Help! (also posted elsewhere in the 4th and 40 section)

... we had some smelly glop, a sinking yellow oil type stuff... like an anti-freeze or something in the spring. Drained and now just refilled. This stuff stained the tub... and leaves a film on the water... like a petrolium product. Now, the heater is blowing the breaker... this is an old Walkins hot spring model (mid/late eighties)with S.S. heater assembly... round tube w/ 4x4 plate -1.5k heater element... is it possible that the element tubes cracked... is there anything in them that would leak??? Thanks.

I have experianced this issue exactly! What my problem was indeed was a bad heating element. Seems that when they go out, by cracking, they create a brownish yellow film on everything, and your gfi breaker is sensing the current leakage into the water. If you have this problem, expect to find the element with parts missing, and as you might suspect, they are in the plumbing somewhere. The cause of this was an air pocket at the element, and the element overheated and burned out.

Hope this helps you find your problem!

Say, I might have some further insight on your problem. Do you have a "little giant" circulation pump? These pumps are oil filled, and when the front seal goes on them they leak that nasty oil into the tub and it gets EVERYWHERE and it stinks. This happened to a co-worker of mine this spring. Since the circulation pump was now filled with water (displaced the oil in it) the motor would run for a few seconds, long enough to get the heater to turn on, and then blow the breaker. At first we thought it was the heater, like you suspected, but after further examination, we discoverd it was the pump, not the heater, that caused the oil contamination and the tripping of the breaker.

Hopfully you found the problem by now, but if not, I hope this helps.

Jer

I think that's right on target, and Hot Springs at one time used Calvert oil lubricated pumps...