CircuPool RJ-45+ winter storage

[P00LNerd]

What are folks in northern climes doing with their CircuPool controllers? Wanting mine tagged onto the pump circuit, so the tripping of the interrupt device for the pump will be sure to shut down the SWCG, I'm debating whether to hardware or install a receptacle on that circuit to plug in the RJ-45+ controller.

That's the way to go, if taking the controller indoors for winter is recommended, easy plug and play. But I'm tight on mounting space for more receptacle boxes, so I'd prefer to skip it if I'd be fine just bagging controller and leaving it sit outdoors all winter. I could easily throw a poly trash bag over the whole panel setup:



Present plan, at least for this season, is to move existing receptacle box to back side of panel, and hang CircuPool controller to left of load center. Back of panel already contains another box containing an EMI filter (for GFCI / VFD compatibility), so it will get tight with existing and new receptacle boxes both hung on back.

 

[hexabc]

I wouldn’t put a solid plastic bag over the controller - water condensation may hurt it.
It’s a good idea to bring it home for the winter. The last winter I left it at the pad, but put the pool cover’s mesh bag over the whole stand. And of course, replaced the cell with a dummy one.

 

[wireform]

No bag over anything, it's just a recipe for disaster. Every single one of my installs are out all winter without a hitch. What I have done for a few was created a slopped roof that sticks out on all sides approximately 2" for the snow and rain and it also provides shade from the sun. Had some plexiglass and I'd form it so that from the back its somewhat taller to create the slope. The back part goes down enough to have the bracket screws go through the plexiglass. Make sure you allow enough room in the height of it that you can access the wall bracket to hang it otherwise there won't be a way to lift it over the wall bracket to hook it. As me how I know.

 

[P00LNerd]

Thanks, guys! It sounds like I'd better do the receptacle / bring it indoors thing for this winter, and then build myself a roofed panelboard for the long term.

 

[wireform]

They come pre-wired for 240v so you'll have to open it up and move the jumpers around. One jumper is in the unit making it work for the 240v setup but for 120v you'd need to move one and I use the second one which is included in the parts bag.

 

[P00LNerd]

They come pre-wired for 240v so you'll have to open it up and move the jumpers around. One jumper is in the unit making it work for the 240v setup but for 120v you'd need to move one and I use the second one which is included in the parts bag.

Yep, saw that. But I'll just install a NEMA 6-20R on the pump circuit, so I can run it at 240V. Main goal is to remove power from the SWCG if I get a nuisance trip on the GFCI breaker, as I'm running a VFD pump.

Got another thread going on the whole VFD/GFCI thing, where I'm trying some solutions to resolve that, short of swapping my load center over to Siemens/Pentair.