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Charles wrote:
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Hi,
I have a spa outside my home. It was installed by a certified
electrician, etc. It used to trip the breaker on occasion (60amp, 2
pole), like if we left the high power jets on for 20 minutes or so.
No big deal.
We just had the main CPU of the spa replaced and now it trips daily,
regardless of jet usage. The guy who put in the new CPU said the
electrician who installed the spa initially used 8ga wire instead of
6ga, which he should have used.
Would this be the main reason for the tripping that used to occur on
occasion? And, if so, why would it trip more frequently now?
The guy who put in the CPU is finger-pointing to get off the hook!
A smaller gage wire could actually reduce tripping since it adds
resistance and thus reduces current flow.
There is more to your problem than can be easily established by the
information you provided.
Duty cycles are perhaps the issue here. Circuit breakers can
tolerate an overload for a period of time depending on the degree of
the overload. A 20% overload is going to take a long time to trip
the breaker compared to a 60% overload. The magnetic trip is very
fast, but the thermal trip is slow and is a function of the degree of
overload.
I had the spa off for several days out of frustration - left the
breaker off. Turned it back on, and it was fine for nearly 2 days.
Now, it trips daily. It'll stay when you turn it back on (doesn't
immediately switch back off) on but then trip at some point during the
day.
Does this sound like the "thermal trip" you described?
You are still not providing adequate information to determine anything.
There is a nameplate on the support equipment that should tell you the
exact current draw of the unit. This will determine if the correct size
wire was used. Is the circuit breaker that's tripping a GFCI type
breaker? knowing this would give some possible clues as well.
The manual that a minimum 30amp breaker should be used. Also,
recommends a minimum of 6ga wire. As mentioned in another post, I don't
know if the breaker is GFCI - how could I look at it and tell?
You've already determined that it's not a GFCI breaker. If the tub was
made to use a 30 amp circuit, it wouldn't require number 6 wire. Some
tubs can be run at 30 amp or 60 amp, these have jumper settings that get
adjusted to the amperage you are using. Often the documentation doesn't
give the exact specs of the unit, as I've said, that will be found on a
nameplate on the control panel . Look there, for the exact total amperage
of the unit
Actually, here is our spa. Page also has the specs you asked about:
http://www.uscovers.com/spasandsaunas/KB331DX.PDF
OK, well they call for a 50 amp breaker and #6 wire, but the current draw is
less than 40 amps, so despite the abysmal and possibly dangerous wiring job,
it doesn't appear that the problem is the wiring. There is a possibility
that you have a bad main breaker,not likely though, and if you replace it,
use no larger than 50 amps. It's tough because it does run for a time before
it trips. I think you need a decent electrician or hot tub tech to put
meters on it and see exactly what each component is doing to try to find the
problem