Circuit breakers keep blowing!!

[cathtrac]

Ok, so our Grand Bahama was delivered today. And looks beautiful and so inviting!

But, we can't get the power to the tub!

Hubby has been working on it all day and every time he thinks it's ready to go, he switches the tub on and the GFI blows.

He thinks it has to do with the funky breaker box in our 100-year-old farmhouse. I think we need an electrician!

Does anyone else have any ideas? Otherwise we will have a beautiful, but dead, hot tub sitting in our yard until we can pay regular electrician wages on Monday.

Thanks in advance from one staring longingly at her beautiful hot tub.

[Spa_Tech]

Ok, so our Grand Bahama was delivered today. And looks beautiful and so inviting!

But, we can't get the power to the tub!

Hubby has been working on it all day and every time he thinks it's ready to go, he switches the tub on and the GFI blows.

If the GFCI breaker is tripping the instant that the breaker is thrown on, this is a system miswire.

What many people dont know, is a GFCI breaker cannot be wired into a circuit the same way as a standard breaker is. The GFCI breaker has a curly white wire on it that should be installed on the neutral bus bar inside the box and the load neutral (the white wire from the spa) should be installed on the load neutral lug on the GFCI breaker itself-- Looking at the breaker, you should note that there are three threaded terminal lugs on it, unlike a standard breaker.

I suspect your spouse has installed the load neutral on the neutral bus bar inside the box, causing a dirrect short at the breaker.

Let us know how the wiring works out.

[Chas]

Spa tech is right - let me rephrase it just in case that helps your hubby to understand it better:

The neutral wire which comes from the spa must be attached to the "neutral" connector on the GFI circuit breaker, NOT the neutral bus in the panel. The neutral bus in the panel is the place where one would typically attach the neutral wire from the spa: this is a common mistake.

The curly wire ST wrote about is permanently attached to the GFI breaker, and that DOES go to the place in the panel where all the other neutral wires are attached.

[cathtrac]

It worked!

The quote from hubby was "I was so damn tired last night when I was wiring it that I didn't even see that I got one of the wires backwards!" He retraced all of the wiring in the light of day (and some time to get a fresh perspective) and it worked!

When he first clicked it on after he reworked the wiring, I still didn't think it was working, despite the fact that the circuit breaker didn't blow this time. The circ pump is so quiet that I had to stick my head in the shell to hear that it was on and working!

I'm so excited that I'm tempted to not wait for the water to heat up but to jump in right now in my wetsuit, although a water temp of 42 degrees is pretty cold even with a wetsuit!

Thank you for your help!