Question for dealers-electric before or after tub

[tmknies1]

Do you recommend your clients have electric work before or after the tub is delivered? I am getting conflicting advice.

As always, thanks for all your help

[drewstar]

Do you recommend your clients have electric work before or after the tub is delivered? I am getting conflicting advice.

As always, thanks for all your help

I am not a dealer, (but that has never stopped me before)

Each install is different.


I would recomend gettign the electrical info/requirments for the tub before hand, and talking with your electrician about what is needed, and the costs.  He may want to do some of the work prior, and the final hook ups after.  Or might be able to do it all the day of install. It depends on what you already have, where he is tapping into and how you are connecting the tub.

Each install is different.  If you know the tub you are buying and have an electrican, invite him over for a beer, and talk about a plan of action.


for me, I already had a 220 sub panel outside, and on the day of delivery, my electrican put in the new watkins panel and breakers, ran the wires in sealtite and connected them to the tub in about 1 hr.  He had already scoped out the set up and knew what he had to do, and what to bring.

As we have seen here today a new buyer was shocked to find out the costs and was told they needed to upgrade thier service.

Also, how much wireing is needed can be expsenive.  

If you are planing on running the wires via conduiut under ground, under the pad an up, then I can't see how you could not have the electrican involced prior to delivery.

[Brookenstein]

I am not a dealer... but I had all the wiring done in advance, then the day the tub was delivered, the guy came back out and installed it.  It worked great because the first days took many hours as I had a long install, but the day of just took an hour or so.

[salesdvl]

I always suggested having things done AFTER.  That way the electrician knows exactly what he has to work with.  Also, we always supplied the sub-panel breaker box so sometimes the electrician had already installed one ( sometimes the wrong kind).

Also, unless it is your brother in law or something, there will be a return fee priced in there somewhere.

[drewstar]

I always suggested having things done AFTER.  That way the electrician knows exactly what he has to work with.  Also, we always supplied the sub-panel breaker box so sometimes the electrician had already installed one ( sometimes the wrong kind).

Also, unless it is your brother in law or something, there will be a return fee priced in there somewhere.

But woudl you recomend talking to an electrian BEFORE you make final plans and take delivery?

[salesdvl]

Absolutely.  My assumtion is that several bids/estimates are done and a qualified electrician is hired.  It just seemed to go easier if the electrician got there after the spa was in place and then wired it up as opposed to running step 1 somewhere in the vacinity of where the spa will probably end up.  Then coming back and connecting the wires.

The other aspect is that HotSpring includes the 220 sub-panel that we always deivered with the spa and quite a few times the electrician would pre-install ( and charge them for) a sub panel that was the wrong kind. In HS case it is a 20 & a 30 rather than a single 50 amp breaker.  Or the customer would want some money back since they didnt need the one that we delivered with the spa.

For us it just worked out better.  

[Brewman]

 You at least should have some idea of what spa model you want before contacting an electrician.  
Many, but no all spas, are wired with a 4 conductor 50 amp 220 circuit.  
But my spa, and some others only need a 3 conductor circuit, but on a 60 amp configuration.
Others still may need 30 or 40 amps, some only 120V, etc.   Helpful to get the right specs before getting bids or starting work.

If the electrician is experienced in hot tub wiring, it shoulnd't matter if you wire first, then install the spa, or install the spa first, then run wire to it, unless you want to run the wire up thru the bottom vs thru the side.

Some spa installers won't touch wiring- they require the electrician to hook that up.  Others may do the hookup.  

I did my own electrical, and it certainly saved me a lot of hassle by knowing the exact spa I wanted prior to buying all the wire, conduit, GFI breaker, etc.....

[tmknies1]

Thanks to all of you. As always very helpful.

I have the spa ordered and have shared the technical specs with one electrician and have ia call for a quote request nto an electrician the dealer uses.

Part of it is impatience on my part, I cannot wait for the spa to be there and start using  

[Zep]

I had mine done in advance....

One reason is I wanted to "hide" my
electric wires....so it had to be done
before the tub was dropped on pad.

Plus I wanted the dealer to fill my tub
with water, chemicals and make sure
everything was working properly when
they delivered it.

[Chas]

Do you recommend your patients have electric work before or after the tub is delivered? I am getting conflicting advice.

One thing is true in any case: choose the spa first, and use the electrician the dealer recommends. If you absolutey cannot or will not do that, then be sure you get your electrician in touch with the dealer.

I can't tell you how many times folks have chosen a Watkins product in 220 volts only to tell me, "I already have the electrical in - nothin' to worry about there."

But when we get there, they have 30amp 220, or 50 amp 220 run right to the spa, and no chance of adding the subpanel. Or they have a 'spa shutoff' type box - strictly non-returnable, of course.

So choose the tub - and get the specs. Then have the electrician choose the schedule.

[TN__HOT_TUB]

I probably did it wrong and not up to code, but I had my wiring done prior to taking delivery of the tub.  My friend is an electrician and worked with me on pricing.

I ended up changing my mind a bit after he ran the wiring and had to trench with some PVC conduit, but that wasn't a big deal. My wiring is not hidden.  It is out of the way and covered by my wooden deck.  

Tub was delivered and 15 minutes the dealer connected the wiring.

[The_real_Clown_Shoes]

Best combination is to find an electrician that your dealer recommends who can fill the tub for you and make sure that it is wired out and notify the dealer if anything is wrong.

[DPS]

The way we do it most often is to recommend the electrician, who is reliable, reasonable and knowledgeable.  We deliver the spa, then the electrician hooks it up, fills it and turns it on.  The salesman then comes back out to do a "start-up" school.
Over the years we have done it a few different ways, but this works better for everybody.  I also like that my salespeople are the last contact with the customer on their new spa installation.

[Brewman]

Seems like a dealer working with an electrician is a pretty good idea.  All of the dealers I shopped didn't have that relationship- most of them had the wiring requirements for each spa posted next to the spa on the showroom, but they didn't recommend any electricians.
For those who are reading this thread, and who are in the process of purchasing a spa, in many cases this information can be pulled from the spa web site.  Sundance for one, has a section on this online.  

[LittleBlaine]

Best combination is to find an electrician that your dealer recommends who can fill the tub for you and make sure that it is wired out and notify the dealer if anything is wrong.

I strongly agree with this.  I also took the dealer's recommendation, and the electrician got all the information from the dealer and coordinated delivery and hookup with them.  He stuck around until the tub was filled and got the jets going, and even gave me a lesson on water chemistry!