Help! water blew into electric panel! Now what to do?

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outdoorsgal

LifeTime Supporter
Jan 24, 2015
974
Phoenix, AZ
Sorry, I'm posting this twice but this feels more like an emergency and someone might not see it soon in my laddy-da empty our pool post. We r just filling up our pool after emptying it. husband turned on the filter for the first time after refilling the pool and i heard water spraying-gushing-lots of water spraying everywhere near the pump. we ran over and it looked like it was blowing out of the panel but what it looks like we did was after backwashing and tearing down the DE filter we did not put the handle in the position so that the water would go back into the pool because we weren't going to finish the process of adding DE and all of that as we were going to empty the pool. My husand said he saw water squirting out of the top of the DE filter where u r supposed to release pressure and the whole top part of the DE cover spun at least 90 degrees. water was spraying everywhere, into the panel it looks like. I imagine the panel is on GFI but it all happened so fast and all I was thinking was how water and electric don't mix but we had to shut that panel off. We did shut it off and it was still running for a while but i guess that's cuz there was water still coming out of the blue hose that was folded away and now blowing out from everywhere it could. Now do I open the panel to try to air it out? do i call the pb? help! thx!
 
here's what I think now that I look at it more closely-there is the potential that a bit of water got inside the panel but wouldn't/shouldn't everything be pretty well sealed inside the panel, too so that no water should be contacting water and wouldn't the whole panel need to be GGI? I want to turn it on and see what happens but hubbie will have no part of this so if I get electrocuted don't I need someone to throw a brick at me and not stand in the water on the ground or something? I could ask my 13 yo to stand there with a brick. I doubt anything would happen and it's not like we can wait and never turn on the panel. Any thoughts? thx!
 
I'm not laughing at your misfortune, but the brick comment did make me lol. I have no idea about electricity, but I do believe it should be a wooden source, such as a broom handle to separate you from the power.
 
kne said:
I'm not laughing at your misfortune, but the brick comment did make me lol. I have no idea about electricity, but I do believe it should be a wooden source, such as a broom handle to separate you from the power.
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When I was writing the part about the brick is exactly when I thought how glad my name is "outdoorsgal" on this site verses my real identity! ugh. In the moment trying to take care of it and think about water/electric/shut off electric so water will stop/electrocusion/oh no, what do we do? It took me a while to consider the whole house breaker. Everyone's safe so far-we'll see what I decide to do with the panel tomorrow. Glad I was able to make u laugh. Is this the craziest pool empty story or what? (i guess if u followed the other thread u'd see more blips along the way. I always do things the hard way). :hammer:
 
kne said:
I'm not laughing at your misfortune, but the brick comment did make me lol. I have no idea about electricity, but I do believe it should be a wooden source, such as a broom handle to separate you from the power.
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I honestly can't tell if either of you are joking or not. The brick is the joke? I hope so. How about the broom handle? Just in case, NO, that would not be safe.

I addressed your electrical questions in your other thread. Both of you go to bed and leave the electricity alone tonight.
 
Unfortunately not joking. That's why we're here to learn. My idea with the brick was that I thought I recalled hearing if someone was getting electrocuted you can't help by pushing them as you will enter the current so you throw something at them to disconnect them from the source of electric. We have bricks by the pump so a brick it would be. Interested in stopping by to help? :shark: How much more of a mess could I make out of this drain. :)
 
Your should not be in a hurry. The pool can sit for a day without huge repercussions I would expect. If your worried , check your chlorine level now.

Your pool sub panel should be fed from your main breaker panel. I would expect a double breaker at your main panel that is labeled pool. That should be turned off. If you don’t know if that exists or where it is find out. Mine is 100A cause I have a heat pump. With that switched off. All power to the sub panel should be off for you to open the pool sub panel door.

If it’s an outdoor rated panel, it can withstand rain and water but it is not going to withstand say a pressure washer at the gap between the door and box. Hard to tell how hard the water sprayed.


Now. With your uncertainty and inexperience With electrical wiring I would advise you seek professional help in the matter for things electrical.

I assume you fixed the problem with the DE filter?
 
If water intruded that panel you would start tripping breakers. Since you have the power to the panel off (I assume that you turned it off at the main panel? If you didn't, I suggest you go shut if off there.), open up the sub (pool) panel and see if there's any water in it. If there isn't then it's safe to turn the power back on and resume normal operations.

If it has water inside the panel, remove the internal panel that the breakers are protruding through and dry it out with towels (paper or cloth) and maybe a blow dryer on low. Once you have it dry, put the internal panel back and you can return power to the panel and then to the equipment.

Once you cut power at the main panel to inspect/work on the sub panel, it's a good idea to put a piece of tape with a sticky note on the breaker warning not to turn it back on.
 
Melnic said:
Your should not be in a hurry. The pool can sit for a day without huge repercussions I would expect. If your worried , check your chlorine level now.

Your pool sub panel should be fed from your main breaker panel. I would expect a double breaker at your main panel that is labeled pool. That should be turned off. If you don’t know if that exists or where it is find out. Mine is 100A cause I have a heat pump. With that switched off. All power to the sub panel should be off for you to open the pool sub panel door.

If it’s an outdoor rated panel, it can withstand rain and water but it is not going to withstand say a pressure washer at the gap between the door and box. Hard to tell how hard the water sprayed.


Now. With your uncertainty and inexperience With electrical wiring I would advise you seek professional help in the matter for things electrical.

I assume you fixed the problem with the DE filter?
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No we didn't shut the breaker off at the main panel but I do remember them putting in a breaker at the main panel so we will do that.
As for the DE filter, I think we will need to take off the top and turn it 90 degrees and then put it back on. We'll tighten it a bit more this time and I don't think there's anything we need to do with the pressure valve on top, right? I have the handle set so that water goes into the pool, not backwash, now, so I think with that that part will be ok now. thx

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Bama Rambler said:
If water intruded that panel you would start tripping breakers. Since you have the power to the panel off (I assume that you turned it off at the main panel? If you didn't, I suggest you go shut if off there.), open up the sub (pool) panel and see if there's any water in it. If there isn't then it's safe to turn the power back on and resume normal operations.

If it has water inside the panel, remove the internal panel that the breakers are protruding through and dry it out with towels (paper or cloth) and maybe a blow dryer on low. Once you have it dry, put the internal panel back and you can return power to the panel and then to the equipment.

Once you cut power at the main panel to inspect/work on the sub panel, it's a good idea to put a piece of tape with a sticky note on the breaker warning not to turn it back on.
Click to expand...

that sounds like a plan. I'm pretty sure i made sure to mark the pool breakers at the main panel when they put in the pool. i'll check. if it's not marked i guess i'll have to shut off the main breaker to the whole house. It sounds better safe than sorry and that turning it on if there's water in it can't be good. It's sunny AZ and the sun is already starting to hit the box so my initial inclination is that it would dry out on it's own but it may still be good to shut off power and take off the cover. thx much
 

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