|
Posted by Tim on May 25, 2009, 6:50 pm
Several years ago as a utility employee I ran a service call to a house
where a guy had gotten out of his pool, touched a gate on a chain link
fence, and been electrocuted. We did a lot of looking around because the
call made no sense. What we found was that he had run a single wire from his
pool motor hot to the circuit breaker. At the pump equipment pad, he ran a
short wire from the pump neutral lead to a ground rod. So when the pump came
on, the return was literally the ground. When he touched the chain link gate
near the panel, he was lit up. Terrible.
Make sure all three wires (Hot, neutral and ground) are good. If the spa is
old you really have no idea how the internal wiring is. Is the service wire
run underground or above ground? I have seen wire run uderground fail with
age. If above, is it in conduit, is the insulation good? Is it a dedicated
circuit? Is it powered off a sub-panel or the main panel? There are a lot of
things to look at. First isolate the circuit and make sure the wiring is
all good. Interesting thought about the battery. Disconnect the circuit
completely and see. Is the circuit breaker good? I'd disconnect the hot only
and see what happens (pull the breaker off the panel). Lots to do. I
wouldn't use that spa, but maybe you could invite my ex-wife over?
Tim
> GFI at the main panel or GFI on the plug....?
> You tested it how? With a ground fault circuit tester?
> I would turn it off.......and do some investigation before testing with
> bare ft....
> hummmmm
> any other electrical devices in or near the tub.
> Is your main panel grounded well?
> Is the ground on your circuit in good shape.....
> No neutral and ground mixup?
> Muratic acid is like making a battery? hummmm
> jloomis
>> Hello all, I have a older 120v spa that overnight developed a short.
>> The spa is on a cement slab and if I stand on the cement barefooted, I
>> get a shock like tingling in the fingers. When I turn on the pump, it
>> gets a bit worse. I have a GFCI and tested it with a ground tester and
>> all good. I went one by one and unplugged the heater, the circ pump
>> and then finally the main pump. Still getting a small shock. Any help
>> would be appreciated.
>> The only thing I have done since yesterday is to add muriatic acid to
>> get my TA down. I added about a cup last night, ran the jets for a few
>> and covered it up.
>
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap
> The spa is on a cement slab and if I stand on the cement barefooted, I
> get a shock like tingling in the fingers. When I turn on the pump, it
> gets a bit worse. I have a GFCI and tested it with a ground tester and
> all good. I went one by one and unplugged the heater, the circ pump
> and then finally the main pump. Still getting a small shock. Any help
> would be appreciated.
> The only thing I have done since yesterday is to add muriatic acid to
> get my TA down. I added about a cup last night, ran the jets for a few
> and covered it up.
>