What caused my Jandy SWG plug to burn up?

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Sandra B

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Aug 8, 2011
103
Tulsa, OK
The full story, which may or may not have any bearing on the title question. A couple weeks ago my SWG started throwing a code and was not producing chlorine. I was heading out for vacation in the next few days and couldn't deal with fixing it, so just supplemented manual chlorine (bleach) until I could. I turned the SWG from it's normal 20%, to about 60%, while troubleshooting, and left it at 60%. Water temp is low 70's. I had my pet-sitter throw in some chlorine while I was gone for 10 days. There were also thunderstorms while I was away but it doesn't appear (by clock settings) that I lost electricity. I came home to the pool water being fine (chlorine is high, around 12), BUT, the pump was not working! I don't know for how long. Pet-sitters can only be expected to know so much. It's hot/warm to the touch, so I turn everything off at the breakers, let it cool, then turn it back on and it HUMMMMSSS. Doesn't start, and cuts off the humming after about 10 seconds. So I research some threads here, check that the impeller moves freely (it does), and decide to change out the capacitor as the likely culprit. Get a capacitor, change it out (thanks for the threads on that! My first electric work!), and the pump works! Yay!

So when it turns on, the SWG beeps and throws its code, which I missed because I'm checking out the SWG unit. And I see a big burn/bulge on the 3-prong plug, in the middle. So, back to turn off at the breakers, then I unplug the burned plug and this is what I see:

Plug 2.JPG

Plug 1.JPG

Plug 3.JPG

Now I'm outta my league, so I called the Pool Repair Man, and he came over today and said I need to replace the whole unit, but since it's only a year or two old (I don't recall but they have the records) it's likely under warranty and they'll replace it for labor. Sounds like a deal to me, because I don't want to deal with it. But I'm wondering what happened, to make sure it doesn't happen again if it's preventable?

Thanks for your help, always.

Sandra
 
cant say for sure, but its possible the connection of the cable on that center pin and socket may not have been very good.
When you dont have a good connection on these types of connectors, the unit works but small tiny electrical arcs occur and erode the pin and socket and the gap between the two gets bigger and the eroded pin and sockets turn to carbon, and then there are bigger arcs, and the cycle repeats itself until what you see now happens.

Thats what it looks like to me.
 
Divin Dave said:
cant say for sure, but its possible the connection of the cable on that center pin and socket may not have been very good.
When you dont have a good connection on these types of connectors, the unit works but small tiny electrical arcs occur and erode the pin and socket and the gap between the two gets bigger and the eroded pin and sockets turn to carbon, and then there are bigger arcs, and the cycle repeats itself until what you see now happens.

Thats what it looks like to me.
Click to expand...

I would agree, but I don't understand why you would replace the whole unit? just replace the cell and make sure the pins are lubricated/greased.
 
I've had similar "mysteries" (albeit, not with pool equipment) with my washing machine after my house (or something near my house--didn't look bad enough to be a direct hit) took a lightening strike. I had no other evidence except some burned out electronics. Any chance that's what happened to you?
 
No, that is not the result of a lightning strike. Lightning would not restrict it's self to just one of the three pins.

Divin Dave had it right, that is the result of a bad connection, probably from a small bit of grit, in the electrical connection. SWGs run at very high current, and even a very small amount of extra resistance will result in melting and burning of the connection. It always looks almost exactly like what appears in the pictures.
 
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