pool light gfci issue

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wadewood

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May 4, 2009
30
I have 4 Pentair 120v lights in my pool (3 in pool, one is spa). System control is Jandy Aqualink One touch. Lights are on GFCI circuit from Jandy panel (not GFCI circuit breaker). I also have each of the lights on individually switches, so I can manually turn each light on/off. My lights this winter started tripping the GFCI. Just now warm enough for me to start trouble shooting.

I narrowed problem down to 1 light in pool. I removed it from niche and removed cover gasket. It looked fine. I removed bulb and left in sun for 2 days in case something was wet and needed to dry out. I hoped this would solve issue of GFCI tripping. It did not; with Jandy system lights on, and all other lights working fine, as soon as I turn switch on for this light, it trips the GFCI. If the problem is not water in fixture, then what could issue be? Possible ground wire that is attached to niche corroded or broke?
 
A bad ground wire would not be enough to trip the GFCI. There needs to be some leakage from one of the hot wires to ground. It is possible that the wire insulation has leaked, which would tend to happen close to the fixture, typically where there is a sharp bend in the cord.
 
From your description, I'd be inclined to suspect a bad GFCI. They are a high failure item. Barring that, condensation is enough to cause a trip, so you might look in your junction box.
 
The way a gfci works is by looking for an imbalance between the hot and neutral of the circuit. When it sees one of more than the specified rating of the unit (usually 5mA) it trips the unit. As Jason said, there has to be a leakage to ground from somewhere in the circuit.

Since the other 3 lights do not trip the gfci, you've at least narrowed your problem down to which one it is.
 
You may be able to swap the wires for that light and another at the Jandy panel and eliminate the GFCI as a problem, but I really suspect a wire issue. You probably wanna go ahead and pull a replacement through.
 
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