50 Amp Service - Upgrade To 60 Amp?

[Quickbeam]

We built a new cabin and had it pre-wired to put a hot tub on our roof deck. Unfortunately, our electrician only wired for 50 amp service. We are now seriously looking at getting a Jacuzzi tub - probably either the J-335 or the J-345. In any case, with both Jacuzzi and Sundance, from my understanding, if you have 50 amp service and have two pumps on at the same time, the heater kicks out. The salesman we are dealing with is a good guy who has treated us well. He tells us not to worry about the 50 amp service as the vast majority of his customers only wire for 50 amps. He says that when the heater kicks out, the heat from the pumps is enough to compensate for this. I would like to know from others out there if this is true? I really dont want to be in the middle of winter and find that I have to shut off a pump, and therefore jets, because the water is getting cold.

I can have the electrician re-wire for 60 amps, although the wires would need to come through one of the walls and be run outside the house. Its not a deal breaker, but is obviously not what I had in mind when we had the place pre-wired. I also know its going to cost me more money to get the wiring done to 60 amp., but I think Ive got a pretty good argument to the electrician that he should have wired to 60 amp in the first place. I know I wont get it for free, but Im hoping that if I went ahead with it I would get a bit of a break on price.

Bottom line is this - if I have two pumps engaged and the water is going to start getting cold then I think I would rather bite the bullet now and get the 60 amp service. If however, our salesman is correct and the heat from the pumps is enough to keep the water from getting cold, then Ill leave it with the 50 amp service. I would save myself some money and also not need to run wires on the outside. But I really, really dont want to have to shut down jets to keep the water warm.

Also, I should let you know that I live in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The winter weather can get cold, but not like it does in the Prairies.

So, what do you guys think - stay with 50 amps or go to 60? Does anyone have real world experience with 50 amps with either Jacuzzi or Sundance? Thanks so much for your help.

[njmurvin]

I preface this response by stating that I am not an electrician. So, I would wait for the experts to chime in. BUT .... are you sure that you need to re-wire? It is possible that your electrician ran #6 copper wire which may support 60 amps. Maybe you only need to upgrade the breaker(s)? I would definitely check that out if you haven't already done so.

[Quickbeam]

Thanks for your response njmurvin, but the wiring has already been checked. The electrician ran #8 wire and it definitely needs to be re-wired for me to have 60 amp service.

So, for anyone else out there, should I get it re-wired or just leave it and run on 50 amps?

Is there anyone out there who has either a Jacuzzi or Sundance, in a colder climate, running on 50 amps? If so, what has your experience been?

Thanks again for any help you might be able to provide!