Wire routing to motorized valve

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C

coinmls

Member
Sep 21, 2021
19
Phoenix
My builder installed a motorized valve and has left me with this wiring... They simply wound the wire around the pipe and routed it over to the control box. Is this industry standard? I would have expected a conduit to come up below the valve and route to the control box through the bottom, but is that expecting too much? I can't imagine this will hold up very long in the Arizona sun.

Then this ground wire was just buried about 1/4" below the surface of yard which came up basically as soon as I lifted up just a little. I know a bare copper doesn't need conduit but this doesn't seem like it is to standard. What should I expect here so I know what is reasonable to ask for?
 

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To protect the actuator wire from the sun you might consider a wire loom such as this, slip it over the wire and zip tie it to the plumbing. inexpensive, and when that deteriorates, just replace it. Its used in automotive applications as well, and withstands the heat under the hood.
 
There really isn’t an industry standard. The valve comes with 15ft of wire as standard so that it can be routed to the controller. A good installer will do a professional job and try to make it look neat. A hack will do what you see there. You can certainly complain to the person that did the job or the owner of the service company that installed it and maybe they’ll make it look better. But burying it in conduit is overkill. It should be zip-tied into place and excess wire can be bundled up inside the the automation panel. Any wiring outside exposed to the environment can be shrouded as others have suggested.

The bare copper wire is not a ground, it’s a bonding wire. It should be buried so no one can trip on it but it is perfectly acceptable for the bonding wire to be a direct buried wire, no conduit.
 
I WISH the above was "Industry standard" as it IS how it should be done BUT there are no written standards that lay out the "rules" for installs. The above shows someone who has pride in their work! If only everyone did................sigh............maybe show your guy the above and ask why yours does not look like this.
 
Kim beat me to it. What Aqua-Holics posted is pride in workmanship. Not industry standard.

That is a very neat/clean install.

If I have someone that does work like the OP posted, I may bring it to their attention, but I certainly don't want them back to clean it up, because they will still not do it sufficiently since they have no earthly idea what a good install looks like.

--Jeff
 
I certainly agree that @AQUA~HOLICS installation is clean and very well done, but I would not bury or run valve actuator cables inside long runs of conduit. Actuators do fail (I have had several) and if you have multiple actuator cables running through a conduit then pulling cable to do a replacement can be a real pain for the DIY’er. The cables are designed for outdoor exposure to the elements so simply running them along existing plumbing and then cleanly bundling them along a wall run using flexible shrouding is fine. The EasyTouch panel has a “low voltage” side to it with a chase on the side that runs right up to the “brain” board so you can easily bundle excess cable in there. There are many ways to do it right but I think we can all agree that what the OP posted is the way to do it wrong …
 

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Bperry said:
Kinda curious about the reason the gas shutoff lever being tethered but not attached?
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Bperry, I see what you're referring to, and given its location, it seems like a good idea. You don't want it where it could be accidentally shut off, yet you want the lever to be handy so you CAN shut it off. Mine is in a protected location, but a similar shutoff on our standby generator got turned off by someone working on the pool equipment next to it. I didn't notice until the next time our power went out and the generator didn't come on (if I had been at home at the time of the weekly exercise of the generator I might have noticed sooner.)
 
BowserB said:
Question, please. Is that a protective cover on a Pentair cartridge filter? Can you provide a source? I started looking as soon as I saw it, but so far nothing. If that is what it is, it seems like a REALLY good idea.
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Probably just a large BBQ/Smoker type cover. Easily obtainable on Amazon. Just cut a hole on top for the air relief valve.
 
Suppose a service person quotes you 1 hour of labor at $100.00 to replace a sensor and not do all of the zip ties or $150.00 to replace a sensor where they have to remove 20 zip ties and reinstall 20 zip ties.

Who’s willing to pay an extra $50.00 for the person’s time?
 
JamesW said:
Suppose a service person quotes you 1 hour of labor at $100.00 to replace a sensor and not do all of the zip ties or $150.00 to replace a sensor where they have to remove 20 zip ties and reinstall 20 zip ties.

Who’s willing to pay an extra $50.00 for the person’s time?
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While I understand what you are getting at, the OP's post was about his builder installing the actuator on his valve as part of the pool build. So in reality, two completely different scenarios.

The builder SHOULD be inclined to turn out quality work. A service person replacing same actuator, should quote the project accordingly, and seeing that the sensor already had the wires zip tied to the pipes, should not have provided the offer of $100 just to replace the sensor, unless I balked at the $150. In which case I would ask him to only replace the sensor and I would follow with zip ties.

But realistically I would already have the sensor replaced because I came here and troubleshot the issue with the collective brain trust which would have advised that I needed to zip tie the wires up in the first place!

--Jeff
 
JamesW said:
Who’s willing to pay an extra $50.00 for the person’s time?
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Not me. I can put my own zip ties on, just a couple or a few to keep them from flopping around. But (maybe not relevant to a pool equipment pad) I have found that having wires all trussed up may be pleasing to the eye but sometimes it can be a pita and in rare cases cause problems. Then I am a little sloppy. I wouldn't confuse fastidiousness with quality.
 
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It would have taken a whopping 15 seconds to coil it nicely with zip ties at either end. It took them longer to wrap it around the pipe hand over hand pulling out the slack with each wrap. Being lazy with zero pride in their work was *more* difficult here.

Anytime I can so easily see a corner cut I’m suspect of anything that’s hidden. It’s at least that sloppy and maybe worse.
 
BowserB said:
Looks like a perfect fit, though, and even the right color. Maybe a custom made? I'll check out smoker covers, though.
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There are many online sellers of generic BBQ and Smoker covers that come in all different sizes and colors. I’ve bought off Amazon for my gas grille and the covers last about 3-4 years before the sun finally destroys the material. At $30-$40 a pop, it’s well worth the price. You can even find retailers that offer different grades of material so you could go thicker for longer life. Just depends on how much you want to spend.
 
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There are places that sell custom filter covers.

www.hvaccovers.com

Pool Filter Cover

Custom made pool filter cover for the non-season/winter use. Order by your make and model # from your units template. Available in the following colors: Color Palette Black Brown Green Gray...
www.hvaccovers.com www.hvaccovers.com

Note: I have no idea if this company is reliable or not.

It is presented as an example of a custom cover.

There are probably places that will make a custom cover to any specifications for anything.
 
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