Pump Electric

[aphexgag]

Hi all. We just had our first above ground pool installed last year and we love it. Thanks for all the great info on these boards!!

Question - When the electrician hooked up the power for the pump he put 1 twist lock plug on a post. Is there an easy way to split this so I could, say, power a bug zapper (not near the water!) with a regular outlet as well as the pump? I'm sort of a newbie at all of this and scratching my head. :?:

Thanks!!!

 

[JohnT]

The electrician should have installed a convenience outlet nearby to be compliant with code. Unless the electrician planned for 120V service, he probably didn't include a neutral in the wiring, so you can't add an outlet without new wiring.

 

[aphexgag]

The electrician should have installed a convenience outlet nearby to be compliant with code. Unless the electrician planned for 120V service, he probably didn't include a neutral in the wiring, so you can't add an outlet without new wiring.

The convenience GFI outlet was already on the back of the house and was within code due to how close we placed the pool to the house. So basically I have a GFI on the back of the house, then a post on the opposite side of the pool with the twist lock. Looking to put bug zapper back there...

 

[Vette]

Well you could run another 3-prong off the the Twist Lock outlet. The way my equipment is setup is GFI Outlet -> Heater 3 Prong -> Pump Twist-lock. Yours would just have the 2 last ones swapped. Note that you have to have a big enough breaker and wiring. I don't know how many amps a bug zapper uses, but you will want to check. On ours, the pool electric used the old 220v line from the breaker panel to the outside that was formerly used for a hot tub, so our wire is plenty big to allow extra outlets including the 8 amp pump.

 

[JohnT]

Well you could run another 3-prong off the the Twist Lock outlet. The way my equipment is setup is GFI Outlet -> Heater 3 Prong -> Pump Twist-lock. Yours would just have the 2 last ones swapped. Note that you have to have a big enough breaker and wiring. I don't know how many amps a bug zapper uses, but you will want to check. On ours, the pool electric used the old 220v line from the breaker panel to the outside that was formerly used for a hot tub, so our wire is plenty big to allow extra outlets including the 8 amp pump.

You probably had a 4-wire 220 circuit to allow that. There is no 115 available on a standard 3-wire 220 outlet because there is no neutral.

 

[danpik]

Well you could run another 3-prong off the the Twist Lock outlet. The way my equipment is setup is GFI Outlet -> Heater 3 Prong -> Pump Twist-lock. Yours would just have the 2 last ones swapped. Note that you have to have a big enough breaker and wiring. I don't know how many amps a bug zapper uses, but you will want to check. On ours, the pool electric used the old 220v line from the breaker panel to the outside that was formerly used for a hot tub, so our wire is plenty big to allow extra outlets including the 8 amp pump.

You probably had a 4-wire 220 circuit to allow that. There is no 115 available on a standard 3-wire 220 outlet because there is no neutral.

It needs to be determined if the power supply is a 120 or 240. If it is a 120 then the receptacles will be either a L5-15r or a L5-20r and the plugs will be either a L5-15p or a L5-20p. The plugs and receptacles are not interchangeable between the 15 and 20 models. Most areas on newer codes require twist-lock assemblies for filter connections within 10' of the pool edge. I will try to find the code article for this. Edit...NEC article 680.22 covers this.

 

[Vette]

Well you could run another 3-prong off the the Twist Lock outlet. The way my equipment is setup is GFI Outlet -> Heater 3 Prong -> Pump Twist-lock. Yours would just have the 2 last ones swapped. Note that you have to have a big enough breaker and wiring. I don't know how many amps a bug zapper uses, but you will want to check. On ours, the pool electric used the old 220v line from the breaker panel to the outside that was formerly used for a hot tub, so our wire is plenty big to allow extra outlets including the 8 amp pump.

You probably had a 4-wire 220 circuit to allow that. There is no 115 available on a standard 3-wire 220 outlet because there is no neutral.

The wire no longer runs 220. Our electrician just used the wire that was already strung as a convenient way to have electric run since the hot tub is gone. Saved us from stringing new wire across the whole basement.