Have you ever wished you had a hot tub but didn’t exactly know what the costs involved are and how much you have to do to get it ready? Well, check this post out, and it may shed a little light on the situation.

I went to this home in Vancouver, WA and they had a cram-packed full panel. There was no extra room for anything. A hot tub requires a 50 amp, GFCI protected circuit run in #6 copper wire. I did some research and found a special breaker that worked in this panel that allows you to fit two breakers into one breaker space. This is called a twin, tandem, mini, or wafer breaker. I used this special breaker and was able to make room for the required 50 amp breaker I needed to complete the job.

Breakers in panel, hot tub is 50 amp in bottom right

I ran the wiring in conduit from the panel in the basement, through the garage, and out to the disconnect on the back of the house where the hot tub was. Electrical code requires that the disconnect be within 25 ft of the hot tub and within sight but no closer than 6 ft to the tub. We found a location that satisfied the requirements and then ran the circuit from the disconnect to the hot tub through a trench that the customer dug for me. (Digging your own trench saves you lots of money rather than paying an electrician to dig for you. Plus, I really hate digging so this was great.)

Wiring in conduit at panel in basement

Hot tub disconnect with GFCI breaker

Wiring in conduit through trench 24″ deep

Wiring in conduit through garage

Wiring inside hot tub motor compartment

The customer dug out a section of their back yard, laid down gravel to level it out, sand to make it smooth, and decorative pavers to make it pretty. They set the hot tub on these pavers and the final installation looks great. After the tub was full, we fired it up and everything worked out great. This was a full days worth of work, but in the end, it turned out hassle-free and a job well done.

Hot tub, filled and ready for fun