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Hi there, My hot tub got connected today, when I powered it up, the gfi keeps on tripping. When the load from the hot tub is off, the GFI doesnt trip anymore.all connections are at the right place, and there is no water anywhere.
Hello my name is XXXXXX, X will be glad to assist you.
Are you certain on the breaker size feeding the hot tub is it correct?
Thank you
Yes, 50 Amp
When the hot tub wiring is unhooked and the breaker is not tripping, what voltage reading are you getting on your wires, hot to ground,
Also is this hot tub used or new?
Its a used tub, we just moved to a new house, disconnected the tub, and when we tried to reconnect it, then it keeps a tripping,
each load is 120
If you are certain on the voltage and have 2 hots 1 ground 1 neutral pulled to the hot tub, the breaker size is correct, and you have 120 from hot to ground on each of the 2 legs, most likely what is happening, is the pump motor is bad, what happens is after a few years of running they will leak some, this causes electricity (small amounts) to be bled from the motor windings to the water in the motor, the water is bonded/grounded, when the gfci breaker picks this variation up it trips, so basically you have a small bleed of voltage to ground somewhere I can't say for certain that it due to water in the motor but most likely it is.
you do have your neutral and ground seperated at the hot tub correct?
Yes, the white wire goes into its own connector and the ground is screwed below
Most likely the circuit is bleeding voltage to ground through the pump motor.
I have a 50 amp breaker inside my indoor panel and a 50 amp GFI box
How do you test for that?
I have power to the GFI, but how do I test power to the hot tub if I can`t turn on the GFI?
Which breaker is tripping, Indoor or outdoor
just the outdoor breaker
and you are feeding from the outdoor spa panel disconnect to the panel under the hot tub skirt correct?
Yes, that is correct
In the outdoor disconnect you should have the ground and neutral seperated there as well, as in the neutral should not be in contact with the metal box which is grounded
They each have their own place to connect, both white wire and copper wire
So outside you used a panel that is for pool or spa like the one above
Yes, I used the same kind as my indoor electrical panel, a Hot Tub, EATON 50 amp ground fault breaker
If you unhook wiring from the panel connections under the skirt of the spa, seperate them all does the gfci trip
I haven`t tried that,
So disconnect all the wires at the hot tub, and turn on the GFI?
Yes, if you try that and your outdoor gfci does still trips then you have an issue in the length of wire from the outdoor spa disconnect to the spa panel thats under skirt of pool, if it doesn't trip then most likely your issue is in the pump motor
I have 10 feet of wiring outside, so it shouldn`t be the issue, I will try that,
Yeah most likely it is not the issue, but worth checking,
Can the exposed ground (the copper wire not the white wire) touch the metal gfi box, does it matter?
It actually bonds that box so it is suppose to touch
I hate to say it, and know that you don't want to hear it, but most likely the issue lies in the pump motor, loosing voltage through the windings to ground, to solve the problem you will most likely have to replace the motor, there is no way that I know of to be 100% certain of this due to the fact that you can't really check it, when you turn on the power to the pump it trips, so you can't see if it is bleeding to ground.
Alright, well, I will try that tomorrow, thanks
Your welcome, please let me know if you need further assistance on the issue, will be glad to help, I will also post a link to a website below that you may find helpful. http://www.spadepot.com/spacyclopedia/wiring-hot-tub-spa.htm
Thanks, have a good night
You too, Thanks again.
Experience: Residential, Farm, & Commercial installation and service!