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At home

The first place the Code ever required one

The GFCI entered the NEC in 1968 for underwater pool lighting, and Article 680 has grown around water ever since. It is also the place where a breaker, not a receptacle, is usually the device.

Pump motors

680.21(C): the pool pump motor is GFCI-protected — cord-and-plug or hard-wired, 120 V or 240 V — since the 2020 edition for all pump motors, and for cord-connected pumps in 15/20 A receptacles well before that. A hard-wired pump means a two-pole GFCI breaker (breakers vs receptacles).

Receptacles

680.22(A): at least one receptacle 6 to 20 ft from the water's edge for a permanent pool; every 125 V, 15 and 20 A receptacle within 20 ft is GFCI-protected; nothing closer than 6 ft except the pump receptacle with its own rules. Weather-resistant devices under in-use covers.

Lighting

Underwater luminaires above the low-voltage contact limit (15 V AC / 30 V DC) are GFCI-protected (680.23); low-voltage LED systems fed from listed transformers are the modern way around it. Luminaires within 5 ft horizontally and 5 ft above the water are protected too (680.22(B)).

Spas and hot tubs

680.44: the spa's equipment is GFCI-protected unless it is listed with its own integral protection; a cord-connected spa pack on a 120 V receptacle uses the receptacle or an in-line device; a hard-wired 240 V pack uses a two-pole breaker or the disconnect's built-in GFCI.

Bonding is the other half

Article 680 spends as many words on the equipotential bonding grid — the copper that ties the pool shell, the deck, the rails and the pump together — as on GFCIs. The GFCI trips on a fault; bonding keeps every surface a person touches at the same potential so there is less fault to trip on. One without the other is half a system.