Believe my pool pumps were not properly bonded from previous installations

GoofustheDoofus · Jan 30, 2020

I was inspecting my pool equipment - and I believe that my pumps are not properly bonded (actually not bonded at all). I moved into a house with this setup, I have some history from the previous owner that both the booster motor and main motor were replaced at one point in time.

Current setup looks like this, I will explain:

RED WIRE - coming off booster pump and is attached to a ground post under my SWG...
PURPLE WIRE - this was coming out of the ground I noticed and connected to nothing. I took the cover off the pump/motor connection and saw the bond post looks like it was never touched.

I have to assume that bare copper wire coming out of the ground next to the pad is a bonding wire, and when the pump motors (both were previously replaced I can see) were installed the technicians disregarded the original bonding and left me with what I have now...

My question to the team would be as follow, using this picture of what I think would be correct
***NOTE PICTURE REVISED IN COMMENT 3, no longer correct***

GREEN WIRE - run a bond wire from the booster pump to the main pump terminal
PURPLE WIRE - connect the loose wire from the ground to my main pump terminal

Does that seem correct based on the information I have provided? If so, my other question is can I extend the purple bond wire through some sort of terminal or splice to add length to it. Whoever severed that wire previously did not leave me with enough slack to reach all the way to my pump bond terminal. I would like to add another couple feet of wire to be able to do a clean install, any recommendations on the time of connection I can make on this bond wire to achieve this?

ajw22 · Jan 30, 2020

SWG box should have a bonding lug and be connected to the bonding grid along with your pump, deck, lights, and pool water at a minimum.

Pool Bonding & Grounding | Burndy

Explore pool grounding and bonding solutions, including connectors, pool bonding kits, and reliable lugs to ensure the safety and compliance of pools and spas

www.hubbell.com

Bonding wires is #8 bare copper which is what the purple wire looks like. Connecting the pumps together does not fix your bonding without finding the bonding connection to your pool. That purple wire got cut and you need to locate the other end of the cut.

The bonding wire can be spliced using a copper Split Bolt...

How To Add a Line to the Pool Bonding Wire - INYOPools.com

This guide shows how to add a new bonding wire to your pool's bounding grid when you are adding a new electrical unit to your pool system.

www.inyopools.com

Bonding/electrical questions

I am doing our vinyl lined steel frame inground pool build except for the excavation work. I have some specific electrical hardware questions. One luminary (500w), one pump (220v/20A), about 120' (70' in house, 50' to service pad) total from house service panel. We are under IRC code, live on a...

www.troublefreepool.com

GoofustheDoofus · Jan 30, 2020

ajw22 said:
SWG box should have a bonding lug and be connected to the bonding grid along with your pump, deck, lights, and pool water at a minimum.

Pool Bonding & Grounding | Burndy

Explore pool grounding and bonding solutions, including connectors, pool bonding kits, and reliable lugs to ensure the safety and compliance of pools and spas

www.hubbell.com

Bonding wires is #8 bare copper which is what the purple wire looks like. Connecting the pumps together does not fix your bonding without finding the bonding connection to your pool. That purple wire got cut and you need to locate the other end of the cut.

The bonding wire can be spliced using a copper Split Bolt...

How To Add a Line to the Pool Bonding Wire - INYOPools.com

This guide shows how to add a new bonding wire to your pool's bounding grid when you are adding a new electrical unit to your pool system.

www.inyopools.com

Bonding/electrical questions

I am doing our vinyl lined steel frame inground pool build except for the excavation work. I have some specific electrical hardware questions. One luminary (500w), one pump (220v/20A), about 120' (70' in house, 50' to service pad) total from house service panel. We are under IRC code, live on a...

www.troublefreepool.com

Thanks for the quick response and insight AJW22.

Let me revise my diagram then, and I believe I have your points correct for the linkage I took a picture of:

Red Wire = Bond connection form SWG to booster pump
Green Wire = bond connection from booster pump to main pump
Blue Wire = connection from main pump to pool bond network
Purple Wire = connection to rest of the pool bond

To ensure the purple wire is actually connected to the pool bond, I need to trace it - but I will say I have a strong suspicion this is the case as it is #8 bare copper wire that heads from the concrete panel here towards the pool, not sure what else it would have been there from, but of course important to check otherwise all the "bonding" established upstream of it is really not "bonding" to anything.

ajw22 · Jan 30, 2020

You have the connection string correct.

What type of pool light do you have? Does it have a metal housing? Pool light with metal housing is usually used to bond to the pool water. Find the junction box for your pool light and check continuity with a multimeter between the purple wire and what should be a connection at the bonding lug for the junction box.

GoofustheDoofus · Jan 31, 2020

ajw22 said:
You have the connection string correct.

What type of pool light do you have? Does it have a metal housing? Pool light with metal housing is usually used to bond to the pool water. Find the junction box for your pool light and check continuity with a multimeter between the purple wire and what should be a connection at the bonding lug for the junction box.

Thanks for that - and again - thanks for the additional suggestion!

My light is unfortunately on the other side of the pool, so I will need to get a long run of wire to run over to the switch from the pump area, but can be done. Good news is I see the box has 2 conduits running into it, so I have to assume one is the power supply and one is the bond wire.

ajw22 · Jan 31, 2020

doberdragon said:
Good news is I see the box has 2 conduits running into it, so I have to assume one is the power supply and one is the bond wire.

One conduit runs to the pool light housing. The other conduit runs to your electrical panel. Turn the light CB off and open up the junction box and see what the wiring looks like.

JamesW · Jan 31, 2020

I suspect that the pool is probably bonded correctly. The bare copper wire from the ground is probably the bond wire to the pool.

Just connect the bond wire to the pump and then use split bolts and #8 bare copper to connect the separate bond wires together.

Don't try to remove the bond wire from any existing bond lugs as the connectors usually corrode and don't come apart well.

There's probably no reason to start chasing the bonding to the light or anything else unless you have some reason to question it.

The light niche is probably bonded on the outside of the niche underground and not accessible.

There's probably no bond wire from the light switch to the light junction box.

GoofustheDoofus · Feb 1, 2020

Thank you both for the additional comments.

I am back in business now, got some wire and split bolts, tied the line that was coming from the ground into a new line and tied in the SWG + booster pump + main pump. I added new copper connectors on both pumps as well, since the old ones were corroded.

Should be all tied in now, really appreciate the help.