http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m62/chief671/Hot%20Tub/

I've been trying to determine the problem with this tub for a customer. I am an electrician with some pool/hot tub experience. As you can see in the pictures at the link above I have unplugged everything from the panel. I disconnected the 220 volt gfci from inside the tub panel. I installed a new 50 amp gfci breaker in the main panel feeding this unit. After doing all of this the new gfci breaker trips as soon as it is turned on; with nothing connected to the unit.

My question at this point is would it be better to just replace the tub panel and control board at this point? If so, what board and panel will have the right components to be able to just plug all the equipment into it?

It doesn't seem practical or cost effective to the customer or myself to keep spending time troubleshooting components.

Thanks for any help with this.

One thing that may help you, for a GFCI to work properly it has to be grounded. So if a component had an issue that would cause a GFCI to trip you could disconnect the ground to it and the GFCI should hold at that point.

You could simply disconnect the main ground coming in and if the GFCI still trips at that point you would at least know it is not the spa.

Make sure there is not loose connection anywhere and that two wires are not touching somewhere in the box.

should have mentioned...when i first took a look at this tub the gci did hold but the customer was experiencing some "mild" shock when in contact with the tub.
when i first inspected it the grounds had all been disconnected inside the tub panel. definitely not good from an electrical stand point. when i re-connected the grounds the gfci the would not hold..instant trip.
i can not leave it with no ground. it is against everything i know as an electrician is highly dangerous.
i checked all wiring extensively and found no nicks or bare wire shorting anywhere visible.
also the new gci breaker i installed holds up to the point of connecting it to the tub panel, even with everything that plugs into the tub panel disconnected. the light is the only thing still connected as far as i can tell....maybe the transformer is bad??

Disconnecting the ground would only be for testing. Did you ever change the heater, or disconnect both wires off it? 99% of the time when voltage is getting in the water it is from the heater.

i believe the heater was disconnected, if you look at the pics you can see that everything that plugs in was disconnected, well it was while i was testing too anyway.

how is the heater usually connected? plug or hard wired?

Typically the heater is wired direct, no plugs.

thanks i will dig a little deeper and let you know.
have a great day!