Original > Show us your Hot Tub.

New Jacuzzi

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Quickbeam:
Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

I also think you're smart to wire for 60 amps. It's a long story, but we went through quite a bit to get ours wired for 60 amps (we have the Jacuzzi J-345). I'm so glad we went to the trouble to get the 60 amps. Certainly haven't regretted doing that.

amy2421:
The first electrician who quoted us was going to run a 50 amp rated wire and 50 amp breaker, and told us to run the 60 amp setting on the tub and it would work fine. While that may be the case, it didn't sit well with us (or others on this forum who weighed in.) The second electrician, who did the work for us, wouldn't even hear of wiring it as 50 amp and automatically said he would do it the right way (and his quote was $400 cheaper!)

orlando1:
Yeah with so many electricians out there, finding the right one is hard. I had several at my house before I settled on someone I felt comfortable with. Man it's shocking who they let have electrician license these days. And no these weren't independent electricians in business for themselves(though that's who I ended up going with), but these were from larger companies that employs several electricians. Most of them were suggesting I violate pretty every code in the business. Just to give you an example....mounting the gfci panel right beside the power meter on the side of the house which is no where near being in the line of sight from out hot tub in the back yard on the opposite side of the house, only digging the trench 3-4 inches to buying the cable. And their quotes were by far the most expensive.

Even the one I ended up going with(I bought my own parts), thought I was insane to run 6 awg wire for a basic hot tub install. He wanted to go with 8-10 awg. When I told him I needed that size to run 60 amps, he really thought I was insane. Why on earth would I need 60 amps for a hot tub he said. I was just as shocked at his thinking. But with 40 years of experience and his willingness to do what I wanted vs doing what he thought I should have like the rest, I went with him. The people who installed the hot tub had no trouble configuring the panel inside the hot tub for 60 amps. Some said I wouldn't need it here in AL. But I've been running the heater in economy mode and there has been a few nights here lately it's been down in the 50s and 99 degrees just wouldn't be quiet warm enough. It's been nice to get in at 99 with both pumps running and turning the heater on at the same time. Only takes a few minutes to get it up to 101. If I have had to turn the heater on this many times already with both jets running, there's no telling how many times I would have to do so once it actually gets cold here. I would recommend anyone, anywhere to go for the 60 amp install. You'll never know when you might need it, and once you do, You'll be glad you did.

And finally, congrats Amy on getting everything up and running. It's been a long road, but your patience is finally paying off and the wait is definitely worth it.

Quickbeam:
We had a similar situation. We recently built a new lakeside home. We had a fantastic general contractor, and I have to say the electrician was good in what he did, except for the hot tub wiring. Our hot tub was going on a roof deck, and all the wiring was run during the construction of the home. There was a lot going on with the construction and this was the one thing that got by me. I didn't check on what I'd need for a hot tub. I just didn't know that I would need 60 amps and never thought to question it or look into it. It wasn't until the house was completed and we started looking for hot tubs that I realized this was an issue, and of course our electrician had only wired for 50 amps. It was quite a decision for us on what we should do. In the end we paid around $800 extra to get the correct wiring run, so we could have 60 amp service. He had to run it outside and up the side of our house to the roof deck. Luckily it's hard to see as the house on this side is situated very close to our neighbours, so it is not a real distraction. But still, it cost us around $800 to fix what should have been done the first time. But even with that, I'm glad now that we did it. When we're in the tub we quite often have both pumps running at the same time, and in the middle of winter, I want that heater to kick in when it needs to!

amy2421:
It is hard to get everything just right on a big project. On a much smaller scale, with our backyard reno we had some specific requests for electrical runs for receptacles and landscape lighting and somehow it got lost in the shuffle. By the time our electrician was on site, it was too late for some of it because we did not have the right number of conduits or in the right places. It was a little frustrating because we thought we were pretty clear before we got started. But everything else looks beautiful so we are very happy. I am glad that with the hot tub electrical we got it done properly instead of listening to the first electrician!

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