Electrical work = big bucks???

[lagator43]

After much research and testing I decided on the Summit from Arctic Spa. It seemed to have the seating arrangement best suited for my family.  Their service reputation in my community is excellent. Delivery is set for Tues Oct 3.

My mind is now on the electrical requirements for my tub.  I cannot believe how much the breaker costs.  Arctic is selling me one for $250. One electric wholesale quoted me $400.  

How many people did the electrical work themselves?  One electrician said that it would be a full days labour just to run the wire and the total job would cost about $1000.00!!!! Is he trying to soak me or what?  Now my panel is on the opposite side of the house compared with the tub, but that sounds excessive.  It will probably require about 50 feet of wire to reach my tub.  My Dad installs central air conditioning systems and installs breakers and wires them.  I hope he can help me out here otherwise this tub will have me sleeping in the doghouse for the next few months.  I really did not expect the hook up to be this expensive.

[grumpy]

my uncle is an electrician an hooked up my tub. My panel is about 75 feet from the tub. parts for the electrical cost me $400 and I already had the gfi sub panel which came with the tub. It took 4-5 hours to run all the conduit,wires and get it up and running. So your price sounds reasonable but I could be wrong.

[Repeat_Offender]

With the current price of copper, 75-100 ft of #6 guage 4 conductor wire is at least $200. Add in a breaker for the main panel and a GFCI disconnect for outdoors along with various hardware and the cost of material alone could be in the $400-$500 dollar range. That's what it cost me and I did all the work myself. $1000 certainly sounds within reason.

[Garyjr]

laagator43,

I wired mine myself and had the following invested:
Note:  All materials were bought from my local HD store.
30' #6 gauge 4 strand outdoor wire @ $2.99 per ft
1 60 amp Cutler Hammer gfci box @ $80.00
1 60 amp Square D circuit breaker @ $13.00
Total time to install bow and run wire @ less than 2 hours

Mine was a pretty simple install.  My main box is located in my basement and was less than 4' from where I came outside with my wire and gfci box.  My main deck comes off the back of my house and is near where I placed the tub so I was able to tuck and secure my wire to the underside of my deck.  
You might want to check with your local building inspector to see if they require running the wire inside conduit.  In my county, they did not, as long as the wire is suitable for outdoor use.
I am in no way shape or form an electrician, but refused to pay someone for something I knew I could do myself for alot less money.
Ended up with right under $200 in material and about 2 hours of labor.

Jr

[lagator43]

Thanks for the info.  This gives me hope.    Was your breaker a ground fault?  How come yours was so cheap?

laagator43,

I wired mine myself and had the following invested:
Note:  All materials were bought from my local HD store.
30' #6 gauge 4 strand outdoor wire @ $2.99 per ft
1 60 amp Cutler Hammer gfci box @ $80.00
1 60 amp Square D circuit breaker @ $13.00
Total time to install bow and run wire @ less than 2 hours

Mine was a pretty simple install.  My main box is located in my basement and was less than 4' from where I came outside with my wire and gfci box.  My main deck comes off the back of my house and is near where I placed the tub so I was able to tuck and secure my wire to the underside of my deck.  
You might want to check with your local building inspector to see if they require running the wire inside conduit.  In my county, they did not, as long as the wire is suitable for outdoor use.
I am in no way shape or form an electrician, but refused to pay someone for something I knew I could do myself for alot less money.
Ended up with right under $200 in material and about 2 hours of labor.

Jr

[Garyjr]

My breaker (that was placed in my main sub panel)was not a ground fault, however the Cuttler Hammer gfci box that I installed between the sub panel and my tub came with a 60 amp gfci breaker in it.

Jr

[Spiderman]

With you Dad's help you should have no problem doing this yourself.  I did mine and supplies ran around $130.  Hot Spring includes the sub panel with the tub so that saved me some $$$.  Wire isn't cheap.   The only hang up I had was trying to stuff the 12-2 and 10-3 wire into the 25' of flexible conduit from the sub to the tub.  I ended up soaping down the wires as I pulled them through.  

