Artic spa keeps tripping electrics

[chez]

Hi, this is my first post, we live in the uk and the company we bought our spa from 5 years ago has closed down now.  We emptied our tub prior to going away on holiday in August.  Finally filled it back up last week and worked fine for the first 12 hours, then during the night it tripped our house plugs, we turned it back on and it did it again a few hours later.  The temp was up to 31 before we went to bed, so know the heater is working ok.  We needed some other electric work doing in the house so had him check the electric to the the tub was ok when he came on monday.  It trips when we turn the pumps on at the control pannel. 

I have called two spa companies, one said it could be that the seal has dried out & split causing it to drip onto the airator unit which lays on the floor of the tub and causing it to trip the electrics.  They wanted £150 today and would come out next wed, they come from 60 miles away, which is why they wanted the money upfront.  The O'ring would be about a £1.

The 2nd one I called are about 10 miles away and have free call out charge, but I explained the above and he said it sounds like the pump, and would be about £450 plus to replace.

I have got the 2nd guy coming out next wed, but should we try and have a look for a possible leak ourselves, could you experts give us any clues what we should be looking for.

Thanking you in advance for any help you can give.

Chez  :-)

[Spatech_tuo]

Before you go replacing a pump here are a couple simple non-technical things most any homeowner can do in a case like this if you are comforatble doing so.

1) If you have an ozonator on that spa I would power down the spa and disconnect the wires going to the control box. Then power the spa back up and let it spa run for a day. If the spa stops tripping you could then reconnect and see if its starts to trip again for further confirmation. Its not uncommon for an ozonator to cause the problem and they are simple to replace if it is the issue.

2) The next culprit I'd try using the same technique is the blower if it has one. Actually blowers tend to cause this as much as anything.

3) Then you could try the heater itself. While it seems to be working the problem could be intermittent.


Always be careful that you are powered down if disconnecting anything and be sure no one is going to repower the spa while you are working on it.

[chez]

Spatech-tuo - thank you for your very useful advise, we took the panels off and looked at each of the points you have listed, and then tried the lights on the control panel, it's seems that is what is causing the tub to switch off.  We have got someone coming out on Wednesday as my hubby is not very up on electrics (unless they are inside a computer, he builds them for a living).

A friend told me to look on You-tube of all places and sure enough there was a few videos of what things are etc underneath your tub.  All very interesting, never knew I was sat on top of all that !!!!!!

Thanks again for you help.

Chez
:-)

[IBinit4fun]

Is this a 110 volt tub or 220 volt?

[chez]

Hi IBinit, thanks for your reply, it is a 220 tub.  We live in England.

:-)