[jwholden]

I was at a clients house today who just had a hot tub installed in their yard. There is a wire that runs 40' through the gardens to get to the location of the hot tub. The wire is 10/3 UF with ground. I can only assume that if it is running a hot tub it is 220 V.

Here is the kicker, there is absolutely nothing covering the EXPOSED wire except for a few inches of dirt. I assume that wherever the wire is exposed it must be covered by conduit but have to wonder if a 220V circuit would need to be in conduit the entire distance.

If I cut both wires with a shovel I could end up dead, not just shocked? Am I being a worry wort or is this contractor a cheeseball? It just doesn't seem right to me.

[HRLand]

I would think that it has to be in conduit for the entire length as well as 18" below the surface.

[Stonehenge]

Um, that is not right. 110 needs to be underground 12" and in conduit. Or it needs to be UFB (I think that's the designation), no conduit, but buried much deeper.

I don't know electrical code here, much less there, but I'm pretty sure a phonecall to the city would have the electrical work quarantined in a heartbeat.

Oh I almost forgot - you might not die, so long as the breaker works as it's supposed to.

[Nebraska]

In my locale conduit is code....so is at least 18". I wouldn't want to hit it either. I'd be more concerned with the amps than the volts. I'd bet that tub draws an "ample" share of amps?

[Paul]

All the wiring to both my hot tubs, are in steel conduit. Plus by code they are buried 18" deep. If you cut one you can get hurt!

[Stonehenge]

That's right Nebraska - it's the amps that'll kill ya. Or smoke ya.

[Nebraska]

My answer would be cheesball. I wouldn't work in there unless it was diabled from the panel. Pull the breaker at a mininum.

[Dale Wiley]

Since these was probably no electrial permit, so no inspection, so no one checked codes, which will vary from city to county to state.

My humble knowledge says the you can probably direct bury the 10/3, but that it needs to be in conduit when it leaves ground and then hard wired inside boxes.

We direct buried 10/3 18 inches deep, came out in conduit to GFI switches in our greenhouses. Meets code and was inspected.

Nothing about that picture is right.

Let the lawsuits fly.....

[dan deutekom]

We might be a little overkilll but we bury 24" deep, in a conduit, then fill 6 inches and lay a yellow tape over the line and then fill the rest of the way. Rather safe that sorry.

[Bill Schwab]

Pretty standard code for wire of any type to be 18" deep, and cased. 10-3 is way too small a wire to run 40' as well. We usually run 1 1/4" schedule 40 conduit, glued together, then pipe taped. We run a 1/4" nylon rope through the conduit. Then we run 6 gauge cable, one white, one red, one black. The ground is green and we can use 10 gauge by code. Typically, we need a 60 amp double bar breaker on the load center, and, there must be a waterproof quick disconnect (glorified switch) within 10 feet of the spa.

If you don't do it this way, you don't pass inspection. Inspection process typically is, at the point the conduit is buried, at the point the lines are pulled, but before they are hooked up, and, at the point of hook up.

Could you get juiced if you hit the lines? Sure. What would be more likely to happen is you would explode a piece of your shovel, and it would trip the breaker, especially, if it is a GCFI interface. From the sounds of this job, these folks need to learn the dangers of what could happen in a worst case scenario. Like, thier dog thought it was a bone, bit down, then the kid sees the dog having trouble and runs over to help. As soon as the kid touches the dog, you got two formerly living things now playing as smoked meat.

[jwholden]

I was mistaken, the wire is 6 gauge and the ground is 10.

Sounds like a typical case of get in, tell them what they want to hear, get the check and run.

[agla]

The second concern is that since this wire does not follow code, what makes us believe that it is on a GFI breaker?

[Dale Wiley]

Originally posted by agla
The second concern is that since this wire does not follow code, what makes us believe that it is on a GFI breaker?

Correct.... and if something does create an open close to the tub and it goes to ground, it could possibly just send 220V throught the water in the tub looking for a ground.....that wouild definetly TOTALLY FRY anyone or thing in the tub....

[Bill Schwab]

The early hot tubs used to have GFI's built in. For liabilities, they stopped installing them. So, we are firced to run a 60 amp double pull off the load center, 6 guage hot/commons, and 10 gauge ground, the, a GFI breaker must be not more than ten feet from the tub, and no closer than 5 feet away in a waterproof cased box. Total value of the breakers and wire cost, 359.36. Then they yell if I have to run 40' of conduit, pull a permit, and charge $2,000.00 for the wiring.

[jwholden]

The part about this that totally irks me is when I was talking with my client (see previous post) they told me the contractor ran into some 'unexpected' problems with the wiring for the tub.

What contractor in his right mind would think he could just 'use what is there' to wire a hot tub. I'm assuming you tell the customer what the cost of a job like that costs BEFORE you start construction.