We put in a hot tub that the electrician was supposed to put in a dedicated 110 line. He said he did. The motor in the hot tub is going and the hot tub people said it's because the line is not dedicated. How can I test this to see who is correct?
2007-09-07 15:28:13 · 9 answers · asked by crash41 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
By "going" i mean it's failing.
2007-09-07 16:38:27 · update #1
Turn off the circuit breaker for the hot tub in the electric panel. See if anything else turns off with it. A dedicated line will feed only that outlet and nothing else, from that circuit breaker. It will be simple for you to check.
For the untrained:
The dedicated line is required by the manufacturer some times because of a possible voltage drop (low voltage) caused by other loads on the line. It is a completely valid requirement and could void the warranty if not complied with. Certain types of motors do not like low voltage and will fail.
2007-09-08 04:14:17 · answer #1 · answered by John himself 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
First thing I would do is, go to your panel (breaker box), find the breaker for the hot tub (hopefully your electrician labeled it), ( it will probably be a single breaker 20A) turn it off, and and go around the house and check all your lights and outlets to make sure they all work still, (check everything) and make sure the hot tub is off, if it is off, and everything else is still on, you have a dedicated circuit, my problem with this whole thing is.....does a circuit thats not dedicated damage a motor?, Ive never heard of that, of course Im not a motor expert, but that doesnt seem right to me, it wouldnt be the first time a company tried to pass the buck, tell you what I would do though, call your electrician that did the work for you, and ask tell him what the hot tubs guys said, and make sure he did in fact run a dedicated circuit, if he says he did, he did, unless he is a liar of course, (if he ran a dedicated circuit he would know, there would be no mistake, he would have to run a wire all the way back to the panel rather that off the nearest circuit, so he would know), anyway if he says he did, the problem is with the hot tub and they need to deal with it, if he didnt make him come back and do it, after all you did pay him to do just that, hope this helps good luck
2007-09-07 17:49:46 · answer #2 · answered by Just some dude 2 · 5⤊ 0⤋
If you don't want to take the word of anyone and want to prove whether your outlet is "dedicated," here are a couple of approaches you can take. 1) Crawl under the house and follow the hot tub wire back to the breaker box. Then, make sure only the hot tub wire is going to a single circuit breaker in the breaker box. or 2) Do some trial and error testing. See this article on how to map your electrical circuits http://www.hometips.com/home_probsolver/hps05/hps_circuits.html . In short, find the circuit breaker that is connected to your hot tub. Do this by running your hot tub and flipping the circuit breaker switches until the hot tub stops. That is the circuit breaker to your hot tub. Keep that circuit breaker turned off. Then, go through the rest of the house and switch all the light switches on/off and plug a lamp or radio into all the receptacles to make sure everything works. If you find a switch or receptable that does not work, then flip the hot tub circuit breaker switch back on and see if the non-working switch/receptacle starts working. If it starts working, then it is on the same circuit as your hot tub circuit., 3) Pay an electrician to do the same thing as either of the two previous options, but electricians are expensive.
This being said, I don't know if not having a dedicated circuit has anything to do with your motor going. You probably want to check into that a little bit more.
2007-09-07 17:18:05 · answer #3 · answered by r99r99 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
The only reason you need a dedicated circuit is because of the amp draw on that line. Period. This is because the amps are high and if anything else is on the circuit it would overload and trip the breaker. There is no way it will damage the motor, by sharing a circuit. Houses are wired in parallel, not in series so the voltage is the same through out the circuit. The hot tub company is full of crap and is trying to get out of repairing it. Personally you should have went with a 240 volt system as the cost will be a hell of a lot less in electricity.
2007-09-08 03:56:46 · answer #4 · answered by Stephen P 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
r99 and justsomedude both pointed out what bothered me about your question. Whether the line is dedicated or not seems irrelevant (unless it is code in your area) Dedicated simply means that that line serves only the hot tub. This would not make the motor run or not run, it would only mean (it it's not dedicated) that you have other switches/receptacles/etc. on that circuit.
I think the hot tub people either don't know what they are talking about, or are trying to pass the blame for a defective unit.
2007-09-07 19:24:05 · answer #5 · answered by Martin 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Dedicated Circuit
2016-09-28 05:19:35 · answer #6 · answered by wilmore 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
find the fuse or circuit breaker for the hot tub remove the fuse or turn off the breaker if every thing still works you have a dedicated line also the electrician may have used the wrong grade wire and or too low an amp fuse or breaker get the electrician back his work should be guarantee if he was licensed
2007-09-07 15:38:48 · answer #7 · answered by Marcia 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If it is dedicated, it should have it's own breaker. Look in the breaker box for one marked Hot Tub.
2007-09-07 15:38:39 · answer #8 · answered by sensible_man 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
sure sounds like the hottub folks are passing a buck here.
sure, if the hottub motor is on the same line as a refrigerator, it could overheat. but I doubt it.
2007-09-07 20:41:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