Help me pick a new light and find a gasket

[djdonte]

UPDATE - Got everything hooked up. It was a two person operation to pull the new light cable. There is an elbow on the end of the conduit embedded in the niche so the wife had to kind of feed it in as I pulled from the Jbox side. I thought about using cable pull lube, but one was water soluble and would be washed off by the time it got to the conduit and the other was yellow, thick and greasy, and I really didn't want whatever that was to sit and soak in my pool water. I supposed I could have injected some in the J box side, as thats where it got tight and it pulled some water up with it. Not an expert with NEC but I feel like they conduit could have been bigger for that size wire, even if that many 12ga conductors were allowed for 3/4". I used 210# pull string and tied a clover hitch, followed by a half hitch and covered it all with electrical tape. A few times it was hard to pull but the cord never broke. I had a lot of trouble getting the new brass screw in the enclosure, I think the plaster crew boogered it up. It was very hard to turn it, and I nearly stripped the old one. If I ever remove this light again I will probably chase the threads with a makeshift tap.

I replaced the corroded metal 2 gang switch box with a new plastic one. I also removed the 110 outlet from the j box so I could just do a waterproof 1 gang cover, and I replaced the pump switch with a double pole one so both legs of the 220 are now switched. I didnt feel good about the light neutral being hooked to an outlet with constant hot power, plus I really didnt use the outlet anyway. The Pooltone set up was nice. It came with a new brass screw and shipped quickly. My pool is small but I opted for the higher watt bulb since it was only 20 bucks more.

Also before hooking the new light up, I did connect the old light, with no bulb and no outlet to the J box and it blew the GFCI immediately, so the enclosure or cord was definitely no good.

 

[Woody007]

I'll share my experience, which seems close to yours.
- I had a light that kept tripping the GFCI and it turned out to be the cord itself was the issue. Over the years some moisture found it's way into the cord.
- regarding the tingle from a cut, I found the same thing and would do it on aluminum coping. I think it may have something to do with the SWG and lower resistance where you have the cut. I'm probably wrong about that but will say I haven't felt it since the cut healed up.
Good luck on the lights. I have the smaller version of the same light and they have both burned out. I'm putting 100w bulbs in this time instead of 250. Maybe that will extend the lifespan. I really wanted LED, but so many people seem to have troubles with them over time.

 

[djdonte]

The cord was probably the issue for me too. It looked smashed where it was coiled around the housing and where it was submerged it was gray not black. Not sure if 25 years of chlorine bleached it or what. As for the tingling. I used to weld underwater and I know what voltage feels like. I put my tongue on the metal part with the switch off. Not real smart I know but it felt like I licked a 9v lol. Never pulled out a multimeter but it here was for sure some voltage leaking. New light has nothing of the sort going on.