Pool Light will not stay on

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Zomalaja

Member
Joined
May 27, 2016
Messages
17
Reaction score
8
I redid my pool in 1993, including a new pool light. I used brass conduit from the light niche to a junction box and it is fed by a 20A GFI breaker, Siemens QF120, type QPF. It gets very low usage but several months ago the lamp burned out. I pulled the unit out, replaced the lamp and reinstalled. Was fine for a month or so then started shutting off, at first every hour or so, then more and more often. Took the entire unit out and noticed that the cord seal was brittle and cracked but no moisture was inside the lamp assembly. Even though the seal is only protecting an area that is completely filled with potting resin, I dug out the old rubber, and replaced it with special silicone designed for pools. Made no difference. I bought a brand new light assembly and installed that, same thing. Yesterday I replaced the breaker with a new one but still, after 10-15 minutes, it trips. There are absolutely no nicks, cuts etc in the cord, the end was sealed before pulling the cord to the J-Box and a foot or two was removed anyway. Any ideas would be appreciated. I was so sure that it was the breaker. . .
 
Could be a fault in the line from the junction box to the breaker.
Try leaving it disconnected in the junction box and turning it on. See if it still trips.
 
Could be a fault in the line from the junction box to the breaker.
Try leaving it disconnected in the junction box and turning it on. See if it still trips.

There are no connections in the Junction Box-I deliberately avoided cutting the cable. The box is connected to the panel with metallic flex and there is a separate ground from the panel to the Junction Box.
 
There are no connections in the Junction Box-I deliberately avoided cutting the cable. The box is connected to the panel with metallic flex and there is a separate ground from the panel to the Junction Box.

Then where is the connection for the new light you installed?
 
Sorry, apparently there are dumb questions. And :welcome:

If you are saying that you asked a dumb question, I'd say no problem.

If you are saying that I asked a dumb question, I'd say please try helping instead of insulting.
 
If you are saying that you asked a dumb question, I'd say no problem.

If you are saying that I asked a dumb question, I'd say please try helping instead of insulting.

The dumb question was mine.So please don't be insulted.:beer:
 
Then where is the connection for the new light you installed?

The light came with a 50 foot 16/3 water resistant jacketed cable. The brass conduit goes from the light niche in the pool to a brass box approximately 3 feet above the pool water level. From there a piece of metallic flex (Liquitite?) goes to the main panel. All the connections are inside that panel. A #14 ground wire goes from ground in the panel through the Brass Box, where it is grounded and then to the brass ring in the light niche which has a connection for a ground wire. In addition, the #10 or 12 screw that holds the light in electrically connects the casing of the lamp to the brass ring. The light is a Hayward SP0582SL50 Astrolight 300W 120V with 50ft Cord. See it here.
The Junction Box is like a Hayward SP0680 but is solid brass instead of plastic as is currently made.

I don't know if you want all the details but:
The light is controlled by a switch in the house, the hot leg of the switch connects to the breaker, the switch return to the light hot wire, the light neutral to the neutral bar and the light and the Junction Box/Conduit/Mounting Ring ground to the ground bar.
 
So far you've probably spent a lot of money unnecessarily.

The process of elimination begins with the switch, and if it is not a commercial grade you should replace it. With the breaker off remove the switch and wirenut the two conductors together, turn the breaker back on and if the problem persists, turn the breaker back off, leave the switch conductors connected.

At the service panel disconnect the conductor supplying the switch leg and connect the conductor going to the fixture too the breaker, and turn the breaker back on.

If the problem persists then there is a fault of some origin in the wiring to the fixture.

The benefit of Installing a smart GFCI in the brass pool box would effectively separated the conductors into two definable sections.

Do you have a VOM or a clamp-on current meter or a megger?
 
Somewhere in the system your leaving a transformer out. All the pools I have worked on including my own have a 120 to 12 volt transformer to drop the voltage to a safe level since it's in the water. It's possible the transformer is internally shorted and that is driving the breaker nuts.
 
So this setup consist of a breaker box/new gfic breaker , on/off switch, niche and new lamp with factory cord whip ran back to the panel via conduit.
Must be a bad switch or a bad new breaker or bad new lamp.

What happens when you temporarily wire this lamp to a different breaker?

This will sort out the breaker from the lamp. Also try this with and without the switch bypassed to eliminate that as a potential problem.

I once had a water heater that would trip a gfic breaker on ground fault not overload but would run just fine on a non-gfic outlet.
 
Speedbump - there is no transformer.

As I mentioned earlier "The light is a Hayward SP0582SL50 Astrolight 300W 120V with 50ft Cord."
As far as I know, LED based pool lights have a 120/240 to 12V transformer, and some Incandescent/Halogen etc lights have a low voltage option.

See the light here at manufacturers website.
 
Last edited:
So far you've probably spent a lot of money unnecessarily.

The process of elimination begins with the switch, and if it is not a commercial grade you should replace it. With the breaker off remove the switch and wirenut the two conductors together, turn the breaker back on and if the problem persists, turn the breaker back off, leave the switch conductors connected.

At the service panel disconnect the conductor supplying the switch leg and connect the conductor going to the fixture too the breaker, and turn the breaker back on.

If the problem persists then there is a fault of some origin in the wiring to the fixture.

The benefit of Installing a smart GFCI in the brass pool box would effectively separated the conductors into two definable sections.

Do you have a VOM or a clamp-on current meter or a megger?

I have already bypassed the switch as well as the switch wiring, no difference.

I have no idea what is meant by "The benefit of Installing a smart GFCI in the brass pool box." I have a GFI pass-thru device meant for a std box, there is no way it could be properly installed in the pool junction box, it is more like a small pull box.

The lamp is 300W, why would I need a "commercial" switch ? The switches I have have switched every light in my home for years and years including the old pool light which was 300W as well as a back yard light which is 3x150 Watt.

I have a Digital VOM, a clamp-on amp meter and an unfortunately dead Simpson 260 that Simpson could not repair.

I am getting suspicious of the new breaker I bought, thinking that just by coincidence, I got a bad one. Tomorrow I plan to pull the light out completely, put a grounded plug on the cord, submerse it in a drum of water and plug it into a known good GFI outlet in my garage or kitchen.
 
When in the process of elimination you have determined that the fault lies between the breaker and the fixture, shut the breaker off, open the pool box and cut the power cord, stripping and separating the conductors leaving them in free space.

Turn the breaker back on.

Another question; the liquid-tite has a wrapped ground conductor.

It this ground conductor properly bonded to the ground terminals, at both ends?
 
So at the breaker box you could bypass the switch leg and prove you haven't got a problem there.

Done that - bypassed the switch and then bypassed the switch and switch wiring. Tomorrow will tell more, planning on pulling the light out and trying elsewhere - damn pool is NOT warm at all.....
 
Thanks.

It was just a note.

Some of these pull bxs allow for a branch, where by the power is routed thru the GFI.

The downside is that the smart GFI has to be reset for each lighted period, or it is used as the switch, odd but within the imagined.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top