Electric maintenance

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M

MNJ

Active member
Jun 4, 2021
28
NJ
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Hi all,

I bought a house with a 20,000 gallon in ground gunite pool with one light and a sand filter. I’m still learning about the pool and how it operates. We have a service contract with the company that installed the pool.

My question is how often should I have an electrician do a maintenance check on the pool equipment?

As far as I know, the most recent work done to the equipment was a new skimmer system five years ago.
 
Electrically speaking, there are no specific intervals or requirements for a licensed electrician to visit. Excessive heat, moisture, or loose connections can impact good continuity, but as long as power is being applied to your "electrical" equipment all should be good. Obviously you have a pool pump that requires electricity, but tell us more about your equipment in case there's something else that might need more specific attention. You can post some pics of the equipment pad and/or automation panel if you have one.

Other items such as the skimmers, pool filter, etc do not use electricity and are typically maintained by us as the pool owners. Also be sure to update your signature with al of that equipment.
 
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Thanks, I have a Hayward Sand filter and pump 115/230 volt. My primary concern is that that everything is grounded correctly.
 
MNJ said:
My primary concern is that that everything is grounded correctly.
Click to expand...
Sure. At a minimum, you should see stout 8 gauge bonding wire at the equipment pad that provides adequate ground for the pump motor and/or pool. Feel free to post some pics of everything you see and our experts will be happy to chime-in.
 
Please fill out your signature. Include pool and pool equipment (manufacturers and model numbers). Also list your test kit. This helps us help you without needing to ask about pool and equipment each time. Look at mine and others signatures for inspiration.

Click your username in upper right corner, click 'signature', fill out your signature..
 
This is the pump, I believe the green wire is the grounding wire. None of this stuff was inspected when we bought the house so I’m a bit at a loss.DCDA8809-0891-41F2-88FD-65DB953C968E.jpeg
 
Grounding and bonding are two totally different things.

Bond wires tie the pool, deck and all pool equipment together.
Ground wires tie the pump motor, other electrical equipment, remote times and panels, etc directly back to the main electric panel.
There is a bit more to it - and not all electricians are well versed in pool bonding requirements.

That green wire is supposed to be acting as the bonding wire - but it is supposed to be an 8AWG bare copper wire.
 
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08729C01-E11C-4EB5-8776-7A6BC9BF58AB.jpegThanks. The covered green wire goes into the ground. I also see it running from the breaker for the pool light into the ground and on both our outdoor spigots. The previous owners were very safety conscious so I’d be surprised if they had something that wasn’t up to code. Although I’ve heard the nowadays almost everything on the back of the house needs to be bonded.

I don’t want to have someone out until
I have an idea what I’m talking about.
 
What “you’ve heard” doesn’t matter, what matters is what the code says. The National Electrical Code (NEC) section 680 covers pool installations. Bonding is only required for the pool shell, equipment and, in some circumstances, decking around the pool. There can be no permanently installed high voltage electrical devices (120VAC or higher) within 5 ft of the pool water. Anything beyond that is fine. So the idea that “everything on the backside of the house has to be grounded” sounds like someone was just giving you hand-waving generalizations and not reliable information. Bonding to water spigots attached to the house makes no sense to me and might have just been the doings of an overly cautious individual that had no idea what they were doing but simply wanted to “do something” to make themselves feel better.

Take a look through NEC 680. There’s a lot in that document that will put you to sleep but you may find some answers to questions you have.

If you find something relevant to your situation in that code document, feel free to post any questions here
 
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Another great resource is Mike Holt’s electrical forum where he has some specific content and educational material geared mainly for pool electrical work. He is an excellent teacher and makes complicated electrical code requirements easy to understand.
 
Pool electrical code requirements are described in the National Electric Code (NEC) section 680. The NFPA provides free access to the NEC and other codes.

Taking the Mystery Out of Equipotential Bonding Requirements for Swimming Pools is a good primer to understand equipotential bonding in pools.

A good reference is from Mike Holt Enterprises on Article 680—Swimming Pools, Spas, Hot Tubs, Fountains, and Similar Installations.

Also How to Verify That a Pool is Safe from Electric Shock – In Accordance with the National Electrical Code from Mike Holt.

Electrical Bonding - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
I’m reading through everything and don’t see anything about the bonding wire copper needing to be bare. I started looking into this last year and had come to the conclusion that the green wire running into the ground from the pump etc was insulated copper. Would replacing the bonding wire be a big project?
 
MNJ said:
I’m reading through everything and don’t see anything about the bonding wire copper needing to be bare.
Click to expand...

NEC 680.26 B.1.b

(b) Copper Conductor Grid. A copper conductor grid must comply with(b)(1) through (b)(4).
(1) Minimum 8 AWG bare solid copper conductors bonded to eachother at all points of crossing in accordance with 250.8 or other approved means.

up.codes

Equipotential Bonding | UpCodes

Explore a searchable database of US construction and building code. Code regulations are consolidated by state and city for easier navigation.
up.codes up.codes


MNJ said:
I started looking into this last year and had come to the conclusion that the green wire running into the ground from the pump etc was insulated copper. Would replacing the bonding wire be a big project?
Click to expand...

You asking about replacing the insulated wire with a #8 bare copper wire?

See if you can follow the green wire and access it for its entire run.
 
Does bare mean naked copper wire? I was thinking that I already had # 8 that was insulated. Thank you all for your patience.
 

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