I have a 17 year old pool and am upgrading the electrical in my subpanel to GFCI breakers. I am able to wire electrical directly from my subpanel to my new Pentair VS pump with a 20 amp 2 pole GFCI breaker without going through the pool control panel. This main pump has its own separate controller wire, so the power does not need to go through relays in the control panel. That pump is working great. But all other pool equipment is controlled through relays in the control panel- booster pump, spa blower, lights, and heater. The line power to several relays is shared via jumper wires. Other than the GFCI breaker for the main pump, my plan was to have another 20 amp 2 pole GFCI breaker for the booster pump, a 15 amp single pole for the transformer control panel power, and a 15 amp for the lights. No matter how I have wired these, they all either trip the moment I turn on the breaker or when any relay turns on equipment. It is very frustrating. For example, I installed brand new Pentair LED pool and spa lights to their junction boxes nearer the pool, in which is an always-on outlet, with a separate source load wire from the light relay that goes to the black wire of the pool light, all fed by the same GFCI breaker. Everything works fine until the moment the lights turn on the breaker trips. When instead I put in a non-GFCI breaker and install a GFCI outlet in the junction box that then feeds the light from its load side, everything works fine and does not trip the GFCI outlet, but the outlet can only be on when the lights are on. I prefer to have GFCI breakers instead. I have tried both GE and Siemens breakers. Either way, any GFCI breaker that supplies power to relays in the control panel is essentially non-useable. So other than for my main pump, I am having to use non-GFCI breakers to keep equipment running.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.