Above Ground Pool Pump tripping GFCI breaker

[rtstrider]

Hello all! We had an above ground pool installed 3 weeks ago and the GFCI breaker has been randomly tripping. I have a Pentair 1 1/2 horsepower motor for a 24' x 52" pool. We ran the electrical ourselves. I made sure to run bonding wire to code around the pool and bonded to the pool frame itself (using one of the existing screws that hold the pool shell together since mine is a resin pool), bonded the pump, and bonded the water with one of these Amazon.com : Perma-Cast PB-AG Above Ground Water Bonding : Gateway We are using a GE gfci breaker and I also have a gfci receptacle that the pump is plugged into. The gfci receptacle is not tripping only the gfci breaker is tripping. After extensive research it sounds like this may be a common problem and the recommended fix is to use a Siemens gfci breaker due to having a higher tolerance to tripping. Since I do not have a Siemens panel I would have to do some extensive rewiring and such which is way out of the budget. So my question is can I do the following and still be good go to?

Normal 20 amp breaker -> 110v gfci receptacle in a weatherproof in use cover -> pump plugs into the receptacle

This way I'd still have gfci in place and it would save me a ton of time, trouble, and expense. Apologies for information overload!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Rider,

The 3 HP IntelliFlo pump used to have a problem with very intermittent GFCI trips and installing the Pentair/Siemens breaker helped this problem.. This only happened to a few pump owners, most never had an issue. I have never heard of this same problem with the Pentair SuperFlo VS...

Before I did anything else, I would eliminate the double GFCI. Either have the line GFCI protected at the breaker or at the equipment pad, but not both.

I am sure it is just me, but I don't understand your fix??? I was assuming that your pump was running off of 240 volts, as that is what the recommend Siemens breaker is.. But, if your pump is running off of 120, then we are saying the same thing.. Eliminate the double GFCI and see how it works.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[rtstrider]

My pump is 110v. I'll go ahead and get a regular breaker over lunch and try that since the pump is protected by gfci at the pad.

 

[dwig]

You may also want to get a new GFCI receptacle. As a home inspector, I know that GFCI receptacles are prone to failure and nuisance trips. You may just have a receptacle going bad.
If you change receptacle and it is still tripping then you will need to look at the pump, ground and bond.

 

[rtstrider]

You may also want to get a new GFCI receptacle. As a home inspector, I know that GFCI receptacles are prone to failure and nuisance trips. You may just have a receptacle going bad.
If you change receptacle and it is still tripping then you will need to look at the pump, ground and bond.

In this case it's the gfci breaker tripping so I wanted to take that out of the loop and leave the gfci receptacle in place to see if that fixed the issue first. I'm thinking it's just an over zealous gfci breaker *fingers crossed on that anywho*

 

[cubbybeave08]

I have found that if I put a bucket over my electrical post, this helps greatly as they are often triggered by moisture and wetness.

 

[rtstrider]

Just wanted to post so far so good. It's been 3 days since the GFCI breaker was taken out. I pulled the GFCI breaker out and put in a normal 20 amp Siemens breaker (the $4 kind at Lowes). The only reason I got Siemens is I saw that name mentioned with the GFCI breakers as fixes so figured why the heck not spend a few cents extra lol? Anywho the pump is plugged into a GFCI receptacle and everything is bonded so we should be good to go!