Yet Another GFI Issue

[thunder]

Hello Forum Members,

New here to the forum, and new to hot tubs as well.

In a nutshell I purchased a house recently and with it came a small Strong Spa.
After finding and repairing a small leak we decided to fill and test the spa out.

Initially it ran fine, pump, heater, lights all seem to work.
After a couple days of getting up to temp I found the GFI tripped off.

Reset the GFI and sometimes the pump will go into prime mode and run but then trip the GFI once it tries to pull on the heater.
Other times it will display that it is in the prime mode but the pump is not running, then trips the GFI after a couple minutes.

Just this morning I disconnected the heater, ran the pump with no tripping what so ever.
Ohm'd out the heater and everything seems to metre out correctly.
re-connected the heater and the GFI trips right away again......
its a 110v unit if it matters.

Any advice where to start looking?

Thanks in advance....

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

You have a bad heater element.

[Tman122]

I'd start looking at the heating element. How old is it?

[aeajr]

As this was previously in place I would assume this is not the problem but let me comment anyway.

GFI Hot Tub breakers are wired a little differently than a standard breaker.   Normally you would put the white wire to the common bar, but not with a GFI braeaker.   I forget if it is the source or the load side but one of them goes into a connection on the breaker itself.    If you run the white directly to the common bar the braker will keep tripping off.   Might be an hour or it might be a day but eventually it trips. 

I wired my tub and I made this mistake.   I used the The Eaton Cutler-Hammer 2 - 50 Amp Type BR Spa Panel Load Center.    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Eaton-50-Amp-BR-Type-Spa-Panel-BR50SPA/100206043

After having a tripping problem I called the company that sold me the tub.  They suggested I check the wiring, that there was a common mistake made even by pros. He said that 90% of this kind of "tripping" problem was due to incorrect wiring.

I went back and looked at the instructions that came with the load center and sure enough I had overlooked this step.    Once I moved the white wire to the breaker the tripping problem went away.

I went out to the professional electricians forums and sure enough, electricians who were not accustomed to putting in hot tubs were making the same mistake.

Check your wiring just to be sure.

[thunder]

Thanks for the input all......it was in fact the heating element.
Installed a new element and its working like a charm now.

Now to learn spa water quality......I very well may be back with more questions on chemicals   

[Tman122]

You don't have to assume that's not the problem because it isn't. It wouldn't run at all if it was.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

 If you run the white directly to the common bar the braker will keep tripping off.   Might be an hour or it might be a day but eventually it trips. 

Actually, it would trip immediately, or the moment anything 110v in the spa powered up (if it didn't, the breaker would be faulty).