I am trying to connect an older spa that was given me.

The guy at Home depot was actually very helpful and knowledgeable but there were a few items that I still had questions on.

1) Remote cut off vs. "Spa Box with 50 amp gfi". The home depot guy recommended using a shutoff with a 50 AMP gfi. Is this overkill..... The run from the main box to the spa is about 80 ft. Would a 50 amp gfi in the main box be sufficient?

2) Any code requirement to use the metal conduit vs. the plastic?

3) The spa is in the middle of the yard. I am not sure how to go about bringing the electrical conduit into the spa. Do i bring the conduit up underneath the spa. Install a box and then go with flexible conduit to the main connection....or do I have to come up outside the spa ?


Thanks

John

Quick answers:

1. 50 amp gfci is normal as most 230v tubs will draw 18-24 amps for the heater alone, then add in a 10 amp pump, say, 6 amp blower, and you're up to around 40 amps already. If you've got more than 1 jet pump then 50amp service will be an absolute must. If your tub has a nomenclature label on it it should indicate the service level required.

In most cases a 50amp gfci in the main with a remote shut off mounted greater than 5 feet away and within sight of the spa is appropriate, but putting the gfci in the remote box (with a 50 amp breaker in the main panel) makes it easier for gfci fault troubleshooting in the future.

2. Check with an electrician. If I were running the stuff in the buried in the yard, I'd use standard 1" grey plastic conduit, definitely not metal because it needs to be water tight.

3. I'd run the conduit out to the spa and bring it in underneath so none of the actual electrical conduit is exposed to users getting in our out of the tub. It'll also prevent damage to it from weed wackers, lawnmowers, etc.

While putting a 50 amp GFCI breaker in your main panel would probably be sufficient.. the best way to do it is to put the GFCI breaker box outside so that you can achieve discconect at the spa. Its nice to have the GFCI close by in case you have an issue and are having to reset it often. Check with an electrician to be sure that your wire size is sufficient for a 80 foot run.. might want to go to number 6.

I would not put a gfci breaker in your main panel and use an additional on off disconnect at the spa. do it so your GFCI is closests to your spa.

Thanks foir the input! I did install a GFCI spa box about 10 feet away from the tub. Looks like I may have another problem though...my GFCI seems to be defective. I thought I may have gotten the wiring wrong but everyplace i check shows I have it right.

Just to double check... With three wire service, 50 amp breaker at the main box and a 50 amp GFCI at the subpanel (Spa Box). The neutral wire is attached to the main grounding bar at the main panel and runs isolated all the way to the spa? is this right. If so then I think the GFCI is bad. Someone at home depot said that they had had problems with these boxes..after I had bought it.

What are the odds of getting a bad GFCI?


Thanks

John

John,

Your GFCI wiring is INCORRECT.
When you say you have a 3 wire service I'm assuming you have a 3 wire WITH Ground. This would make four wires... 2 hots and Neutral AND a ground...correct? because.. thats what you need.

The neutral from your main panel should connect to the neutral bus bar in the GFCI subpanel... IF you look closely at your gfci breaker...you'll notice it has a position for three wires... your LOAD neutral goes there in the position for neutral on that breaker. .. that is the neutral wire that is going to the spa from the subpanel. The curley pigtail that is attatched to the breaker goes to the Neutral bus bar. IF you have both your load neutral AND the curley pigtail to the neutral bus bar...the breaker will trip immediately upon turning it on.

Your ground should be separate on its own ground connector. with the ground going to the spa control.

This will solve your problem! ANd.. I should say that this is a VERY common mistake made by many people!!!!

BARB

Thanks,

I think I have the older style service connection.

My grounding bar and neutral bar are one in the same at the main panel.

I ran seperate lines though for neutral and ground to the cutoff box.

At the cutoff box the neutral and ground are isolated.

From there they run to the hot tub which has a 4 wire connection.

I do have a built in GFCI on the AP-1400...could that interfere with the GFCI in the box?

I did see special instructions for 3 wire service on this site..but they were for a 50amp GFI at the main panel.

Any suggestions?

thanks

John

might be time for a qualified electrician!

For a single family dwelling, at the main breaker (or fuse) box, the neutral and ground being tied together is not only common, it's code. The problem Barb is referring to is in your GFI sub panel "cut off box" (your spa disconnect). What you need to do in your GFI sub panel is to hook up the two hot wires (L1 and L2) to the panels L1 and L2 terminals (pretty much a no brainer right? LOL). Then take your Neutral and Ground from the house and bond them to the ground/neutral buss bar in the GFI panel. If you have 2 buss bars in your GFI panel, use the neutral bar for the neutral wire (again, no-brainer). Then you take the white pigtail (coiled wire) that is attached to the breaker and run this to your neutral bar used in connecting the neutral wire from the house's main panel. The spa connections is where many people can go wrong. You connect the two hot wires for the tub to the bottom of the GFI breaker, load side. You connect the ground wire for the tub to the buss bar that you used in making the ground connection to the main panel in the house. The Neutral connection to the tub needs to be attached directly to the GFI breaker. There is a 3rd screw for attaching this, and will be labeled neutral. If you attach the tub's neutral to the neutral bar in the main panel, the GFI will not work properly at all.

Although it is always a chance a spa mounted GFI can cause problems with a main GFI, from my experiance, a well made GFI can work with a spa mounted GFI without any problems. My Square D QO series GFI works just fine with a down stream GFI, but my old Cutler Hammer would not.