Hi all. New member here. Sorry if this has been asked before but I didn't see anything directly on point.
We recently purchased a home that was already wired (50 amps) for a hot tub on the deck (already reinforced). We purchased a 60 amp hot tub and an electrician quoted us $1,750 to change the 50 amp service to 60 amps. He said the wiring was not sufficient to handle 60 amps, and he said he had never heard of hot tubs requiring 60 amps. This is odd because we got this contractor's contact information from our hot tub dealer. The electrician suggested we stay with 50 amps and see if it trips the breaker before we spend the $$$ to go to 60 amp, assuming this will not void the warranty. He said he was going to call the dealer about the warranty question.
Does this sound right? From what I've read, it shouldn't be difficult to change 50 amp service to 60. I'm surprised about the cost, too. Should it cost that much to pull 60 amp-able wire through the same run where the 50 amp wiring is being removed? It should be less than 100 feet.
We also called the electrician who has handled other issues in our home before, and he thought worst-case the cost would be $1,400 to run an entirely new line. He's also coming out to look to see if the 50 amp service can be easily converted.
I'm not very familiar with electricity/circuits, so this is confusing.
We're in Michigan, so we will want to be able to run both pumps and the heater at the same time when it's cold out. The spa also has a stereo and a handful of LED lights, in case that matters.
