Find electrician or do it myself?

[a_t]

Hi,

I replaced my pool equipment "pad" and filter. In the process, I tore out electrical connections because conduits were in really bad shape. I was planning to fix it myself - all I need is the pump, timer, and the pool light. But when I posted on another forum, they noted many problems with my existing setup and said that this is "nowhere in the realm of a DIY project". I'm looking for another opinion. Do you think that I should attempt this myself, or do you agree that I should hire a pool-specializing electrical contractor. And if I should hire, do you have pointers as to how to find a qualified contractor? I couldn't find anyone that advertises pools as specialty in yellow pages. People on the other forum suggested I call small local pool builders and ask for a recommendation. But I don't even know how to find these small pool builders.

Here is what it looked like before:

Here's what it looked like after I dug it up a little. You can see all the rusty EMT conduits. The one rigid brass conduit on the right, going towards concrete - that's for pool light.

This shows the only connections I want to keep. Conduit on the left brings power from the panel. There are five wires. A green ground wire. Two orange are 240V for the pump. Brown and White are for the pool light, which is on its own circuit breaker. Conduit itself obviously needs to be replaced. The brass pool light conduit on the right is in much better shape.

Here is what it looks like today. Plumbing is done (and hopefully will hold). I bent the main conduit to the left out of the way. The heater on the right will be taken out as it doesn't work.

Some of the problems were:

* Pump was not grounded - easily fixed since there is a ground wire
* No bonding
* No manual pump disconnect
* EMT conduit buried in the ground - needs to be rigid or PVC
* Burial depth
* No GFCI protection

Here's what I know I can do myself:

* Dig a deep enough trench.
* Put in new PVC conduit and pull wires .
* Replace circuit breakers with GFCI
* Put in a manual disconnect on pump circuit
* Install inline dead front GFCI on the pool light circuit

One concern I still have is about bonding. I don't think my pool is bonded. The house was built in 1969 and the pool is probably original. There was no bonding wire attached to bonding lug on the pump and I do not see any bare copper wire anywhere. I assume that it would be too expensive to retrofit it with bonding, so I'd just keep it unbonded as is.

 

[Isaac-1]

It looks like all you need to do is run electricity to the pad from a GFCI breaker somewhere, and add a timer for the pump. I don't know if the timer for the pump counts as a local disconnect device or not. Seems simple enough run pvc conduit to the wall behind the pump, into a timer then run liquatite flex conduit to the pump motor. I am not an electrician though, and you certainly seem to know the talk.

 

[Charlie_R]

a_t,

Since you are upgrading the electrical install, you will need to comply with the current NEC requirements.

If you decide to do it yourself, please, for your family's safety, get a permit, and have it inspected when you are done.

You are going to have to add the bonding.

Isaac-1, If my interpretation of the code is correct, no, the timer is not considered a local disconnect. That need to be a separate well marked item, that has the ability to disconnect all power to the pool area.

 

[a_t]

Do you have any recommendation for finding a good pool electrician? I'm in Los Angeles county.

 

[Charlie_R]

Not from here I don't, you might ask around a few pool stores and lumber yards for a few recomendations for good electricians.