Lighting Advice (Aqua-Lumin II)

[myrddin]

He guys, I seem to have a short in my light, no moisture or anything like that but it trips my breaker... I can get it to work by fooling with the light sometimes, but its only a band aid fix... I can see how to replace it, but my fear is that the installer didn't run the wire right and I cant pull the wire out to pull the new one through... I can see where some cut the wire and use the old to pull the new... can someone advise me on what to chk so I can see if I can fix it? Guessing I am unable to splice in any way right? The Aqua-Lumin II is a nitchless light... just mounts to a bracket on the wall.

I have pic's... will post tomorrow...

thanks in advance..

 

[Bama Rambler]

What exactly do you mean by "fooling with the light"?
Is the breaker a gfci unit?

 

[myrddin]

Yes the breaker is a GFCI unit at the breaker box in my house... The light has two socket like ends to it, they seem fine, but only thing I can say is I pull the light out of the water like I need to replace the bulb... I can take the bulb out and put it back in and most of the time it starts to work agn... so this tells me that something is wrong in that area... acts like its shorting its self out to me... here are a few pics:









I will pull it out agn today and look into the sockets and see if I can clean them out... I didn't see anything in there that would have been touching something to short it out so hard to say whats going on.... I cant see any worn or frayed wires at all...

 

[myrddin]

so it gets even more tricky today... usually I can do as I said above and the light comes on... now even with the pool light out the breaker keeps tripping. so I am unsure... I can pull the switch out of the wall... I could also replace the breaker? thoughts? seems odd... nothing has changed... it just started tripping the breaker a few months ago... now it will not reset. I guess if the pool light is shorted out it could still trip the breaker even with no bulb... I will go clean it and inspect both ends... then I will inspect the switch at the wall (have seen these melt over time) and last of all I can replace the breaker... other than that I am out of ideas...

things on circuit:

pool light
pool area lights
pool heater

pool area lights and pool light run off a switch in the house.
heater has its own switch on the equipment pad.

I will be cleaning and replacing... let me know if anyone has ideas.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You're using gloves to handle the lamp aren't you?

Those type lamps are known to get corroded spring contacts. You can clean them up and they should work.

However, it sounds as if you have a different problem now. Does it trip with all the switches off?
If not which switch causes it to trip?

 

[myrddin]

no gloves, but I cut the power 100% while working with the wire... I am not sure anymore... been an odd day... I was not able to duplicate the same things as in the past... in fact I removed the pool light from the pic (best I can tell) and it still tripped. So this is what I did... I had the junction box open I too each group of wires and split them... after I checked the power and the breaker each time it would trip... well I got to the last two and once I took them apart the test was good (power on breaker on) so I thought to myself I have it... what I did was of the wires I separated I added the pool light back, repeated the test and the light came on... I was surprised but that left the pool area lights to question... I thought to myself it must be them... well to prove it I added the pool area lights back to the pic and guess what... they worked as well... I put it all back together and it still works??? So I am unsure... short in the junction box?

kooky

let me know your thoughts...

I did replace the 48.00 GFCI breaker now I have a spare... The wall switch looks brand new... so I just inspected it. One thing I know about is that if you don't fix it... you shouldn't expect it to fix its self... its going to happen agn.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Sounds like there was short in or near the junction box.

The reason for handling those lamps with clean cotton gloves is that they get really hot during operation and if you leave oils on it, it will fry the oils and shatter the lamp.

 

[myrddin]

OK so I had some time to look at this today and this is my finding... I hope I can explain in words well enough for you to see what's going on.

OK so I have a circuit that includes the following:
Pool Light, Pool Area Lights (there the brick lights), Heater, Robot Aux Pump.

There is a GFCI breaker in my basement that runs it. and there is a switch on my wall in the house that turns the lights on. There is a switch at the equipment pad for the heater and the Robot Aux Pump.

Problem works as follows:
When I get moisture in the ground from rain, sometimes from sprinkler system. the breaker will flip off if I turn on the lights.

Note:
if I don't touch the lights the heater, Aux Pump work fine.

Testing:
I removed the Pool area lights from the circuit (Junction Box At Pad). When I flip the switch the pool light comes on and breaker does not trip.

Conclusion:
Something in that perimeter pool area lighting is shorting, or moisture is getting to it and tripping the GFCI. I can see the wire coming into the junction box that I am pretty sure powers the lights in the wall (same ones I disconnected). is there something I can do to test which wire is at fault? What can I test? Do I need to dig it all up?

My understanding is that in the brick wall there are like 5 lights, each daisy chained to the next and then one run to that junction box to connect to that same circuit. I am guessing this is water trapped behind the wall and somehow getting into the light enough to trip the breaker...

If everything dries out I can turn it all on fine... it’s just when it rains more or less that the situation pops up.


Right now I have the wires disconnected and am testing it to be sure that it’s not going to trip the breaker as is... but I don't think it will.

Not sure if it could be anything else, like amp draw or something like that?

Thoughts?

these things drive me nuts, I will be thinking about it till I find the problem... I like my lights on the wall... need them to get sorted out.