Pentair Pool Light Problems

[ksquared]

Both lights aren't working. The pool light had water inside the housing. I don't know if the spa light can work when the pool light isn't on, but AFAIK the spa light doesn't work either.

I'll have to open the transformer box and see what it looks like.

I appreciate all the help.

 

[ksquared]

A couple more observations.

Out of the smaller conduit, yellow line, the wiring is red, white, and green.
Out of the larger conduit, red line, the wiring is black, white, and green. There is also a very large grounding wire with that conduit.

Once again, but for the black sheathing, I'd feel fairly confident trying to figure it out.

One other detail, am I correct, once water gets into the light housing those LEDs are wrecked?

Thanks again.

 

[JamesW]

Pull on the cords to see if the other side moves.

At 18 years old, probably time to replace the lights.

 

[1poolman1]

OK, thanks for that Owner's Manual! It looks like it has some good information in it.

For the pool light though, is the opinion to try to get a new 602152 light? It seems the reputation for these old lights are very poor.

Am I correct too, if you're replacing the entire assembly the water level should be below the light? Otherwise I'd be thinking the conduit is ending up filled with water.

Conduit is always filled with water. Water also surrounds the fixture to keep it cool. As long as a light can be reached from the deck, it is replaced with the pool full. That's why most techs won't replace a light in Winter, the water is too cold. A spa almost always needs to be drained down so tat it can be worked in as the light is too low in the spa otherwise.

 

[ksquared]

At 18 years old, probably time to replace the lights.

I'm going to go with that thought. But I am still a bit disappointed (LOL).

The progress today, I've determined that the spa light, which is about 15 feet away, is in the large (red line) conduit! Yes, you definitely want to make it easy to pull through for that one.
The pool light, in the deep end, about 50 feet or so away, is in the small (orange line) conduit! Yes, 50 feet of nightmare trying to pull a huge wire through a small conduit. Leaving me with the other thought, why not use the same size conduit for both? Of course, that would have cost $1.82 more. But beyond that, I'm wondering, is it possible that the pool light, at 50 feet, came up just those few feet short? And thus as nobody would notice for many years, the worker just spliced onto the cord? Either way, nothing in that small conduit is moving, either from pushing at the light or pulling at the junction box. I'm not really sure how much force can be used for pulling, but at the moment it seems pretty immovable in the conduit.
The last bizarre aspect, the very large external green grounding wire, it's in the large (red line) conduit. The wire in the small (orange line) conduit has no external grounding wire in it, despite there being both a grounding wire and the light cord coming out at the deep end pool light. I'd swear that it is the same wire going from the large (red line) conduit to the deep end pool light. I keep thinking that there must be a way to test the wire, but I also noticed for the spa light, there are two green grounding wires, I guess one in, one out, but to me both of them look much smaller than the green one at the junction box.

 

[JamesW]

Maybe the lights were originally 120 volts.

120 volt lights require a supplemental #8 ground wire.

Low voltage (12 volt) lights do not require the #8 ground.

In any case, I would probably disconnect the wires and pull the cords through with 2 lines of braided nylon mason string so that you can pull through the new lights.

I would probably cut the wire at the light and pull through at the junction box.

But, first, verify that you can actually pull on the cord and see movement at the light cord.

Then, you can examine the cords.

 

[ksquared]

Maybe the lights were originally 120 volts.

120 volt lights require a supplemental #8 ground wire.

Low voltage (12 volt) lights do not require the #8 ground.

That is interesting. These are the originals, it shows they were put in in 2007, but maybe whoever was doing the electrical just went with as if it was going to be 120V.

I'll work on the wire pulling tomorrow. I'd be willing to even run the larger size conduit out and over to the light and abandon this small conduit, maybe as 12V it could be done.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JamesW]

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[ksquared]

It seems to be pretty impossible to pull the old cord out. I'm wondering if the small conduit is even a code violation? I'd like to have the conduit equal in size to the one to the pool spa.

I have researched and there have been a few people who've replaced the pool light conduit, but I'm not sure about the connection at the pool light. I'll be trying to dig it out further today and get a photo. I guess the plan would be to cut the original conduit if it extends far enough out and just start working back to the junction box at the house which is 50' away.

I'm going to be disappointed if I'm needing to call a pool repair person for this, but does anybody have a guess about how much it would cost?

As an edited update: There's a second junction box! Exactly in the opposite direction of what anybody would have thought would be logical.

So here's the question: Can I pull the 100' foot cord that I bought because the distance was longer than 50', up to this second junction box, cut that cord (tragic IMHO), and then use the rest of the new cord, in a new larger conduit back to the original junction box? Or is it somewhat a moot point if I can just pull the new cord through the original conduit from the second junction box to the first junction box? Now that both cords won't be fastened down in the second junction box of course. But is that small conduit up to code? It sure seems small for the size of the wire, but the wire will be pulling very few watts so that might also be a factor.

Also, as another thought, and from my previous experiences with code relating to PV panels, is there a problem with the grounding since there's two junction boxes, and technically the ground wire from the light is #8 to the second junction box, but the wire back to the first box is much smaller, maybe #12? Maybe that's another moot point though, since technically 12V doesn't need a grounding wire anyway?

Thanks.