All,

A couple of months ago I came across a deal I couldn't refuse. Our neighbor had a relative getting rid of a 1999 Jacuzzi Essence 340 8 person spa that had only 39 hours of use on it. She said "it's free if you haul it away."

Now the problem: The spa had been sitting on her low deck for all this time with a TINY pinhole leak in a 300psi line running from one of the intakes inside the tub to the intake on the heater (forgive me if I don't know the lingo yet...I'll get there). The tub's entire frame ended up rotting from the ground to about six inches high. It took me many hours of blood, sweat and tears, but I managed to EXACTLY rebuild the entire frame and panels for the tub (this time using pressure treated wood which I was surprised Jacuzzi didn't use in the first place).

Last weekend a bunch of friends came over and helped heave the fiberglass shell into the frame and silicone the edges. We also had an electrician run a #6 50amp 220 circuit out to the tub and hook it up for us. Turned it on for the first time and it fired right up. Within 24 hours the 400 gallons was a comfortable 90 degrees (yeah I know it's supposed to be around 100 degrees so we turned it up) and was spa shocked.

My wife and I hopped in during the initial test run and enjoyed it for about an hour...at which time the GFI circuit popped. I tried to reset it right away and it popped again. So, I waited for about an hour and reset it and everything was fine. Checked under the tub and no leaks that I can find...no drips of water anywhere.

We used it again last night for 30 minutes, gave it a 10 minute break and then the neighbors came over and we all hopped in again. 15 minutes into it the GFI popped again.

Now, the reason I put this in this section is that I noticed that some of the venturi valves seem to be hooked up backwards (when the dial is turned to the smallest dot the tub throws out all kinds of bubbles) and some work fine (smallest dot is all water and no bubbles).

Does the order of the outgoing hoses on the main plumbing tree coming out of the heater matter? A friend suggested that maybe the order in which I hooked up the plumbing hoses would be causing a pump to overheat and kick the GFI circuit. ???? Maybe?

I'm inexperienced with spas but am an accomplished DIYer and can troubleshoot many electrical and plumbing problems so if someone could give me a place to START looking for the problem, I'd appreciate it.

Sorry for being long winded...just trying to give as much info as possible.

Order of pipes coming out of manifold makes no difference. Sounds like something may be getting wet, or you have a very pesky current leakage problem. When it trips, are you able to re-set it immediatley, or does it take a while before it cooperates?

Ok, that answers one of my questions (that the order in which the hoses connect to the main tree isn't a factor). Thanks.

How about heat under the tub. I did notice today that after running the tub for about 30 minutes, it is as hot under there as when you open a dishwasher and get blasted in the face with the hot air. Is this ok? Maybe steam could be causing this? The tub did not have vents originally, but it would be no problem to cut knockouts in the panels for some vents if this would alleviate the problem (but since I JUST got done restoring those panels I'll wait to get an answer).