Electrical shock

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poolintern

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May 9, 2015
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Arcadia, CA
I just encountered an odd problem that I hope someone can help me with. I have a broken Jandy Check flow valve. The entire valve mechanism broke apart from the cover some how. I found the spring in the Paramount water valve for my in floor cleaning system (was jamming it), but the flapper and axle are still missing. (Shout out to Jim the tech Guru at Paramount who helped me figure out what was going on.) That's not the odd part though.

So I went to take the Jandy valve apart, and as soon as I started touching the water in the valve, I started to get little shocks. I shut off the power at the breaker, and still got some little shocks, but seemed less. I have never gotten a shock from anywhere around my equipment, much less around the pool or from the pool water.

Read some of the old posts on grounding vs. bonding, but not sure what to make of this because it has only happened when touching the water by the equipment, while taking apart this plastic valve. In fact, I touch the water around the equipment all the time when I empty out my pump basket, and never had an issue.

Any ideas? Thank you!
 
First you need a good electrician. Call a big dairy farm and ask who troubleshoots their bonding system.

How bad is the shock?

My guess now is that you have a "current leak" somewhere on your pad or around it and there is a path that is leading to the water in the pad pipes. The pad surface is not bonded so your body is providing a path to the "ground" for the current in the water. Its not happening at the pool because the water is bonded to the deck so there is little imbalance in electrical potential between the two. Additionally resistance may reduce the amount of current by the time it gets to the pool. But that is just a guess now.

Again you need an electrician who understands bonding to look at this. Call around and find an electrician with bonding experience. Dairy barns are bonded and stray current can be a problem there so those electricians usually know what they are doing. But call an electrician.
 
Stray voltage tingle shock, on the order of a few volts will create small shock sensations. Likely a grounding issue, or possibly symptomatic of a poorly sized neutral. Have you done any electrical work in your house of late? Have your neighbours done any electrical work late. It may be worthwhile to also contact your local utility. You are highly encouraged to find a well qualified electrician who can do the right forensics to trace back to the source. A good electrician may not suffice here....


68,000litre, IG vinyl, LorentzPS 600 Solar Pump & 1/2 HP Tristar, Sandfilter, Aquarite T-15 SWG
 
Thanks for the help! I figured out the problem, it's really silly:

It was all static build up! I have a "Shade Sail" over my pool equipment, which came down with the high winds recently. While I was working around the equipment, it was billowing around over me and I guess charging me up like when you rub your shoes on carpet. Whenever I touched the water or something metallic, I got a little shock.

I tied the sail down away from me, and the problem went away.
 
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