Electrical Question - Help!!!

[mayaemer]

I know this isn't fishing related but I have gotten good feedback on this site for many issues in the past and hope you can help me. I bought a used hot tub recently that requires two seperate ground fault circuits. Every time it rains, one of the two circuits either trips the breaker or causes the breaker to fail completely. The larger break which is a 240 volt, 30 amp two pole breaker does not trip. The 120 volt, 20 amp, single pole, is the one that continues to fail. The panel and breakers have all been Square D Homeline series. The only thing I can find different is the electrician has been using a dual function CAFI/GFI for the 120v, 20 amp breaker while the 240 volt, 30 amp breaker is GFI only. Could this possibly be the problem? If not, What should we be looking for? We have measured the current draw on the 20 amp breaker numerous times and with everything running it is a constant 16 amps. I also suspect strongly that the problem is water related because it only trips when raining and the hot tub has not been in use when it trips. The pump only pulls about .5 amps when the jets are off so I dont think it is tripping due to over current...

My electrician wants to try a different GFI only breaker and has it on order. I am concerned it may be something else... Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[mayaemer]

I took the cover off of the panel after ensuring all power was disconnected. There is water in the panel and it definitely seems wetter on the 20 amp breaker side. This panel is under my covered porch above. It does not get directly rained on but will get some dripping from the overhead soffet material. Is it normal to see water inside an outdoor panel? Its a brand new panel...

[SCOTT196]

No an outdoor panel needs to be waterproof!

[Bass in the grass]

Water on the inside? Has to be getting in there through a conduit or maybe the cap on top doesn’t have the waterproof seal installed?

gfci’s are made to trip when they sense wetness, makes sense that’s when it’s tripping. Get rid of the moisture first and then see.


My electrician buddy made a comment about how sensitive arc faults are also, thankfully ours haven’t had any issues.

[Rbalden]

Send me some pics.

[M-D]

There should not be any water inside the panel. Your electrician needs to track down the issue and fix it.
GFCI's do not sense water, in your case with a 120V GFCI breaker, they monitor current flowing on the hot and neutral conductors. If there is an imbalance of current between these two conductors, the breaker will trip.
Very difficult to troubleshoot your problem from here but I would suspect you have a conductor with faulty insulation.

[bobcoy]

Get the box dry. If you are still tripping replace the breakers. Do this before anyone gets electrocuted. The electrician is gonna cost, but funerals cost more! JMO Bob

[CJ1]

I am not understanding why there is a single pole 120v GFCI breaker in a 240v system, let alone water in a outdoor box? Just because it works does not mean it is right. GFCI monitor current flow to ground, any stray current at the outlet or the end use application going to ground or over current will trip the devise. CJ

[mayaemer]

Thanks for all the feedback. I sent the electrician who did all the work some pictures of the water inside the breaker. He is supposed to come out and look at it again.

[mayaemer]

I think we found the smoking gun. They installed white conduit coming out of the attic and transitioned to grey in between my porch deck and soffit material underneath for aesthetics. They did not glue the junction. Water was running down the exposed white conduit into the grey conduit and into the box. Its raining now so I should be able to tell in a couple hours if that takes care of the water issue. Gonna leave it powered off a day or two to make sure it dries thoroughly.