Wiring Jetted Tub?

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Yukoner777

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Hi there
Fourteen years after building, I'm finally getting around to finishing the ensuite bathroom. I bought a second-hand Acritec jetted tub a few years ago. I didn't realize until after I got home that it is quite dated. The date on the motor is 1997. _IGP9175.JPG The tub had already been removed from it's old home when I got it and apparently was working when they removed it. I guess the only real way to test the pump and motor is to hook it up to the tub, add water, and turn it on. Or would you recommend just getting a new one, given the hassle it would be to replace once everything is in place?

I've attached some pics of the tub and where it's going. _IGP9189.JPG _IGP9187.JPG Access will be through a removable panel in the built-in cupboard on the right. It won't be fun for a claustrophobic, but it will be possible to get to everything if need be. I couldn't have it closer to the motor because that will be a shower wall.

The electrical box you can see in the corner of the tub opening is wired to a regular 15A breaker. I assume I need to have a GFCI between the pump and the power supply. Most of what I could find on the net said that the pumps come with a three-prong plug. But it looks like mine is made to be hard-wired. I couldn't find any instructions/information for my specific tub on the net.

It's been a long time since I've done any wiring (I wired my house 14 years ago and it's still standing). In the pic of the grey, moisture resistant box: _IGP9180.JPG
What are the red and green wires which are joined? Before I opened the box, I assumed the green was a ground, but now I'm confused. Or was the red connected to ground at the switch (as well as the bare ground)?

What are the rules for where I could mount the on/off switch? I seem to remember that I wasn't supposed to have any switches reachable from the shower. Or can I get a waterproof switch that I could mount on the tub?

Thanks
Ross
 

Jadnashua

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FWIW, some of those pumps are pretty hefty, and you may need more than a 15A circuit to run them. Plus, some of them are designed for 240vac, verses running on 120vac.

Where does that green wire go? I do not think that it meets code...individual wires like that are not designed to be run separately. Codes would likely also require the power to the tub be GFCI protected.

The label on the pump should give you an indication of what the power requirements are, as would how many wires there are coming from it, but not necessarily.
 

Jadnashua

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You'd want a dedicated 15A breaker for this. Now, if there were also an in-line heater, that may require either a separate CB on its own, depending on how many watts it pulls. I'd probably put it on a GFCI CB.
 

Yukoner777

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There is a dedicated standard 15A breaker in the panel. I'll change that breaker to a single-pole GFCI breaker.

From the electrical box on the wall, inside the wooden tub frame, I'll run the power to either a timer or a wall switch (at least a meter from the tub) - then back to the pump motor.

So getting back to the wires in the grey, moisture-resistant box . . . the green wire attaches to the top of the motor and is obviously a ground. Is there some reason that I couldn't just pigtail off the bare ground wire? The person who wired it before didn't seem to think that was the way to go.
_IGP9197.JPG
 

Jadnashua

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WHere does that wire the green wire connects with eventually go?

WHen I had my tub installed, the electrician mumbled something about requiring a separate ground wire all that way from the motor back to the panel in addition to the ground in the cable. I never really questioned it...do not know if there is some provision in the code requiring that redundant wire.

Using a red wire for a ground is not code unless it is marked at each end appropriately.
 

Yukoner777

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I did some research on this and it appears that the ground lug on the outside of the motor casing is actually for bonding. That is, connecting to other metal parts of the tub, so that they are at the same electrical potential. It would seem that this is something that could apply if one were using copper supply lines to the faucet. Since I'm using pex, the bonding is redundant.

"680.74 Bonding (from 2011 National Electrical Code Handbook-McGraw-Hill Edition)

All piping systems and all metal parts in contact with the cir-
culation system must be bonded with a 8 AWG solid copper bonding conduc-
tor, connected to the bonding terminal on the motor. Double-insulated motors
are exempt from this requirement. However, the bonding conductor must be
run to the pump location, long enough to bond a conventional, non-DI motor if
one is purchased to replace the original. This is the same principle as that used
in 680.26(A)(6)(a) for permanently installed pools. Note that the requirement is
to bond piping systems. With todays increasing use of nonmetallic water pip-
ing systems there is frequently nothing to bond under the skirt anyway. A metal
escutcheon around the faucet with no metal piping behind it is not a metal pip-
ing system. It is very possible that even with a motor with a bonding lug, there
will be no opportunity to run a bonding conductor. A bond wire must bond at
least two things, and increasingly, there is no second item requiring bonding.
Neither is it required to run a bonding conductor to the panel or anywhere else.
Refer to the bonding discussion at 680.26 for the reasons why this is so."
 

hj

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Since I would hate to have to go outside to reset a GFCI breaker, I normally install an "accessible" gfci outlet near the tub and continue on to the pump's receptacle which is under the tub.
 

Jadnashua

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FWIW, I have two GFCI CB's supplying things in my bathroom (one being the tub, and a second one to a heated towel bar)...it's been over 10-years now, and they've never tripped. Modern equipment, without defects, do not regularly trip GFCI's. Older stuff, yes, I hear people say it happens, but I've not had occasion to experience it myself. My washer and gas dryer are also on a GFCI...many, many years, never tripped even before I updated both - the older ones were from 1983, so they'd been around a number of years before being replaced. I've had one GFCI that was problematic, but after awhile, I tracked it down to a single wire run...replaced that, no problems since with anything plugged in.

IMHO, how much is a life worth? If a GFCI trips, it's for a reason.
 
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