Hot Tub in Spain - Problems

A day in the life of a Hot Tub specialist somewhere onspa and is then behind a locked door requiring a key.
the Costa del SolSo if there was a requirement to switch off the spa in
The phone rang one Saturday morning in oura hurry or for what ever reason the breaker just not
Estepona Showroom "can you look at my Hot Tubwhere it should be.
Jacuzzi Style Spa please it doesn't work".We move on some simple checks and surprise the
We go through the usual pleasantries - how long hasspa is not earthed? The house does not seem to be
he had the Hot Tub in Spain - about two years - whatearthed!!! Well this is Spain. But this House has been
make is it - does it have good controls that I recognizerewired on the last two / three years BUT NO
like for example Balboa and then the potential clientEARTH!!!
tells me that he wasn't very happy with the originalWe turn every thing off and open the breaker. The
sale in the first place. On no account will he go back toblue wires are the wrong size to carry the load they
the original supplier if he could find him which he cannot.are to small and the colour has changed from blue to
It's a Spa from a Major American maker a bit dated inblack as they were getting close to ignition. The
my view from the design point of view but a perfectlyceramic part of the broker has started to go brown as
good product never the less and more than adequateit was close to ignition. It smelt like an incendiary device
for the its intended purpose.it had clearly been getting very hot and close to ignition.
On the telephone we can get a good idea of whatThe Breaker that had been supplied was of the wrong
might be the problem and it would appear that at thissize as was the cables.
stage the Spa has no power and my sense is that it isThe spa company had just dropped off the spa and
possibly a mains electrical fault of some kind. The Juicesaid here is your spa and we have a local electrician
is not getting through for what ever reasoncoming tomorrow to wire it up. He probably did a good
So with my pal Ulf (a Swede) we go for a drive in tojob but was not briefed or trained on the project. A bit
the country to see the Hot Tub.like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand
When we get there the first thing I notice is thatdoes.
against the maker's instruction and best practice thereWe got an independent electrician in to Earth the Spa
is no breaker switch accessible to turn off theand rewired the Spa as required with proper sized
electricity.cables.
There is a breaker but it has been fitted INSIDE the