# Sticker Shock! Hot Tub Electrical Hook-up!



## CMF (Dec 31, 2006)

I just had my new hot tub hooked up yesterday.  The electrician had to buy 100 feet of cooper wire, a junction box, some fittings and had to dig a trench to bury the electrical line.  He charged $40 per hour for labor plus the cost of supplies. The job came to $1000.  

Does this seem about right, or did I get rooked?

Water under the bridge for the most part; I just won't use him again if I was over charged.

Charles


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## wackymother (Dec 31, 2006)

It would seem okay for our area (near NYC). Most electricians around here wouldn't have dug the trench, even for $40 an hour--they would just tell us to have the trench dug and then they would leave and come back when the trench was ready! I think the one-stop shopping is worth a good amount compared to the aggravation of digging the trench. 

I'm sure it's cheaper in other areas. You're going to be depressed when someone from a different area says, "That's highway robbery! My hot tub only cost $200 to hook up!"


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## PStreet1 (Dec 31, 2006)

My husband (an electrician) said the ground fault breaker costs $100.00 by itself; the materials easily could have been $300.00, and perhaps your situation demanded something extra.  He also said that you don't usually pay electricians' wages to dig a ditch, but if the man was willing to do it and you were willing to pay him to do it to avoid having to call someone else and then get the electrician to return later, digging 100 feet of trench could take a while--frozen ground this time of year?  Anyway, he said your additional cost was probably paying $40.00 an hour to dig a trench and re-cover it.


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## dougp26364 (Dec 31, 2006)

We had this done almost 8 years ago and it was probably around $700 back then here in Wichita, KS. Adjusting for inflation and anywhere else other than Wichita, KS, you probably didn't get burnt. In fact I had a TOUGH time finding someone who would come out for such a small job. In our case I was glad just to get ANYONE to do the job.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 31, 2006)

$40 per hour is not at all expensive for an hourly labor rate.

When you're running a services business, you have to cover all of your indirect expenses (taxes, rent, business insurance, health insurance, equipment and supplies, salaries and benefits of employees whose time you can't charge, advertising, marketing costs, etc.) from the hourly rate  youi charge.  By the time you get all of that added in to your hourly rate, $40 is a pretty reasonable charge.

Think of the rates charged by every profession where people sell their time and have to cover those expenses - plumbers, doctors, accountants, attorneys, etc.  They all charge rates that at first blush are extremely high.  There is a term for people who underprice their services - that term is "bankrupt".

***

Of course, if you or your contractor are so inclined, there's always the option of stopping by your local Home Depot and finding a couple of guys looking for day work.  You can probably then cut out a lot of "overhead" charges and get the job done for quite a bit less.


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## Malibu Sky (Dec 31, 2006)

We have had an out of ground Sundance spa for about 6 years.  Earlier this year it stopped heating up....when the technician showed up he said he cousld not work on it because it did not have the proper "breaker" and that it had not been installed properly.  I called an electrician and he propmply charged me $150 to tell me it would cost $1800 to hook it up as so it would be up to code!!  Well, after a few other electrician's took a look at it, I ended up paying about $1000...so you are about right on with what you paid.

By the way, I think that the "spa" dealers intentionally neglect to tell you this info because it significanly increases the cost of a spa and they don't want this "addiditonal" cost to affect the sale of a spa itself.


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## elaine (Dec 31, 2006)

*$700 in Va*

neighbor had it done last year--friend gave them a deal of $700--going rate was about $1000.


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## CMF (Jan 1, 2007)

*Thank you all.*

It seems like I got a decent deal.  

The fella that did the work is a handyman on the side.  His "day job" is as a building engineer for a large modern office building in DC. He brought along a buddy to help him dig the trench and do the job.  So the $40 an hour covered the work of two people.  A coworker spoke highly of his work and low cost, I did not give him the third degree I would give a contractor that came without a reference. I'm glad things worked out.

Charles


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## JBRES1 (Jan 1, 2007)

*Hot Tub*

I don't think the fee is too high at all.
When I put in my hot tub they wanted $900.00 to do the job.
I didn't want to pay that , so I purchased the wire, breaker, pipe and breaker box, installed it, then hired an electrican to do the  connections.
I paid over $300.00 for the parts, ( 4 lengths of 4 gauge wire 60 ft. long isn't cheap) 50 amp ground fault was $100.00 all by its self.
He charged me $175.00 to show up and hook up the wires to the hot tub, and the breaker box.
Jim Breslin


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## daventrina (Jan 2, 2007)

About the only way to get a much better deal is to do it your self. $40 is not a bad rate... Especially if it was done right...


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## 2hokies (Jan 3, 2007)

That's about right.  We had a guy come give us a quote to wire up our hot tub and he was high priced and proposed to do sub-code work, like we hadn't done our homework and didn't know what the codes were.  The other half of 2hokies is an electrical engineer and knows you don't mess with electricity and water.  He decided to do it himself.  Of course we had to buy a new tools to get the job done, but it was done right and passed inspection.


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