I was working on a hot tub today that was being fed by a 50amp gfci breakr. This gfci breaker feds a sub panel by the hot tub that has a regular 2pole 30 and a 2 pole 20 in it. The 2 pole 20 feds whatever and has a neutral. The 2 pole 30 feeds the heaters and requires no neutral. It seems to me that there would be no gfci protection on the heaters because there is no neutral, hence requiring a gfci breaker for both the 20amp and 30amp breakers in the sub panel instead of feeding the whole sub panel with a 50amp gfci. Am i thinking right. I hope this makes sense.
hot tub gfci
- Thread starter fireryan
- Start date
- Status
stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
You don't need a neutral for a GFCI to work.
stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
What would be the difference if you used one 2 pole 50 of the panel, or a two 2 pole gfci breakers, the heaters still are not using a neutral.
the gfci breaker monitors both 240 and 120 volt loads, it monitors the current going and returning and trips when there is a difference.I know but thats not what im asking. It seems to me to properly protect this tub i would need to install a 2pole 20a gfci bkr and a 2pole 30a gfci brkr instead of the 50a gfci bkr. On the 20 amp one i would connect the neutral to the breaker and then the breaker to the neutral bar. As for the 30amp circuit that has no neutral I would just connect the pigtail from the breaker to the neutral bar. With that being said it seems to me that without protecting each circuit individually with gfci protection that you are not providing protection to the whole tub. How would the 50amp gfi breaker feding the subpanel notice an imbalance on the heaters circuit?
What would be the difference if you used one 2 pole 50 of the panel, or a two 2 pole gfci breakers, the heaters still are not using a neutral.
Im having a hard time wrapping my head around this for some reason. itt just seems to me that there would be a issue with monitoring 2 different circuits that require gfci protection with 1 gfci bkr.
- Location
- Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
- Occupation
- Service Manager
Ryan: because any imbalance on the load side of the 50 GFCI will trip the 50, whether there is GFCI protection on the 30 as well, or not.
- Location
- Tennessee NEC:2017
- Occupation
- Semi-Retired Electrician
I don't see that as any different than feeding other receptacles of the load side of a 120V GFCI receptacle. An imbalance in any of the downstream receps or the GFCI recep. will cause it to trip.
stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
Simple graphic of how a gfci works, just replace the items in the picture with your 50 amp gfi breaker and and the receptacle would be your sub panel. Still the same results though.
Last edited:
- Status