Salt Water Pools

[brs]

Ok Guys I need a little help ! Has anyone had trouble with salt water pools having voltage in them? I have 3 Salt water pools on the same line that have anywhere from 3 to 5 volts in them. If you put your hand flat on a wet deck and touch the water you can feel a little sting. It is an urd area and checking with with one lead of my meter in the earth and one end on the secondery neutral of the pad mounted transform I have around 3 to 5 volts on the neutral. We checked in from the underground dip pole all the way to the main feeder for a bad connector etc and have checked the pad mount transformers on the line and tap boxes for bad connecters and such. the line is all in conduit Primary and secondary no loose connections that we have found . Can this be some kind of back feed from the pool pump cause of the salt water? :confused:

[reppy007]

Ok Guys I need a little help ! Has anyone had trouble with salt water pools having voltage in them? I have 3 Salt water pools on the same line that have anywhere from 3 to 5 volts in them. If you put your hand flat on a wet deck and touch the water you can feel a little sting. It is an urd area and checking with with one lead of my meter in the earth and one end on the secondery neutral of the pad mounted transform I have around 3 to 5 volts on the neutral. We checked in from the underground dip pole all the way to the main feeder for a bad connector etc and have checked the pad mount transformers on the line and tap boxes for bad connecters and such. the line is all in conduit Primary and secondary no loose connections that we have found . Can this be some kind of back feed from the pool pump cause of the salt water? :confused:

I would look closely around the pump,the connections and the lugs.Try wiggling them when it gets a little dark,i bet you see a spark.......be safe and dry when doing this.

[bobcat]

see that pump is grounded & also ground at serv box!! we have at times had ongoing problems with tingle voltage at pools & dairy farms and had to install a neutral isolater at our pole where serv takes off. this keeps our neu seperated from cust neu. except when fault occures. bobcat delmarva pwr.

[dogman]

Go to Mike Holt's forum, he has a great video on what you are dealing with. Bob

[reppy007]

brs did you find the culprit on your pool situation?

[burnitup]

Possible bad primary concentrics

[brs]

Well Right now the pool pump has been taken off the house service grounds and the voltage isn't in the pool at this time. I found out the people that put the pool in was kinda a fly by night kind of deal and the pool deck isn't grounded.But The plan is to start looking deeper into it in the morning. I still have 2 or 3 volts on the system neutral from the ground to the ground rod. I'm still kinda stumped but we will find it.. thanks for all your help

[T-Man]

Can you run a temp neutral connection/jumper of #6 cu from the trans or pedestal to the customers neutral connection and see if the stray voltage is still there? That would prove if the secondary neutral is in tact or not.

[dogman]

Go to the pole or urd transformer, and check voltage on the ground wire. One end of the voltmeter on ground wire, other end in the dirt. I bet your voltage will be the same as you are getting at the pool. Bob

[dogman]

I apologize, missed your post that said you already did what I suggested. I think you have to go back to every pole or urd transformer until you don't have any voltage on the ground. The trouble should be between them. Loose connections, staples loose or to close to hardware. Bob

[reppy007]

any progress yet brs? I personally dont think that you will find anything wrong with the utilities equipment...something easy is being overlooked....is all the connections skinned right,Ive seen cases where a connection is made without taking all of the insulation off,look closely to the lugs themselves....good luck.

[UGL]

stray voltage like that is usually caused by open in the return. I had an entire community that was getting shocked by their faucets. We had to replace all the non jacketed primary in the area because the concentric's were shot on the cable.

[reppy007]

stray voltage like that is usually caused by open in the return. I had an entire community that was getting shocked by their faucets. We had to replace all the non jacketed primary in the area because the concentric's were shot on the cable.

thanks UGL,thats a new one on me.

[UGL]

thanks UGL,thats a new one on me.

In a direct bury application the primary cable is used to make a system ground. Earlier cable was non jacketed so the concentric's were exposed to earth and now with jacketed cable the jacket is semi conductive. I belive every ten foot of D.B. cable is the equivalent of one ground round. So if your system neutral is gone you'll stray voltage.

[reppy007]

Hope your not the couple in New York that lived next to the power plant,a story came out today about stray voltage in their New York home,with their dog and horse being effected,finally the couple moved out of their multi-million dollar home ....as expected the power company isnt saying too much......yes an electrical nightmare.

[HIVOLTS]

I had a personal experience with a "shocking pool" of my own. We went so far as to kill the primary feed into my neighborhood and it made no difference. What finnally cured it was as more houses were built and more transformers hung more ground rods were driven and it finally went away.

[reppy007]

I had a personal experience with a "shocking pool" of my own. We went so far as to kill the primary feed into my neighborhood and it made no difference. What finnally cured it was as more houses were built and more transformers hung more ground rods were driven and it finally went away.

How long did the problem exsist before you fixed it?

[brs]

any progress yet brs? I personally dont think that you will find anything wrong with the utilities equipment...something easy is being overlooked....is all the connections skinned right,Ive seen cases where a connection is made without taking all of the insulation off,look closely to the lugs themselves....good luck.


Your right we had no problem! They put the pool pump on a ground rod of it's own! and the voltage went away on our system neutral. They guy that put all 3 pools in did not ground it (the pool) right the each beam of the pool has to be on it's own ground rod and the deck has to be grounded. Each person of the tree pools got a good deal.If you know what I mean. I contacted a guy in town that has installed pools for years and it took him about 3 min to tell me how to see if it was on us !! What a deal !!

[in the bucket]

I had a pool problem that turned out to be bad insulation in a piece of underground wire feeding a post light at a neighbors house. For a pool to be right, every metal item has to be grounded. In-ground pools are a lot of work to wire correctly.