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Need urgent advice please help.

Anonymous111

I work for a small firm that delivers and installs hottubs and swim spas. When we turn up to the site to install the tubs, the electrics are already run from the house to an isolation switch, with a tail left all tested by an electrician. Myself and my team then wire in the 32amp cable to the tub whilst it's filling, put the panels back on and turn it on once full for the customer to use.

During this process there is no electrician present whilst we wire the tub or afterwards. 

Myself and my team are unqualified, we dont do any sort of test to the tub once it's wired in the customer just jumps in once we're done.

I've quizzed my boss multiple times and he said it's completely legal as he considers me competent to wire in three wires. My question is firstly, is this actually legal to wire in, and secondly should any tests be done and certified from the tub to the isolation switch.

Thank you 

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  • 0

    Legally, you are not committing an offence by connecting 3 wires to 3 terminals, anyone can do that, and maintenance folk and kitchen fitters with more learn by experience than certificates do that all the time .

    If anyone should do so however is a matter of their own personal competence - which is hard to prove or disprove. It's very easy to say 'oh they were incompetent after all then' after the house burnt down.

    If you were plugging in a pre-wired 32A plug, to a pre-wired 32A socket, certainly no-one would blink, as the thought has been put in by whoever fitted it to the cable.
    But here you have a greater responsibility, and it sounds to me like you don't 'feel' that you are competent, which is a really bad place to be.

    No need to be a fully fledged electrician capable of design of a complete installation for a new build hotel or something of course. However, at the very least I'd expect some instructions to have been given, and if unsure then to do a few under supervision, perhaps back at base, before being let out in the wild, if only to know procedure for..

    1) Safe isolation and checking for dead/live

    2) Recognition of  adequate cable diameter, and what to do if cables are damaged/ wet.

    3) Preparation of wire ends for connections, and

    4) How tight to do things up. 

    ..and loads of  pool specific stuff.

    In the modern world I'd expect a record of '1hr basic electrical introduction given by Joe Soap on 05.03.2026' or something to be recorded on your staff  file as well.
    If only to satisfy the insurers, and pass the buck from the directors back to you if your work done in their name goes wrong.

    ' We took reasonable steps to make sure he was suitably instructed, you honour'!

    It does not need much, but right now it rather reads like a step may be missing in the process, or your bosses have assumed something about you
    ' has adequate technical knowledge' that is maybe not the case.

    Mike.

  • 0 in reply to mapj1

    Thank you for the in-depth reply Mike.

    For starters, those 4 procedures are things that was unaware of, we dont even have a multimeter in the toolbox. So if I'm reading this right, I do not need to be formally given the title of competent through a course or a government body, it can just be through someone that also has learnt on the job too? 

    I feel competent simply wiring the 32amp tail from a isolation switch to a hot tub, but I do not feel safe for myself or the customer knowing that the tub hasnt has it's initial verifications as per BS 7671 Regulation 641.1. Is this verification a necessity when wiring into these tubs? 

  • 0 in reply to Anonymous111

    It all gets un necessarily complicated with things like this. Electrician installs up to isolator but I think they would makes sure that the tests are carried out at the end of the tails leaving the isolator which means all is checked up to that point. The elctrician may or may not have seen the hot tub manufacoiterer's instructions which should give the requisite info regarding tails size. So this would mean that the installation has been installed, inspected and tested up to the ends of the tails and that the tails size etc is correct. This leaves you to simply connect up using the manufacturers direction..

    If the electrician has not seen the manufacturers installation instructions and actual product details, then he will only have been able to determine that his installation is satisfactory only up to the isolator. It may be that he has just been asked by the customer for a simple 32A outdoor supply.

    I would ask your boss for his approach and confidence in your abilities and knowledge in writing to cover your own backside.

  • 0 in reply to mapj1
    mapj1 said:
    Legally, you are not committing an offence by connecting 3 wires to 3 terminals

    That may be true in terms of "who is permitted to do the work", but if the connection is not safe and someone gets hurt from the connected product, an offence might have been committed.

    Similarly, if a person making the connection gets hurt - either because the supply to the terminals wasn't safe, or there was a problem with the product being connected for some reason, then under EAWR an offence is likely to have been committed.

    This is why HSE guidance that I pointed to has simple checks that those making connections or working on domestic appliances should be trained to carry out ... for their own safety, as well as that of users of the product.

  • 0 in reply to Anonymous111
    Anonymous111 said:
    I do not need to be formally given the title of competent through a course or a government body, it can just be through someone that also has learnt on the job too? 

    It is for the Employer to risk assess what competence is necessary.

    However, I think in this case, having the correct equipment to make the basic checks in EIS35, including safe isolation, and being trained in safe isolation, basic safety checks of the appliance you are installing, and the basics of how to use any test and measurement equipment, e.g. what "looks OK" vs "looks dodgy or faulty" means, is really important for safety.

    The industry associations do run courses for installers/maintainers, that appears to include electrical safety for example: www.bishta.co.uk/.../

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  • 0 in reply to Anonymous111
    Anonymous111 said:
    I do not need to be formally given the title of competent through a course or a government body, it can just be through someone that also has learnt on the job too? 

    It is for the Employer to risk assess what competence is necessary.

    However, I think in this case, having the correct equipment to make the basic checks in EIS35, including safe isolation, and being trained in safe isolation, basic safety checks of the appliance you are installing, and the basics of how to use any test and measurement equipment, e.g. what "looks OK" vs "looks dodgy or faulty" means, is really important for safety.

    The industry associations do run courses for installers/maintainers, that appears to include electrical safety for example: www.bishta.co.uk/.../

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