I replaced my dead Hercules spa pack a few years ago with a NuWave 1000. No topside controls. It is an outdoor 220 setup and I drain in December and wait for decent weather to restart. When I hooked up today, I got every indication of heating (thermostat clicks, low pump flow and heat indicator lit). Hand in the water test revealed this to be false. Opened the cabinet and observed all normal light indicators.

Now the fun part:

I touched the heater tube and got a nice jolt.

The ground connections are tight.

No bare wire contacts or burned wires.

Resistance between the heater terminals is 11 ohm.

It is now dark and I have not tested the heater terminals to ground, but have little doubt that it will not be infinity.

My real question is what happened to the GFCI? It did not trip. It does properly trip when the test button is pressed. Is ther another multimeter test to validate it?

Thank goodness for being wise enough to wait for daylight. One of the leads to the heater element was bent and making slight contact with the casing of the spa pack. That answered the live feeling I got. A toggle of the flow switch adjuster resolved the heating issue. Thanks for having this board to search.