GFCI tripped. Heater circuit isolated as the culprit. Replaced heater, still tripping.

[dcm1975]

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.

[RDspaguy]

4 hours ago, dcm1975 said:

had an extra heater on hand that I replaced the previous one with, but the spa keeps tripping,

So, you used an old used heater that you previously replaced and you are surprised it is tripping the breaker?

4 hours ago, dcm1975 said:

Trips immediately when connecting the new heater, no delay

One leg of the heater is hot at power up so a faulted heater will trip the breaker even when not turned on.

I'd say replace the heater with a new one. If replacing the element be sure it does not touch the sides of the tube.

[dcm1975]

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.

[RDspaguy]

2 hours ago, dcm1975 said:

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.

So, taking my free time to try to solve your problem for you FOR FREE is being a jerk? 

You were not clear, and it sounded to me like you put in a used heater... which you did, even if only used for a month.

Best of luck.

[cranbiz]

8 hours ago, dcm1975 said:

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.

Chill out dude!

The techs that help here certainly have better things to do than spend all day answering questions for free. They all ask the same thing, describe your problem in detail, post up pictures of your board, wiring diagram and equipment area and any other possible problem areas. This is so they don't waste their time  on guesses or if in some other thread, having to read thru pages of stuff.

Now you pissed off one of our experts, which will probably cause the others to think twice about responding.

Lecture over. Now do you have a multimeter? If so, start with the used heater you installed. Make sure that you don't have a shorted element. A good heater should ohm out in the ballpark of 10 ohms. It should not show an open or a direct short and shouldn't show any readings from the element to the heater case.

[CanadianSpaTech]

Seen this many times before and is an easy fix. Please e-transfer $140 CDN and I will give you the answer 😈

[dcm1975]

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.  

[cranbiz]

So neither heater was bad it seems. Did you check from the element ti the heater case?

Do you have an ozonator? If so, unplug it and see if the GFCI trips. You might have to unplug any and all pumps, ozonator, etc. and see if the GFCI still trips. You may have a bad GFCI, it's not uncommon at all.

Please post up pictures of your equipment area, the spa pack, the boards and the wiring diagram inside the cover.

[dcm1975]

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.

[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.