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Electrical Wiring

Hot tub wiring question

15 years ago

I have been installing wiring for a hot tub at my mother's house in Ontario, in preparation for the delivery of a hydropool hot tub. I have 8/3 wire going from the electrical panel through the foundation, along the wall under the deck inside 1"PVC to an outdoor GFCI cutoff panel (siemens) 5' from the future location of the tub. From that panel, I have fed 8/3 direct-bury (I forget the code for the cable, but it's got a heavy black plastic casing and heavy insulation) cable underground and up through conduit in the corner of the pad where the hot tub will be. It turns out that the cable will not be long enough to go from where it exits the ground to where the connections will be on the tub. Can I put a PVC junction box under the cabinet to extend to splice in a piece of wire and then feed it along the inside of the cabinet to the connections? Should it be in conduit here, or just staples to the cabinet? What type of wire does this need to be?

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Comments (5)

petey_racer
15 years ago
Almost everything you just described would not be complaint in the US. I don't know the Canadian codes for this so I'll refrain from further suggestions.

Hopefully someone who knows your codes will be along soon.
bp10000
Original Author
15 years ago
I think the Canadian codes are not too far off the American ones, so maybe i've done this all wrong, or maybe my description has left out some details. If you don't mind, what is the major flaw with the above? I did run it by an electrician before I started.

The wires are nmd90 indoors and in the conduit, and nmwu for the buried portion.
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I'm not up on the Canadian codes but the following is per the US NEC. There are two things that are required for spas. I believe you are getting them confused (happens often). The first is the maintenance disconnect. The disconnect box can be located as close as you like. It needs to be within sight of the person who might be working on the mechanicals of the thing. For instance, in my case, the tub is mounted in the deck, the disconnect is under the deck which is where you get at all the machinery. This disconnect you MUST have. The second is the emergency stop switch. This needs to be located in sight of the spa occupants but not closer than five feet. This is the thing that is NOT REQUIRED for single family residences. If you have teck armored cable, you have to use the fittings. That's the only way cable is listed to be used. If you don't do this you are not assured of either water proofness nor ground bonding. There's nothing wrong with either option for the connection to the panel you describe in #3. Yes Teck doesn't need conduit. "LB" is a conduit fitting which you don't need either.
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Any time you get a shock, which is what you're getting, it's serious. What if someone with a heart condition got a shock from your hot tub by just putting their hand in the water. Does the word "lawsuit" come to mind? This has nothing to do with the GFCI breaker. You can try to find the problem with a good voltmeter. Set the meter to V AC, on a low scale, say in the 50V AC range. By touching each metal part of the tub and the ground wire, something will show a voltage significantly different than the other voltages from the metal parts. That'll be the part of the tub that's not bonded correctly. It will do this even with the breaker off because the ground wire will contain voltage. Because all parts of the tub are not at that same ground voltage, current will flow, and a shock results when current flows from a higher voltage to a lower voltage. By having everything bonded, even though there is ground voltage in the bonding system, it's all at the same voltage and therefore no current will flow and there will be no shocks.
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Brickeyee, I agree with you but I think I do have it hooked up correctly. I think the GFCI breaker may be defective. I guess that is my actual question. I'll reiterate how I have it hooked up. Black and red from the house 50 amp breaker to the inputs of the GFCI. Red and black from the GFCI breaker to red and black on the hot tub. Neutral from the hot tub to the neutral on the GFCI. Ground from the hot tub to ground bus in the house. Now if you think that is incorrect please tell me what is incorrect don't just treat me like some kind of fool. Thanks
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petey_racer
15 years ago
1) Most every spa I have wired required #6cu minimum. Maybe yours is different.

2) We cab use NM cable inside but we MUST use conduit and have an insulated ground for the whole outside portion.
There is an outside MC cable that is listed for direct burial, but no one uses it and it is is impossible to find in stock anywhere.

3) We are allowed 6' of flexible conduit (Sealtite) total. Again, this also requires the same individual conductors and insulated ground.

The splice box would likely be allowed if it were absolutely necessary. I'd avoid it though unless I had NO other options.
3)
bigbird_1
15 years ago
"From that panel, I have fed 8/3 direct-bury (I forget the code for the cable, but it's got a heavy black plastic casing and heavy insulation)"

Most likely TECK cable.

You can splice the TECK to another piece of TECK, but you must use the correct TECK connectors. TECK is armored and waterproof cable. The conductors are already in their own waterproof and protected conduit. The TECK is attached with strapping to the deck. If the junction box is protected from the elements under the deck then you don't need TECK from the JB to tub. You could splice into THWN (in Canada it's called R90 X-link). The R90 must be in conduit.
petey_racer
15 years ago
BB has got it. I'm pretty sure that TECK is the direct bury MC cable I was referring to that is hard to find here. (only we don't call it TECK here)

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