[anne]

I hope that my terminology is not at fault here, but I'm puzzled about a $200-$400 breaker. My GFCI was about $125, in CA at HD. There were others that were cheaper, but this one has an extra 15A circuit for other outdoor stuff that I may use "sometime." $250 seems high, let alone $400, but are we talking US or Canadian $ ?
 Wire was about as others have said- $3-4/foot for 4 strand #6. I had to buy a 50A circuit breaker, and it was about $55. My dad did my wiring for me, and it took a couple of hours. (Would have taken less time, but I had layed the PVC with the final 90 deg angle pointing upwards a few inches too far over to line up "nicely" with the existing box, so he had a little extra creative work to do)

I have a Summit at well! Hope you enjoy.

[Vinny]

Apparently a GFCI beaker for the box is expensive. You need a disconnect at the tub (min 5' away) and that's where I put the GFCI. A 50 Amp breaker is a lot cheaper than a 60 from what I've been told and when you add the GFCI part - look out!

Be careful though as I have been told that different panels need different types of breakers.

My suggestion is to price it out both ways - GFCI beaker and GFCI disconnect and see what runs cheaper.

[In Canada eh]

My GFCI was about $125, in CA at HD. There were others that were cheaper, but this one has an extra 15A circuit for other outdoor stuff that I may use "sometime." $250 seems high, let alone $400, but are we talking US or Canadian $ ?

This sounds about right for Can. pricing.

In our case 40 amp GFCI outdoor breaker was $235 at Home Depot
                 40 amp breaker for panel
                 100 feet 6 gauge wire
                 30 feet conduit, elbows and fittings, boxes etc.
                

                  all added up to about $550 can.  so to have an electrician do it $1000 is not out of line

[Zep]

not sure where you are.......
I guess rates vary in different states (i'm in Texas)
but it seems like mine was about $400 done by
electrician referred by my CalSpa dealer.

mine was not that far from the breaker box
and there was some minor digging....i did
some of the digging before they got there to
help hold down costs.

I think there were here at my house about 3 hours.

[Brewman]

It is true that a breaker needs to be approved for use in the box in which it's installed.
It will say on the box or in the literature with the box what breakers are compatible.
 If a breaker fits, it still might not be allowable per NEC.  

 There are often two breaker needed to put in a spa circuit.  One is just a "tap" breaker for the main panel to create the new circuit.  This breaker can be your main GFI protection, or it can be a standard 2 pole non GFI breaker.  But you can only have one GFI protected breaker on the circuit.  

 Near your spa (NEC dictates the distance) you need a form of disconnect.  This can be a simple pull box, or it can be a panel with your GFI breaker.  
 Or it can be the GFI breaker that is installed in your spa's service bay, if there is one.  

If you put the GFI inside the house in your main panel, but this will not satisfy the shutoff near the spa rule, as it cannot be inside a dwelling if your spa is outside.
 You can use a pull box or some other approved means as your outdoor disconnect.

You can also put the GFI breaker outside as your form of disconnect.  That way you'd still need a tap breaker in your main panel- not a GFI breaker but a plain one.

If the GFI breaker is outside your repair people don't need access to your home to reset the GFI if it trips while they are working on the spa.

I have the indoor GFI and outdoor pull box setup, and it works fine.  I always try to be home for repair people anyway, so I don't mind the breaker inside.  I chose this method simply because in my situation it was less expensive.

[pg_rider]

I've received two quotes for my electrical now, one at $950 and one at $740.  Pretty sure I'm going to go with the $740!  Basically my main panel is in my garage on the opposite end of the house from where the tub will go.  Need to run conduit along the ceiling of the garage, down the wall, punch through into the unfinished basement, along the basement ceiling, punch through the outside wall to the patio area, install the disconnect w/GFI, then conduit to the tub (the whole run is probably around 80 ft).  I'm going with 60 amp, so I guess the $740 quote is pretty good.  I'd say anything under $1000 is fair to average...