Heating Issues

[blizzard]

I have an old diamondback spa that has a Balboa EL2000 system in it. The other day it kicked the breaker off in the main panel.  No problem I just reset the breaker so I thought. I was going to use it tonight and the temperature is only getting up to 85 degrees even though it is set to 100.  Of course the time of night it is it is to late to start tearing in to it.  Looking for any ideas on what to check first.  Thanks up front for any help.

[Vinny]

If the controller is calling for heat and its not heating it could be the heating element. If you know how to use an ohm meter/ DVM, with the power off on the spa look for the wires going to the heater, take one of them off and see if you have resistance. If that's OK then check for power going to the element, turn the tub back on and get it to call for heat. you can reverse what you check just if you're not used to working with electricity it can be dangerous

[blizzard]

I was able to pull the side off of the spa today and what I found out is that one of the terminals to the heater must of shorted out some how. This is a replacement heater that was put in last year or the year before.  when the original burnt out the whole thing went dead not just half of it.  the post on the out side of the heater looks like it may have burn in two. Definitely some scorching on the top of the heater and the board.  I still have all of my voltages coming from the board so it looks like it is just a matter of replacing my heater.  My next question is it normal for just one side to burnout and actually burn the electrode in two.  If it isn't normal what may have caused this and is there something else I need to check out.