Wiring Up Your Salt Water System

[NullQwerty]

Hey folks,

So, I'll do basic electrical stuff around the house. Replace outlets, install ceiling fans, re-hardwire my pool pump when the motor died, etc. I thought the Salt Water System would be more advanced but it seems to be at the same level, once you know exactly what to do.

Two questions.

1)The salt system comes setup for 240VAC. You need to determine if you're using 120VAC or 240VAC first. InYoPools.com has a great tutorial for determining it at http://www.inyopools.com/HowToPage/how_ ... rator.aspx but their example is for 230V where as I am 115V. Attached is a picture of my timer. On the left side of it you can see the instructions. It's hard to read so here's a digital copy of it: http://www.intermatic.com/~/media/files ... glish.ashx Would anyone know how I could test if I'm at 120 or 240?

2) My timer goes to a junction box outside and then is wired to my pool pump. My thinking was to join the salt system at the same connection points as the pool pump as you can see in the attached mockup drawing. Is my thinking right here or would I want to make the connection at a different place?

Thanks!

 

[Bama Rambler]

1) The easiest way to tell if your pump is powered at 120 or 240 volts is to look at the breaker. If it's a single pole (one handle) it's 120 volt. If it has two handles tired together, it's 240 volts.

However, your timer is a 120 volt so it would be extremely unlikely that the pump is 240 volt.

2) It's fine to hook the pump and swcg up as you show just be sure to convert your swcg to 120 volt operation.

 

[NullQwerty]

Oh....I knew that was how you could tell if it was 115V or 230V, but I didn't realize it could also tell you if it was 120VAC or 240VAC. Do those go hand in hand? My timer had mentions of both 120 and 240, so I wasn't sure. But cool, thanks for clearing that up.

One other quick thing...I was noticing that the SWCG tells you how to set it up for 120VAC or 240VAC, but unlike pump motors, it doesn't mention switching between 115V or 230V. Again, is this because the two go hand in hand, so I don't have to worry about it?

Thanks again!

 

[Bama Rambler]

Any time you see anything written as anything from 110 to 125 volts it's all the same voltage. Same is true with 220 to 240 volts.

 

[NullQwerty]

Awesome! That clears all that up. Thanks a lot!

 

[mx702]

 

[NullQwerty]

So, I ran into a small snafu with that plan. The black wire of the pump's power cable was attached to a switch inside the junction box and was actually crimped in there, so there was no way to add a new wire into the mix...not without replacing the switch.

So, I'm going with plan B. Plan B is to leave the wiring of the current junction box alone. I plan to cut the pump's power cable about 1 foot after it comes out of the current junction box. I'll then have both sides of the cut cable go into a new junction box, along with the power cable for the salt system. I'll pigtail all the wires together (matching colors obviously) and call it a day. Any problems with this plan? I attached an updated diagram.

If all looks good, the only question I have is regarding the ground. Inside the current junction box there is a fully exposed copper ground wire that attaches to the ground wires of both the electric line from the house and the electric line from the pump wire. This is different than the copper ground wire that is attached to the pool and to the grounding lug on the pump and the grounding lug on the salt system. So, my question is, would I need to run a new copper ground wire out of the old junction box and into the new junction box and connect it to those grounds as well? I'm assuming I don't, but then again you'll see that type of copper line on every outlet in a house, so...

Thanks

 

[Bama Rambler]

You DO need to extend the ground. The conductor that's connected to the external lug on the pump isn't a ground, it's a bonding conductor. You will need to tie it to the swcg as you said, but you'll need the ground from inside the switch box also.

 

[NullQwerty]

Ok, great! Thanks!