Bad breaker or pump or intellichlor?

[MiaOKC]

Hi all - pool co pulled the cover Friday and added chems and fired up the equipment. Within 10 minutes the pump switched off and they told me the breaker in our panel had gone bad so I needed to replace. I went out and fiddled with it after they left and ended up unplugging the intellichlor and the pump would start up then without tripping the breaker. Good because I had a boatload of shock and algaecide in there to clear it up from the winter and needed it to run.

Pump ran fine for at least a few hours but when I checked it in the morning, the breaker (running just the pump now), had flipped again. I tried again and the pump has been running uninterrupted 36 hrs now. Pump and intellichlor run on the same breaker, it's like two covered by the same switch, but I was able to unplug the intellichlor from its box).

So, my choices are:
Bad breaker (call electrician)
Bad something or other in the pump (call pool co?)
Bad intellichlor (but I don't think so now since the pump running solo ended up tripping it, too)

Thoughts?

 

[Flying Tivo]

For safety reasons you should have independent breakers for every piece of equipment. Exchanging or installing breakers is easy if you are handy. Make sure you cut the power off. If you are calling an electrician make sure he checks everything.

 

[ajw22]

That looks like a GFCI CB. Chances are the GFCI is causing the CB to trip. Could be some moisture somewhere in your old wiring. Or GFCI circuits get more sensitive as they wear and it may be the CB that needs to be replaced.

If you know how to replace a CB you can put a new GFCI CB in. If it still trips you know the GCFI problem is for real.

Or call an electrician to checkout the CB and your wiring.

 

[MiaOKC]

For safety reasons you should have independent breakers for every piece of equipment. Exchanging or installing breakers is easy if you are handy. Make sure you cut the power off. If you are calling an electrician make sure he checks everything.

Well that's annoying, since we had an electrician out to redo this whole panel and update everything in 2014. I thought the intellichlor and pump being on the same circuit was purposeful since the SWG shouldn't run when the pump is off. ETA: I actually don't know if they are technically the same circuit, it takes up two slots on the panel but the switch in conjoining both of them so flipping it flips both at once.

 

[MiaOKC]

That looks like a GFCI CB. Chances are the GFCI is causing the CB to trip. Could be some moisture somewhere in your old wiring. Or GFCI circuits get more sensitive as they wear and it may be the CB that needs to be replaced.

If you know how to replace a CB you can put a new GFCI CB in. If it still trips you know the GCFI problem is for real.

Or call an electrician to checkout the CB and your wiring.

Thanks for the info, I do think it's a GFCI CB, as there is a little yellow test button on it, and it was installed in 2014 when we had the whole panel all redone. It has been raining cats and dogs here for the last week so moisture is a possibility. Saturday morning when I came out to find it flipped again, it had rained overnight, but hasn't rained since and pump has stayed on. Hmmmmmmm.... I don't feel confident in replacing the CB myself unfortunately.

 

[ajw22]

Well that's annoying, since we had an electrician out to redo this whole panel and update everything in 2014. I thought the intellichlor and pump being on the same circuit was purposeful since the SWG shouldn't run when the pump is off. ETA: I actually don't know if they are technically the same circuit, it takes up two slots on the panel but the switch in conjoining both of them so flipping it flips both at once.

Many pools are wired with pump and SWG on same circuit for the reason you gave. One of the things it makes more difficult is figuring out which device is triggering the GFCI when you have multiple devices on a circuit. But it makes ensuring pump and SWG on/off are the same.

220V CBs take two slots because both lines are hot and must be disconnected when the CB trips. It is one circuit.

 

[MiaOKC]

Many pools are wired with pump and SWG on same circuit for the reason you gave. One of the things it makes more difficult is figuring out which device is triggering the GFCI when you have multiple devices on a circuit. But it makes ensuring pump and SWG on/off are the same.

220V CBs take two slots because both lines are hot and must be disconnected when the CB trips. It is one circuit.

Thanks. I've called out an electrician because the pump alone caused it to trip again yesterday afternoon when it was dry out so will start with him looking at it before anything else.