Very Good - Happy Soaking

Where the terminals go inside the circuit breaker, the terminals are corroded, can this cause my breaker to keep tripping? I had my jacuzzi running great for an hour then the gfci outside popped and everytime i reset it it popps instantly. The gfci seen alot of rain and snow before i mounted it and like i said the terminals are very corroded. thanks

Yes, it is very possible because of the corrosion the GFCI may trip. Few ways you understand why: first the GFCI works like a scale. Making sure any current flowing through the line (hot wire) comes back through the neutral wire. In the case of a 240V GFCI, the current moving through one line goes back the other line and vs. only remaining "the unbalanced" current goes back on the neutral in this case.

The GFCI if very sensitive and will trip immediately if there might any power leakage (current not coming back equal to what having though.) imagine a lady washing the dishes and while her hand are wet, the counter top being wet, the sink is wet... she reaches to the toaster to plug it in or use it; she did not pay attention that the toaster cord is wet. She plugs in the toaster. Then power (current) will travel through the wires. Electrons travel through the least resistive path. In this case the wet surface and body of the poor lady. If the outlet was not a GFCI protected then toaster will work using the lady’s body as a conductor!! However, should the outlet be a GFCI protected, as soon as there is a power leak; the GFCI will shut off the power before any one is hurt.

* Corrosion may have the current travel though paths other than what the GFCI measures, causing the GFCI to think that there is power leak.
* Also the corrosion may cause the wires to be thinner than their original size. And as they say “the chain is as strong as the weakest link. In other words, the true size of the wire is as the size of the corroted area if it is smaller. Heat buildup would occur, which in return trips the breaker.
* If the GFCI had water get inside of it then most likely it is gone bad.


Belal Aljaradat
MCS Electrical
http://www.mcselectricalinc.com

Wiring is not the place to skimp,modify or if not trained -to play with. Deffinitely worth the price to have experienced personell check out any issue's with your spas.Your pleasure with your spas will be better without the worries of a fire,shock or even death-resulting in charges and lawsuits.

Hi, thanks for the diagram it has been a big help, I have just one question.

I have a used hot tub and the box it came with does not seem to have any way to connect the ground wires. Everything else matches the diagram except it only has one bus for the neutral wires. From reading other posts I understand that all grounds need to be connected and they also need to be connected to the box if it is metal (which it is) so I don't think a simple wire nut will be a good idea.

So am I missing something or did they maybe just not wire it correctly to begin with? Would it be better to just go get a new box that matches?