Hi all. I'm less than a newbie, this is my first house, and the first time I haven't been able to call apartment maintenance to fix my problem, so forgive me if this is a simple question. I'm basically trying to find out if I need an electrician because this is a huge problem, or if I have a simple fix.

I have a whirlpool tub that in the manual under electrical requirements says:
Electrical Requirements 120 volt, 20 AMP, GFCI
I have an outlet that is labeled GFCI. When I turn the tub on, it does not run for any longer than 3 minutes, and then shuts off for at least 5 before it turns back on again. When I look at the breaker panel, the line that is labeled for the tub has a switch that says 15 on it. Does that mean the circuit the tub is on is only getting 15 amps? Would I need an electrician to change the breaker to a 20 amp switch? Will they have to evaluate whether that circuit can handle that load? Any guesses on how much I would be looking at paying?

Thank you.

First of all, if the circuit which feeds the tub is a 15 amp circuit, it should be changed. This involves replacing the wiring and the breaker, not just one or the other. If you have conduit, then the circuit upgrade won't be that bad of a job or too terribly expensive. The tub turning off and on is not related to the breaker size, unless you are referring to the breaker tripping and you resetting it after 5 miutes. And yes an electrician can evaluate whether that circuit can handle the load. Is this a built in tub in the apartment? And since it's not your property (ownership) you can't do the electrical work yourself. You arre on the right track, but without seeing your installation I can't even give you a guess as to what the cost would be to correct the problem.

Hi MS Bound. This actually is my property, but I still wouldn't want to do the electrical work myself. I'm really good at taking things apart, but not so much at putting them back together :)

The breaker itself is not tripping, the tub is automatically shutting off. I thought there might be a switch in the pump itself that was shutting off before it was tripping the breaker at the box, but it seems like that's not a valid assumption?

What does that mean, if I have conduit then the circuit upgrade won't be bad? Does that mean that I wouldn't have to have the wiring replaced, or that my box can handle the load?

If you have conduit you may be able to pull the proper circuit 20 amp, 12 gauge wire) without too much problem. If you have romex or bx, then you would have to make some holes in the walls, floors, or ceilings to get from point A to point B. Call the mfg. of the tub and pick their brain, they may be able to tell you what the problems are. Make sure you have all the information and describe the problem as you did here. It's a good place to start troubleshooting.

I'll do that. Thanks for all the help!

I think your pump is overheating and tripping the internal safety. Good Luck