ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area hot tub gfci wiring issue

"The interior wiring for a spa or hot tub does not require an insulated equipment grounding conductor,"
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I may have miss read the origional post , but i thought he said "but in the disconnect I found the the egc was not attached to anything " If he has a disconnect, he is not feeding directly from the service panel.

I just scrolled down and didn't get a chance to read all the posts so this may be in there already. I have had the luxury of troubleshooting a hot tub with one of their techs before. A major cause of the gfis tripping is that the heater pack of the hot tub goes bad. If you can get a hold of the manufacturer,have them talk you through disconnecting this and see if it still trips. It's nice to be able to prove to the tub owner that it's not the electricians fault.

"If everything in the tub runs off 240 volts (no 120 used) then the grounded (neutral) is not needed."


From my experience, this seems to be what's going on here. Not all of the new spa's require a neutral conductor. I would read up on the specs (if available), and go from there.

Good luck!

The very first time I wired in a 2-pole GFI, I had the same problem....and the problem turned out to be ME!

In a three wire 220 circuit, THERE IS NO NEUTRAL. That third wire is a ground wire. As such, it does not go through the GFI.
The GFI will work fine, as it monitors the current in both legs, and compared them to determine if any leakage is occurring.

This, of course, aplies as long as there are no 120 loads (such as a timer or something). If there are 120 loads, the GFI will see them as 'leakage' and shut it down- unless the case/ frame is isolated from the neutral, and a neutral conductor is run. This would be a four-wire circuit.

lots of good info here.

ShockMe77 has the correct idea on this particular installation.

"From my experience, this seems to be what's going on here. Not all of the new spa's require a neutral conductor. I would read up on the specs (if available), and go from there."

Retailer stated that there is no neutral required on this tub as well.

this being the case then I SHOULD land the egc on the ground bus in the disconnect, correct?

if anyone cares to refer to the wiring diagram here is a link to the website of the spa manufacturer and model. The diagram is on page 34 of the file.
http://sundancespas.com/Communications/InstructionManuals/2001850.pdf#search='sundance%20capri%20wiring%20diagram'

thanx very much for all of the input from everyone.

Connect the red and black to the breaker and as the picture shows in the tub.

Which ever conductor you decide to use for the equipment grounding conductor connect it where the picture for the tub shows the green conductor. If this tub is located outside then use the insulated white conductor but mark it green. Pick which bar to use if it is in the main panel. If it is in the sub panel then it must go on the grounding bar. Again mark it green.

The other conductor need to be arranged so that it cannot come in contact with anything in both panels.

The white conductor from the breaker is to be connected to the neutral bar of the panel in which it is installed. If it is in a sub panel the equipment grounding conductor and the breaker neutral can not go under the same lug.






edited to add:
Before any one gets started about this panel. This is a panel that my residential class wired and I took the picture so I could project it to the whole class and go over their mistakes. Yes we use a range cord for the SE conductors.

[This message has been edited by jw electric (edited 10-04-2005).]

Photo Bucket"s web site is down for some reason. I hope they are back up soon. sorry about the pictures.

[This message has been edited by jw electric (edited 10-05-2005).]