Pump wiring question

Jump to latest Follow Reply
T

tommymac

0
Jul 22, 2014
4
Seaford, NY
Hello guys, a friend turned me on to this site to get some help and it looks like a tremendous resource. So heres my story. I have a 25000 gallon IG pool and recently had a pool guy come in to do a salt water conversion. Things went well for about 2 weeks and then my pump seemed to die. it was pretty old and may have been under wader during sandy. We had just about gotten things running smoothly so I wanted to get a ne wpump ASAP. I went to leslies and they told me 3 weeks for an install. I then went to island recreation (def a mistake) and they could do an install in one week. The one thing the sales guy neglected to tell me was these pumps do not come with power cords. I have a 220 outlet and even showed the guy what type of plug I had.

SO the day of the install I was sleeping when they came and the did the plumbing but no wiring. I was told its a 220volt variable speed pump (blue torrent) there are 2 wires coming out, a black and a white. When I opened the panel theres also a screw for a ground. While looking for cord I have been hearing different things and am a bit heasitant moving forward. I was first told its just 3 wires, but one guy said 220 is 4 wires, but he seemed to not be as knowledgable on wiring either. Also read that some are 3 wires but not black, white and green.

I am in a bit of a rush as I need to get th epump and filter running again as algae is starting to grow, but at the same time want to make sure this is done right so any input would be appreciated.
 
To get an accurate answer it would be wise to post pictures of the motor ID plate, which probably has a miniature connection schematic and other photo's showing where the wire comes out of the motor.

Edit: By the way, if you type "blue torrent pool pump" into Google, the 3rd item that shows up is a great pictorial wiring guide for one of the blue torrent motors. Not sure if it's your model, but if it is, it's very well explained.
 
You should be able to wire the pump up with two wires, however you should show us a schematic to be sure. Many 220 volt appliances or motors are wired differently. For example, a 220 volt 20 amp hot water
heater would be wired using 12/2, 12 being the wire gauge, 2 being the number of conductors, in this case black and white. The ground isn't a conductor. Same thing with a 220 volt household a/c. The outlet
and cord end are different, one prong up and down the other sideways, that way you can't just plug a regular 120 volt item into it. Hope I didn't totally confuse you.

John
 
I am not sure where that white wire is running. And can barely see the black one. That diagram is worthless too.

I would think you just need to hook your 2 line wires to the screw terminals ... wonder if that white wire is supposed to be connected to the motor somewhere?
 
jblizzle said:
That diagram is worthless too.
Click to expand...

Wow?

Not sure what worth you were expecting but I'd say that schematic does have value. It confirms the connection locations of the two power lines (L1 & L2) and shows the ground location (GRD). Eliminates guesswork, which is pretty important when wiring pool electricals, unless you're an expert which many of us are not.


tommymac, there should be 3 wires going into the wiring box. 220V power consists of 2 separate power wires (L1 & L2), one of them is usually colored black (L1), the other (L2) can be red or blue (and others colors are possible). The third wire should be your green safety ground wire (GRD) and connects to the screw with the star washer. All three of those wires should come into the motor's wiring box through conduit or a jacketed single cord.

In addition there is one more wire to be concerned about. Its called a bonding wire and it's a bare, uninsulated solid copper wire that connects to the barrel type wire clamp on the outside of the motor (in the same pictures as the motor wiring box, to the right). I possibly see a bonding wire hanging around the pump in one of your photos. It's often confused with a safety ground wire but it is meant to be a wire that is run completely independent from the ground wire. Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't need to be connected. They would be dead wrong.

Good Luck
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
My point is it does not explain the other wires that are in the electrical area (the white and black ones) ... most other labels will include the visible internal wires in the diagram. The fact that there is an opened ended WHITE wire (not typically used in 230V applications) is still unexplained.
 
jblizzle said:
My point is it does not explain the other wires that are in the electrical area (the white and black ones) ... most other labels will include the visible internal wires in the diagram. The fact that there is an opened ended WHITE wire (not typically used in 230V applications) is still unexplained.
Click to expand...

Jbizzle, Sorry, you're absolutely right. The white wire, assuming it was installed by the factory, isn't part of the schematic and therefor the schematic is very poor.

I think tommymac should call up the installers and ask for the installation booklet that they probably threw away with the box and which may have had that information. I'm guessing it's a neutral wire for 110V to operate the onboard variable speed electronics, but that would only be a guess.
 
There were likely 2 wires a white and black. Someone obviously removed the screw from the terminal which had a black wire.

L1 & L2 are the screw terminals for the 2 hot 120v connections, making 240v.
The ground wire will connect to the screw just to the left of the terminals inside the box.

You can use #14 THHN/THWN wire ran in seal tight flexible conduit, hard wired up into the disconnect box. The box MUST be GFCI PROTECTED.

You can't use indoor NMB Romex. You have to use outdoor rated wire. There are a lot of guys that would wire up a plug head, but that is not UL approved, nor is it by code.

The bonding wire #8 solid copper, connects to the copper lug outside the box to the right.
 
I think the problem is that the white wire doesn't appear to go to anything. It goes under the terminal block and into the motor and is not identified on the schematic. Therefor what is it? We can conjecture it is a neutral wire but if your wrong, then something could be damaged. I know that's unlikely, but if it was my install, I'd want to have a sure and certain identification for that wire so I don't accidentally void my warranty.
 
gtemkin said:
I think the problem is that the white wire doesn't appear to go to anything. It goes under the terminal block and into the motor and is not identified on the schematic. Therefor what is it? We can conjecture it is a neutral wire but if your wrong, then something could be damaged. I know that's unlikely, but if it was my install, I'd want to have a sure and certain identification for that wire so I don't accidentally void my warranty.
Click to expand...

Sorry to drag up this old thread. Not sure if anyone is still following this or not but I just ran into the same question. Typically when you wire a 220v appliance you would use a 12/3, 14/3, 8/3, etc. all of which have a black (hot), red (hot), white (neutral), and bare ground. I'm starting to learn that you can't have a bare ground going outside and the neutral is not used (unless you have a VS pump). So that would make the use of NM-B **/3 wire out of the question when wiring up a pool pump. We should be using 3 insulated THHN wires in an outdoor approved conduit, is that the general consensus?

Thanks in advance
 
kerryman71 said:
You should be able to wire the pump up with two wires, however you should show us a schematic to be sure. Many 220 volt appliances or motors are wired differently. For example, a 220 volt 20 amp hot water
heater would be wired using 12/2, 12 being the wire gauge, 2 being the number of conductors, in this case black and white. The ground isn't a conductor. Same thing with a 220 volt household a/c. The outlet
and cord end are different, one prong up and down the other sideways, that way you can't just plug a regular 120 volt item into it. Hope I didn't totally confuse you.

John
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure a 220v heater (and most things) would be 12/3. Two hots, a neutral and a ground.
 
A 240 volt circuit does not need a neutral. A neutral is only needed if there will be a 120 volt reference needed in the appliance or circuit. for pool pumps that are 240, you only need two hots and an insulated ground wire. If the pump requires a 120 volt reference (neutral wire) it will specify it on the motor data tag.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply