Pool bonding

[Guest]

I just had my pool resurfaced from a fiberglass surface to plaster and my old copper pump discharge and suction piping replaced with PVC. The pool deck was cut to remove the pipes and to put my copper fill line into the side of the pool (it was above ground). While the concrete was removed, I noticed a wire or cable connected to my copper fill pipe but had no idea what it was for. However i believe they cut the piece of copper piping that had the wire on it to shorten the fill pipe. The contractor also installed a new pentair intelliflo pump. My old pump had a wire on the outside of it and it was connected to the pump timer box. Again I had no idea what the wire was until I noticed my new pump didn't have a wire connected to the lug. I discovered it was the bonding wire. My contractor said its no big deal and the 90% of the older pools aren't bonded. I think my pool was built in the 60's. I believe my copper fill pipe was bonded until they cut the piece off with the bonding wire attached. He also covered the old concrete decking with an nice concrete overlay that looks like flagstone.


From what I read, my old pump was probably never properly bonded. I do feel the contractor should have brought the issue to my attention, but he didn't or he didn't realize it as he wasn't around during most of the work.
After talking to him about the bondong issue a few different times, his fix is to drive a rod into the ground and connect the pump bonding wire to it. I also read that may not be a good fix, but he said he got the advice from a pool electrician. I really don't even know of my pool was ever bonded, since its so old. I've been using it for 10 years with no issues.

Should I be worry about using my pool? Any suggestions on how to tell if my pool is bonded?

 

[kyle11]

We installed our pool last year. I done all the electrical and bonding on ours. I think your guy is getting bonding confused with grounding. Bonding is connecting anything metal that touches the water together on a continuous loop of solid copper wire. So on my steel walled pool I started at the light niche went around my entire pool connecting every steel panel to the continuous loop then took the loop to my equipment pad and ran it through my pump bonding lug and to my aqua logic control metal enclosed bonding lug.

It is buried so unless you have access to under ground around your pool there is no way to tell if it is bonded.

If you want it done properly what he is wanting to do with driving a rod in the ground and connecting the bonding lug on your pump is not correct.

Also there is no way that "Should" pass an inspection. I would also call your local electrical inspection office and describe what he is wanting to do and see if that is code, which I suspect they will tell you it is not.

 

[JasonLion]

You can get a sense of bonding, or not, by measuring the resistance between various metal things near or in the water. With bonding the resistance should be under 2 ohms, without bonding the resistance will vary but never be that low. Of course this is a fair bit of work.

If you live in an area where electrical code applies, you can usually force the company that did the work to bring your pool up to code, or at least fix all of the code violations they caused. If you live in one of the areas where electrical code is only a recommendation, then bonding will be at your expense.

Getting your pool properly bonded is recommended, especially doing the easier parts of the process (notably those that don't require breaking up concrete with jackhammers). If you have to pass an electrical inspection it is mandatory.

 

[Guest]

No electrical inspection required because we were not moving any equipment, but replacing it. However, I do believe that since he is a licsened concrete and pool contractor, he should be aware of the bonding issue. I do live in an area where the code applies. The contractor is just making excuses... Every time I mentioned an issue he would say I've been fling pools for 25 years and I need to trust him because he knows what he is doing. He also gets really irratated... I'll try to check the ohms but the only metal is the light fixture ring and the copper fill line that protrudes out of the tile. Any ideas how to check the ohms? I also have a chainlink fence about 6 feet away at one point..none of the metal components are to each other. Thanks