Proper wiring of hot tub.

Found a tub outside wired with a 30 amp regular panel breaker and 10 gauge wire.
Down the line they had an additional 50 amp gfci breaker before the tub. Is this sufficent. I figured it should be. Just wanted to confirm

What does the nameplate on the hot tub say? Is a 30 amp circuit large enough for the load?

The hot tub was broken so I did not inspect it. I guess it s up to the new installer huh?

For future reference RObert, If it does say 30 amp, would the 50 gfci still serve the purpose of a safety breaker?

The GFCI will still function properly and can also serve as the unit disconnect.

The label is law and should never be install otherwise under or over. Reason for operating the way it was designed to. If calls for 30 amps it should be 30 amps. Electricity is nothing to play with or guess if not known should ask a qualified electrician.

Thanks Robert, thats what I thought!

On a similar subject, most hot tubs have a low voltage control jumper option where you choose whether or not to allow the pump to run on high with the heat running. When the smaller of the two circuits is used you have to jumper it to use less current which means the heat will only run if the pump is on low. This option may make the nameplates confusing if you don’t know about it. The dataplates are usually not accessible without removing part of the skirting.

Is there a difference in tripping sensitivity of a higher amperage GFCI breaker over a lower amperage GFCI breaker, or do they monitor the difference in current between the neutral and ungrounded conductor at same rate and would trip at same time regardless of the amperage?
by the above post assume it does , just want to make sure.

Carlos Orellana
Houston Texas

There is no difference. If there were then the device would be pretty useless for loads of varying current. Even a hot tub wouldn’t run at the highest rated current all of the time so the GFCI device would need to monitor the current imbalance regardless of the circuit current.

Thank You Robert.

Carlos