220 volt breaker. 110 at service panel.

[Thinkly]

I am trying to determine how my pump is wired. There is a 220 volt 60 amp breaker at the box and a 20 amp breaker at the service panel which appears to be 110 because it is a single breaker.

I am assuming the pump motor is 110 but wondering why the box has a 20volt 60 amp breaker? Perhaps it was wired for a heater?

 

[pooldv]

There is a subpanel at the pool pad? Sounds like it has 220v if needed. But the pump only needs 110v.

 

[Isaac-1]

Perhaps if you were to post photos someone could help

 

[zoe17]

With the front electrical panel off, does the power wires from the main panel hook to the 60 Amp sub panel? How many poles spaces/breaker slots are in panel? A picture of the electrical box with the flat front cover off will be able to see how it is wired.

A 60a breaker installed for a pool sub panel could be for future heater, spa,etc. Or it could be the main/sub panel over current device. I always wire pumps at 220V when I can. Post pics and we can figure it out. Or you take picture and send to me and I will figure it out and post it here.

20 year Master Electrician/ State Electrical Comtractor license.

 

[danpik]

I am trying to determine how my pump is wired. There is a 220 volt 60 amp breaker at the box and a 20 amp breaker at the service panel which appears to be 110 because it is a single breaker.

I am assuming the pump motor is 110 but wondering why the box has a 20volt 60 amp breaker? Perhaps it was wired for a heater?

I am going to assume (yeah, I know) that the "box" is your main panel and the "service panel" is a sub panel near the pool. If so, the 20 amp breaker for the pump is most likely a 120 volt feed. However, there are also two pole breakers (240 volt) that only have one "switch" handle on them. They still take up two spots in the panel though. As was asked, can you post some pictures of what you have? It will help us greatly. If everything is as I am thinking, you have a 60 amp, 240 volt sub panel that both 240 and 120 volt circuits can be derived (provided that it was wired correctly)

 

[Pool Clown]

I am assuming the pump motor is 110 but wondering why the box has a 20volt 60 amp breaker? Perhaps it was wired for a heater?

Perhaps the motor was replaced at some point with a dual voltage motor and the 110V setting was used, or it was a 110V only motor.

Heaters nowadays can use 110 or 220V, just a wiring configuration.

 

[Thinkly]

Here are some pics. The timer box has a red, black and green (3 wires total) wire going to the pump. The service panel (pictured and located at the pool pad) has 2 single breakers. The one on the left is a gfi 20 amp that goes to the pool motor and the one on the right goes to my sprinkler controller. At the main breaker box (not pictured) there is just a normal 220 volt 60 amp breaker. Sorry for the sideways pics.

 

[gwegan]

So its possible you have 220 to the subpanel and a 110 motor.

You need to understand that 220 is not double the voltage, it is two 110 legs energized out of phase with each other. So as long as there is a neutral wire going to the subpanel, a subpanel with 220 can use one leg to provide 110 power. That is what your main panel does, it takes 2 110 legs and splits them to make a bunch of 110 circuits. It combines both legs to create 220 circuits.

If you want us to tell you exactly what you have, you need to remove the covers of the main and the sub and show us those pictures. But before you do that you need to turn off all the power at the main. Opening the panels exposes you to live wires and unless you are very experienced and know exactly what you are doing, you should not open those without all the power off.

 

[Thinkly]

I just measured the voltage on the wires coming out of the timer to the pump. It measured 120v. Seems strange because the wires are red and black and based on everything I've red that should indicate 220.

Seems odd that they ran 220 to the service panel yet wired the pump 110? Isn't 220 supposed to be more economical? The pump can be wired either way.

 

[Isaac-1]

For all practical purposes the economics are the same, however the cost of wire will be higher to wire it 110V, this is likely trivial though

 

[gwegan]

What did you measure it to? the red to the black?

 

[Thinkly]

Yes. There is red/green/black going to the pump. I measured between red and black.

 

[gwegan]

For fun measure between red and green and black and green.

But it appears you have 110 going to the pump.

 

[Thinkly]

Here is a pic of the service panel with cover off. It says 110volt. I can't see how this pump could be wired 220???

 

[Thinkly]

For fun measure between red and green and black and green.

But it appears you have 110 going to the pump.

Between red and green; 0

Between black and green 123

 

[stebs]

Judging by what you say and what the picture shows, they are using red as a neutral. It's connected to the breaker as well because the breaker is gfci and needs to monitor the neutral to function correctly...

 

[danpik]

I agree with stebs. Someone used the wrong color wire for a neutral. (should be white or light grey) If you measure the voltage between the two breakers, you will see 240. The ground wires also should be insulated wires (green)