There seems to be quite a bit of confusion on how to wire a GFCI. Here is a diagram for 3 and 4 wire connections, I hope it will help.

This picture is exactly the same as the one that came with my new hot tub but the part that is confusing is this neutral. In appearance it looks as if the white neutral goes through bus and through both hots and goes back out to the the spa connection box.

Big Question: DOES the white neutral run through both the hot lines?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric, Take a look at the bottom view in the right upper corner, it may help. The "pig tail" wire should be hard wired into the GFCI, it is the only permanent wire on the device. The Neutral does not connect to either red or black.

Just to Clarify...

1) In the Diagram, the Main Panel neutral and ground are connected to the same Bus...

2) In my panel, I have seperate Neutral and Ground Bus terminals.....

Q) Do the Neutral and Ground have to be connected to the same bus in the main panel....Or should they be connected to their seperate Ground or Neutral Bus?

Thanks,,,,D

in your main panel you should have both neutral and ground tied together, or if you have two separate buss bars, they should be either be bonded together, or to the cabinet. Assuming you are in the United States, that is. one way to check is to do a continuity check between the two. zero ohms would confirm.

In the diagram, it says that "the white neutral is not required" for 240V hookups. What if it is hooked up? Will it cause the GFI to trip?

My scenario: 60 Amp breaker at main, running 6/3 to a sub panel with 50 Amp GFI; in the sub, the white main feed is on neutral bar with pigtail from GFI.

My delima: I have 6/3 running from spa to sub-panel, where the ground and white are on the same bar inside spa electric panel. I have the white going to the pigtail on the GFI breaker.

See attached picture of sub-panel

My breaker keeps tripping.

That would be why your breaker is tripping... your neutral and ground can not be connected to each other at any time after the GFI breaker. You can try to isolate the ground and neutral in the spa panel. You can do that by removing the neutral lead from the ground bus in the spa panel and using a wirenut to bond the neutral to the neutral line comming from the GFI

I have a similar problem and my breaker trips immediately when I turn it on. I was hoping it was the neutral wire as I have them all connected to the neutral bar but my GFI breaker doesn't have an extra terminal for the neutral wire. I purchassed the square D spa box kit from menards. Any ideas??? Would it work with the GFI breaker, the neutral wire from the spa and the neutral wire from the box all went to the neutral bar?

I have a problem of the water shocking us. We determine that it is related to the ground and the neutral. We have temporarily run a ground wire from the spa to a grounding rod in the yard. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and know of a more permanent fix. I believe it is related to the fact that the neutral and ground are connected to the same bar in the main house breaker box. Our breaker box only has two bars and they are both connected to each other.

Hi my dad has just replaced his old hydro pool hot tub with a california model called a winer streamer; this uses a gfci. where as the old old had a hydroquip system than the 240 volt supply went into. The new tub came with a pieceof 8 guage eletrical cable do i need to up grade the old 14 gauge cable to this as it would be expensive to buy, due to high copper prices. Is it okay to add eletrical crimps on the end of the original supply cable and wire it in to the gfci?