Pentair Amerilite ANNOYED in FL

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viking68

viking68

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May 9, 2010
69
Lake Mary, FL
Old fixture had hole "eaten" through casing - maybe from a lightning strike 2 years ago. Light worked fine until about 4 months ago.

My guess, that's when it filled with water, blown light, of course.

So - fixture came out, no problem. Located Junction box, of course, it's 1" Schedule 80 PVC. Too costly to put in 1-1/2":grrrr::grrrr:. Idiot pool builders.

Cut the wire in prep for pulling; there is the normal jacketed 4 conductor cable.

BUT.

At the junction box, the 8 gauge bonding wire is shoved completely through the conduit together with the light cord! :grrrr::grrrr::grrrr: Is this normal - to run the bonding wire through the same conduit as the power cord and tie from junction box to sub panel? I thought the whole idea of a bonding wire was to go to ground, not back through the circuit/panel. To me, seems this bonding wire should go to copper ground stake.

BUT:

Plumbers putty removed at both ends, should "pull" - ain't happening. I'm 6-8 and run 310 - no lack of strength - I pull any harder, it's gonna rip the wire.

Ideas I have:

Being solid core, I think the bonding wire might "pull" easier. Pull it out by itself (if I can). This "might" leave enough play to pull the new fixture wire with the old fixture wire. Of course, this necessitates a pull tape. Which maybe means just pull both wires...or....??????

Any suggestions appreciated. And, of course, the junction box is located at least 35' from the fixture, so I got a 100' replacement, which, of course, arrived with the lamp broken (new one should be here tomorrow).

Thank you and I am still annoyed in FL.
 
It took my friend and I everything we had to get a 125' wire through a 110 run with 5 90's but we eventually got there. It was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever done on that pool. You'll eventually find the correct combination to get it through. keep us posted.

I'm gonna let someone else talk to you about the bond wire....it's not always as it seems.
 
Here is a link to Mike Holts page on bonding. Grounding vs Bonding - Part 11 of 12 About half way down you will find an image showing bonding an grounding of a wet niche.

It sounds to me like you are not fully understanding the methods of grounding and what the bonding is actually doing.

Contrary to popular belief, electricity does not seek ground (earth). It seeks it's source to complete a circuit. All electricity being sent to your pool by your homes service wants to get back to the source that it came from. In this case, it wants to get back to the transformer at the power company connection point for your home. Knowing this, a ground rod serves no purpose in the system. The reason a ground rod is installed on your homes electrical service is to provide a low impedance path in the event of a large electrical event such as a lightning strike. In this case, the lightning is seeking the earth as it is trying to even out voltage potentials between the earth and the clouds.

A bonding system does something similar to that as it provides a connection point between different electrical potentials. Without the bonding system in place, any potential differences would not even out untill you became the conductor in the circuit.



Dan
 
danpik said:
Here is a link to Mike Holts page on bonding. Grounding vs Bonding - Part 11 of 12 About half way down you will find an image showing bonding an grounding of a wet niche.

It sounds to me like you are not fully understanding the methods of grounding and what the bonding is actually doing.

Contrary to popular belief, electricity does not seek ground (earth). It seeks it's source to complete a circuit. All electricity being sent to your pool by your homes service wants to get back to the source that it came from. In this case, it wants to get back to the transformer at the power company connection point for your home. Knowing this, a ground rod serves no purpose in the system. The reason a ground rod is installed on your homes electrical service is to provide a low impedance path in the event of a large electrical event such as a lightning strike. In this case, the lightning is seeking the earth as it is trying to even out voltage potentials between the earth and the clouds.

A bonding system does something similar to that as it provides a connection point between different electrical potentials. Without the bonding system in place, any potential differences would not even out untill you became the conductor in the circuit.



Dan
Click to expand...

Excellent article, Dan. Thanks for the link. Doesn't make the job any easier, though. I'm going to pull both old wires and replace with new light and new bond wire. Of course, all they had at Lowe's is stranded. Am I correct in assuming stranded is not acceptable? What's in there is solid, green insulated. Got a feeling they may be taped together at intervals along the run since I cannot get either to move on it's own other than a "wiggle".

- - - Updated - - -

gwegan said:
That is the bonding jumper. It should be insulated 680.23 B(2)(b)

I would pull the bonding jumper out first if it will come. It may take time but it will come.
Click to expand...

Won't move - going to try and pull both at once, then fish-tape back through together.

I notice the old multi-conductor seems very "swollen" and almost white - probably the original 30 year old fixture.
 
So -bought a 65' fish tape - surely long enough, right? WRONG.

Line is 75' long. After 45 minutes underwater, finally broke loose bonding wire, pulled free and then, the light wire, attached to fish tape. And - it's 10' short!

So, back to big box for a 100' fish tape; thank goodness I got the light fixture with 100' of wire!

The first 10' of the light fixture wire was so deformed by 30 years in pool water it was about twice the diameter of the remainder.

I suspect going back through will be much easier.

Another Saturday project almost done!
 
To finish up - with the help of a friend, the last step - pull new bond and light cord. 15 minutes to uncoil/hook to fish tape; 15 minutes to pull; done! Light!

Pull was made easier because jacket on both the 3 conductor light cord and insulation on the 8 gauge bond wire noticeably thinner.

Glad that project is over.
 
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