I have an issue that involves stray voltage, but it is a much smaller amount than the other cases I’ve read here. I recently purchased a new hot tub. It worked fine for two weeks and then the heater went out. The hot tub dealer replaced the heater and told me to contact the utility company and have them check the line neutral. They said they had this happen on two other spa’s, and after the utility checked the line neutral the problem went away. So I called the utility company and they told me that everything was OK. I told the dealer what I was told, and they said that was the usual response because the utility company doesn’t want to be responsible for any damaged appliances. But that they more than likely repaired the problem anyway. So they said it should be safe to turn the heater back on. I turned the heater on and the spa warmed up nicely. But three day’s later the second heater failed. When the spa technician came back, he replaced the heater once again and then checked for stray voltage. He did this by setting his voltmeter to 600 volts ac and touching one wire to the ground on the spa, and the other end he stuck into the ground (dirt). His meter showed 4/10th’s of a volt. He called the spa manufacturer and they told him that the reading must be 0 volts or the new heater will fail also. We started turning off various appliances with no change until we had the whole house turned off. But we still had the stray voltage reading. In fact, it had gone up a little to 6/10th’s of a volt. The spa manufacturer said that some of the appliances may have actually been absorbing the voltage. They said to check the ground rod to earth. So we did and it showed 8/10th’s. They told us that the voltage was probably coming from the transformer or maybe even a neighbors house. The transformer is about 100 yards from my house and my house is the only one on it. The next nearest house is about 400 yards away. I called the utility company again and I stayed home from work so I could show the repair man what was going on. And I showed him that even with the whole house turned off I get the same reading. He said that he had cleaned up and checked the neutral connections at the transformer and trimmed some limbs from a tree that the lines were touching the other day when he came. And that our power coming to the house was very good. He cleaned up and re-crimped the connections at the house and checked for voltage variations. There was a difference of 1 volt from one line to the other in the meter box. One was 123 volts and the other was 124. This was duplicated in my service panel when he checked the two hot wires in there. He didn’t see this as anything unusual. He told me that he was going to have his partner come look at it because he had a lot more experience with this sort of thing. Then he gave me his cell phone number and left. A couple of days later I called him to find out what his partner said, and he told me that he was going to install a recording device on the meter and that hopefully they will be able to figure out something from the readings taken. That was a few days ago and I can’t see anything on the meter yet. Maybe it’s in the box? Anyway, I’m not sure what that’s going to tell them anyway. The problem is not with my house. It’s with the current that’s flowing through my ground.

Maybe it’s me, but my voltage issue seems too small to be causing heater failure in my spa. I mean, we don’t even feel any tingling when we’re in the water. I’ve read stories where people are actually getting shocked from their pool or spa. But no reports equipment failure from it. I’ve lived in this house for 28 years and have never had any trouble with any of my appliances that would be related to voltage issues. So I’m wondering if the spa manufacturer is being unreasonable requiring that there be 0 volts of stray current considering how common stray current is in residential areas. I went to a friends house across town who has been running a hot tub without problem for the last 10 years and checked his house for stray current. His ground to earth reading showed a full 2 volts! And he has never had a heater fail, nor has he ever felt any tingling in his water. So I’m wondering if this could really be the cause of my heater failure. And if so, why would the spa manufacturer build a heater that was so sensitive to stray voltage considering how common it is. I did a search on Google for “hot tub spa heater failure stray voltage” and found no other heater failures caused by stray voltage. The only other ones I have heard of are the other two I mentioned earlier that were with the same spa manufacturer.

So my question is, am I entitled to 0 stray current? What if the power company says that this is within normal limits? I can see myself getting stuck with a spa that I can’t use. Do you think that this small amount of stray voltage is even worth trying to resolve? Or should I really be dealing with the spa manufacturer instead.

My house is an older home and still has the old round glass fuses for the 120 lines and dual cartridges for the 240 lines. Do you think replacing the system with a modern breaker type could solve the problem? The spa is connected to a modern 50 amp GFCI box, and that is connected to a sub panel since there was wasn’t another 50 amp source available in my antique service panel.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.