting then that could be why you're still tripping when moving wires to pump 2 terminals.

By the way I asked a local Caldera dealer specifically if they shared a relay and they told me 'the control board has no relays'. I stopped talking to them. 

Is there a schematic for the control board somewhere?

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