Can two different gauges of wire be spliced together in bonding?

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Nine19

Member
Jun 6, 2022
5
New York
Pool Size
12000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
The water bond that came with my pool is too small to accept the bonding wire to complete the bond. Is it possible to connect a smaller gauge wire at the end to fit in it and complete the loop?
 
Welcome to TFP.

NEC specifies 8 gauge wire be used for pool bonding. If you want to stay to current code then all bonding wire should be 8 gauge.

If you need to pass local codes and inspections then find out what is required.

What pool?

Change the bonding lug to accept 8 gauge wire.

Electrical Bonding - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
Got it.

Just wondering though with this being such a critical safety measure why isn't bonding done when the pool is installed as standard procedure? Getting someone to bond my pool took months before they could get to me. That's highly inconvenient
 
Nine19 said:
Got it.

Just wondering though with this being such a critical safety measure why isn't bonding done when the pool is installed as standard procedure? Getting someone to bond my pool took months before they could get to me. That's highly inconvenient
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The same thing happens with home construction. If they there is a shortage of one trade, sometimes things sit waiting for them to finish. If the electrician can't get there, the plumber doesn't jump in and do the electrical work. In today's society people will only do the work their license and insurance will allow them to do (probably for good reason).
 

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JamesW said:
For most pools it is done as standard procedure.

Not sure why your installers did not do it as part of the installation.
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Yeah. My pool installer left me with one instruction as he left. He told me l was all set, pool filled with water, filter running and then mentioned that I'd need to ground it eventually. When l looked up how to do that l discovered bonding and that it was required. Again l had to ask if bonding is a safety measure why doesn't an installer take it seriously?
 
Nine19 said:
Yeah. My pool installer left me with one instruction as he left. He told me l was all set, pool filled with water, filter running and then mentioned that I'd need to ground it eventually. When l looked up how to do that l discovered bonding and that it was required. Again l had to ask if bonding is a safety measure why doesn't an installer take it seriously?
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Because some people have pride in their work and others are looking for a fast buck. Sadly, when we are interviewing people for jobs like this we can't see into their personality. I'm sure there are hundreds/thousands of pools out there with improper or no bonding. Sadly, every few years there is a death because of it.

www.wral.com

Expert: Breached bonding wire could have led to teen's electrocution

The preliminary autopsy for a Raleigh teen found unresponsive in a community pool in Raleigh's Heritage Point neighborhood on Saturday afternoon confirmed her family's theory that she was electrocuted.
www.wral.com www.wral.com
 
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Water bonds have a history of being ignored in the code, for a long time the light niche housing provided the water bond in in ground pools and nobody bothered specifying it. It's definetely still common practice in some areas to ignore water bonding in an above ground pool and plenty of people swim in them like that every day.

I swam in my pool for a year with no bonding system at all, just relying on the GFCI to save me from electrocution. I bonded everything properly once I had a kid.

This forum is tight as it gets on electrical stuff though, so you just won't get people on here who will say yeah it's fine.
 
hwy17 said:
Water bonds have a history of being ignored in the code, for a long time the light niche housing provided the water bond in in ground pools and nobody bothered specifying it. It's definetely still common practice in some areas to ignore water bonding in an above ground pool and plenty of people swim in them like that every day.

I swam in my pool for a year with no bonding system at all, just relying on the GFCI to save me from electrocution. I bonded everything properly once I had a kid.

This forum is tight as it gets on electrical stuff though, so you just won't get people on here who will say yeah it's fine.
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The bond protects you from thisngs the GFCI won't. The GFCI only looks at current flowing on the one circuit. Many times the power source is not even the service at that house. It can be a problem at a neighbors house or even a defective utility transformer "leaking".

The bond does not fix the problem or trip a breaker like a GFCI. It just makes sure the pool water and everything around it are at the same voltage level or potential.

I stole this from an electricians forum

One must understand the reason for bonding all the non electric equipment. It has very little to do with fault clearing or grounding and is called "equipotential bonding" for a reason, it brings all those components to the same voltage potential.

The electrical grounded conductor and equipment grounding conductor are tied to one another back at the service. The grounded conductor may have a rise in voltage as referenced from earth because of voltage drop on that conductor, that is normal but that voltage rise is also imposed on anything that is bonded intentionally or not at the pool. This can leave voltage gradients in the pool area and just a few volts is much more of a danger when you are immersed in the pool than if you are standing on relatively dry ground and subject to the same few volts. So we protect pool users from these possible voltage gradients by bringing every conductive object in the pool vicinity to the same potential via this bonding system.

We don't care if the entire pool is running at 1000 volts above earth potential, just that there is no potential between objects in the pool area. This is reason why a bird on an overhead high voltage line doesn't get electrocuted, it is at same potential as the line but is not touching anything of different potential so no current flows through it.

Any item that is required to be bonded that also is required to have an EGC run to it, will inherently yield an interconnection between the electrical grounding system and the equipotential bonding system of the pool. This most often occurs at least at a pump motor
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tim5055 said:
The bond protects you from thisngs the GFCI won't. The GFCI only looks at current flowing on the one circuit. Many times the power source is not even the service at that house. It can be a problem at a neighbors house or even a defective utility transformer "leaking".

The bond does not fix the problem or trip a breaker like a GFCI. It just makes sure the pool water and everything around it are at the same voltage level or potential.

I stole this from an electricians forum
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I do understand that. But I believe most pool electrocutions have to do with the power supply to the pool rather than the stray voltage the bonding grid protects against.

That's why, speaking only for me, I was willing to take the chance on on no bonding whereas GFCI is what I would never get into the pool without.

Edit: I see how my wording sounded like I was conflating the two. This topic is always a minefield of terminology.
 
hwy17 said:
But I believe most pool electrocutions have to do with the power supply to the pool rather than the stray voltage the bonding grid protects against.
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They are responsible for both and for making sure that everything is safe and to current local codes, which are usually adopted from the NEC.
 
hwy17 said:
I do understand that. But I believe most pool electrocutions have to do with the power supply to the pool rather than the stray voltage the bonding grid protects against.

That's why, speaking only for me, I was willing to take the chance on on no bonding whereas GFCI is what I would never get into the pool without.
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Don't ever let someone with a pacemaker into your unbonded pool.

A stray shock can cause harm to a person with various medical conditions.
 
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