The spa is a Hot Springs Classic, 20 years old and I once rebuilt the motor because of a rusted bearing and last year I replaced the motor, it works fine as does the recirculating motor and the heater.

It started a couple of weeks ago that the GFI would trip and after reset it would be OK for days. Then it would trip and it would let me reset and after 12-18 hours it would trip again, strange, because if there is an actual 5 milliamp leak it should not allow me to reset.

I changed the GFI with one that has outlets and it does the same thing.

Now, after I reset yesterday I stayed on but I have no power at the tub though it provides power to the tripper outlet to which the spa cable is connected. Neither the jet motor nor the spa light gets power.
The reset button for the spa and the reset button for the heater are both in, not tripped.

I am pretty familiar with electric circuitry (my father was an electrician and I often went along with him and I do all my electric work at home).

Is there a thermal switch somewhere that would shut off the whole power to the tub? None of the pumps nor the heater is on now and it is going to freeze tonight!

At what connection should I meter to start tracing, any help would be very much appreciated.

....Ott

Try that heater reset button - they don't stick out if tripped - you will feel it click when you push on it if it's tripped. If it had just tripped the water in the heater could have still been too hot to reset it, in which case you would feel it click every time you pushed it.
Is this a 1989 or 1990? You can tell by the serial number. If so, is the circulation pump still running?
I'm not sure if the circ pump still runs with the high limit tripped.
If the high limit isn't tripped I would check the door interlock if it has one (depending on the year it might be a magnet interlock - which you could bypass). If not that then I would pull the control box and look for burnt wires. If you get into that and want to do some testing, post again.

Yes, when I would reset and it would stay on, the circulation pump would be running (it doesn't run when the jet motor is on) and the heater would put out hot water. I could also run the jet motor. I have a magnet with a clamp for activation of the magnetic switch to keep the door open and it worked while I was trying things.

What gets me is the GFCI would trip but could be reset and would hold for half a day. That black box that houses the electronics is really hard to get to. I am lucky insofar in that the hot tub rests on a raised 30x30 inch pedestal with the rest hanging over and I have about 18 inches to get underneath. I had a leaking problem (still a little) but that is well below the control box and away from the electrical connections to the motors and heater.

Is opening the box and finding the cord connections the only place I can start to trace the power?

....Ott