Relay Electrics

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SoCalDIYWannabe

Active member
Mar 14, 2025
36
Orange County, California
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Plaster
Sounds like a cool name for a band. But that's not why I'm here.

Pentair Intelliflo relay says one relay is good for 5 amp and the other is good for 16 amp.
I will put in a circupool rj60 SWCG and a Hayward 400fdn heater.
  • RJ60 manual says Cell Current (often 2.5 to 7.8 amps when generating, otherwise 0). I doubt I'll ever use it at 50% or more on my 20k pool. No idea though.
  • Gas heater manual says 120/250 VAC, 1phase, 5.5A max current, recommend circuit protection rated at 15 amps.
So, which item should go into which relay?

Also, guessing two wires in (to each relay, bringing 240 volts) and two wires out (to each device).
 
Cell current is at 28-40V. At 240V SWG amp draw will be about 2 amps.

Either device will work with either relay.

I would put RJ60 on the smaller relay and heater on the larger.

What model gas heater? Does the gas heater manual discuss a heater cool down period? Dropping the high voltage will not let the heater cool down.
 
It's a Hayward 400fdn. I don't believe it requires a cooldown, and has no fireman switch. It uses that firetile or whatever it is called. (From Memory.)
I wired up the relay yesterday, then realized I probably didn't do it right. I don't have the SWCG or Heater plugged in yet, I wanted to make sure the wiring was right, and ran outa daylight.

the power terminal screw on the pump, I just loosened it and put on a second wire to relay 1 and a third wire to relay 2.
The other power terminal screw, I loosened it and put on a second wire to relay 1 (second leg) and to relay 2 (second leg.)
Even without wires coming out of 'load' on the relays, I was able to test with the multimeter by touching the top of the relay screw. So, I think I have the design down. But putting 3 wires (1 much thicker, and 2 are 12 guage) on the terminal screws doesn't seem wise.

tonight I'm going to swap that out with some wago connectors.
 
Do not put three wires under one screw.

Create pigtails with four wires wire nutted or WAGO together and three wires connecting to the three power connections.
 
Intelliflo 3 relays? You should have one wire under each terminal screw on the relays. If you’re running 240, that’s 4 hot wires - 2 for each device. Each relay has 4 screws - supply L1, device L1, Supply L2, Device L2. Why are you putting 3 wires under 1 terminal screw? Post up what you’ve got in a picture if you wish….something doesn’t sound right.

EDITED: Just caught your photo. My bad. Pigtails as Allen instructed if you’re going to wire in that manner. How large of a circuit are you feeding the pump with?
 
Lake Placid said:
Intelliflo 3 relays? You should have one wire under each terminal screw on the relays. If you’re running 240, that’s 4 hot wires - 2 for each device. Each relay has 4 screws - supply L1, device L1, Supply L2, Device L2. Why are you putting 3 wires under 1 terminal screw? Post up what you’ve got in a picture if you wish….something doesn’t sound right.

EDITED: Just caught your photo. My bad. Pigtails as Allen instructed if you’re going to wire in that manner. How large of a circuit are you feeding the pump with?
Click to expand...
I'm fairly certain it's a 30 amp.
Our main panel was just redone in November, and there's a double pole that each says 30 and I'm pretty sure that means 240 volt 30 amp, and not 60 amp.

It was feeding the intermatic timer which previously fed my old pump and my heater, and I believe there was also some splicing That was supposed to feed the two pool lights but those don't appear to be connected to anything right now or for the Last 5 Years. So I'll possibly fix the pool lights at some point.

So the end result goal appears to be 240 volt 30 amp from the main panel through conduit directly into the pump, and pump power over to relay power through the pigtails as we talked about or legos, and those relays feeding into the gas heater and the rj60 main control box, and then I guess there are wires to go from that control box to the flow sensor and to the cell itself.

Not sure where I should wire the lights into if I ever get them fixed. Later thread for a later day.
 
I'm hoping not to get in over my head, I've been doing pretty good staying above water so far but I think I might be slightly off on my electrical stuff.

If the power coming into the intermatic timer/pump is on 30 amp and 10 gauge I believe all is okay up to here.

The wiring from the rj60 seems to be a three strand 18 gauge. And the relay board instructions say to use 12 gauge.

What direction do I need to be looking here? Add a subpanel? Change my 30 amp circuit breaker to a 20 amp? Both of those routes would require me getting a 20 amp circuit breaker double pole gfci, right?
 
If you’re feeding with a 30 amp double pole breaker you should be fine. The Intelliflo requires 12.4A max, the heater 5.5, and the SWG 1 amp or 2 (don’t recall exactly on a circupool). Total is 19.9A worst case, which puts you under the 80% continuous load threshold of 24 amps for the circuit.

You really don’t need the Intermatic timer anymore as the pump can take care of everything the timer was doing before.

The relay board instructs you to use 12 ga because the assumption is the high amp relay is feeding 16 amps, which 12 ga will handle. You’re running two appliances that both draw less than that so a lesser gauge would be acceptable. However if you’re already planning to run 12 ga that’s more than fine.

If you don’t have a double pole GFCI feeding the circuit I would encourage you to swap one in if you are comfortable doing so. They are spendy, and you need to get the correct CB for you panel, but IMO it should be done.
 

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