Bonded or Busted: Pool Motor Electrical Safety

Electricity and water don’t forgive small mistakes. We walk through the real hazards hiding at the equipment pad and show how two simple safeguards—proper bonding and a working GFCI—stop shocks, fires, and scary surprises before they start. From tracing that lone copper wire to pressing the GFCI test button, we share the steps pros use daily and the stories that make those habits stick.

You’ll hear why a missing bonding lug can turn a wet pad into a danger zone, how stray voltage creates that telltale tingling in the water, and where older deck hardware can still bite. We break down what GFCI protection actually does in milliseconds, how to test it, and when to call an electrician. We also unpack rare but real failure chains—bad capacitors, overheating motors, and tired breakers—that can end in a burned-up pump, plus the quick checks that break that chain long before it gets hot.

• why bonding prevents stray voltage and shocks
• where to find the bonding lug and wire
• how wet pads and old deck plates add risk
• what a GFCI does and how to test it
• rare fire chains from capacitor and breaker failure
• warning signs of overheating motors
• dry-running pumps, boiling water, and burn risks
• safe handling and discharge of capacitors
• the minimal safety checklist for every service call

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Topic Overview
• 2:33 Coaching Program Invitation
• 2:44 Why Pump Bonding Matters
• 5:05 Real-World Shock And Stray Voltage
• 7:04 Older Installations And Deck Hazards
• 7:33 GFCI As First Line Of Defense
• 9:53 Rare Fire Cases And Triple Failures
• 11:02 Testing GFCI And When To Call Pros
• 12:11 Overheating Motors And Burn Risks
• 13:52 Dry-Running Pumps And Boiling Water
• 15:50 Capacitors: Pops, Explosions, And Discharge
• 17:48 Key Safety Takeaways And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

Hey, welcome to the Pool Bay Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about pool pump safety. I'll go over things like bonding and some other typical hazards around the pool pump they may run into. It's a pretty safe part of the equipment, but there can be some hazards associated with the pool pump itself. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. Probably the number one thing you're going to find is improper bonding of the pool pump. Specifically, there is a bonding lug on the motor itself. A lot of times someone will install the new motor or they'll change out the pump, but they won't reconnect the bonding wire. Sometimes the bonding wire gets cut somehow. It happens around the pool area. Not exactly sure sometimes how that happens. Sometimes they snap too, and this would cause a bit of a problem. Mainly is hazardous when the pool and equipment are pretty close together within 20 or 30 feet of each other. And typically you're going to have a problem with stray electrical currents. So basically, the bonding of the pump is to connect all the metal components of the system together. The pump, the heater, any hand rail rails, these are all continuous electrical. This is a continuous electrical network, and this present prevents voltage and potential shocking. You know, if you don't if you don't have it bonded correctly, you can actually feel the electrical current in the pool sometimes, but more or less you can get shocked also by touching the metal part of equipment that's not bonded correctly. Not something that is super common, but it does happen with unbonded equipment, and that's why it's important to have everything bonded. Typically, when they build it, the bonding grid is underground. You don't see it, and it's usually connected. Of course, the pump's connected to the heater, other let other metal equipment is connected together to that, and then it goes underground, and then it's connected usually somewhere by the pool structure itself. You can create a secondary bonding, it can be done, and you can look it up and kind of figure that out. But basically, when you see the pool pump in the equipment area, there should be a bonding lug, and then you'll see the copper bonding wire going to the pool pump, connecting to the heater, and then going somewhere underground, and you could pretty much be you can pretty much rest assured that that is a properly bonded pool pump and it's not going to cause any problems. I did know of a person in my church who actually was doing some work on his own equipment, and the pump was unbonded, and there was a puddle of water by the equipment, and he was actually standing in it with tennis shoes, and when he touched the equipment, he actually got a big enough jolt that actually knocked him down, and he got injured from the shock of that. And so it can happen, you know, with water around there, touching something unbonded, there's potential for a pretty good, you know, jolt of electricity that could actually knock you down. I think what happens he pulled back really fast, and that made him fall over and get hurt and um get shocked pretty badly. So that can happen. So don't think that it being on the bonded, in most cases, you'll just get like a pins and needle sensation when you touch something that's not bonded. In the pool itself, I did mention you can actually feel the electricity in there. Someone was at the pool show not too long ago. They had this device, mainly they would use it in ports where there's boats docked there, and if you're swimming in that area, you would know if there's stray voltage. I should look up the device, but it was pretty cool. You can actually put it in the pool and you can see if there's any electrical current inside the water itself. You may feel some, you know, a little bit of tingling in the pool, or when you touch the railing, you know, you may feel a little get a little bit of a electrical buzz there, and or a small shock stepping on the deck. What's funny is back in the day you may have a pool like this still on your route, but a lot of times they would put the all the electrical connectors to the pool light on the deck underneath this metal plate, and probably not the best setup for a pool area. But if you are servicing an older pool and you do see like this little metal circle plate, it's probably the size of a drain, basically, but it's a solid metal piece. Underneath there is the components for the the pool light, and sometimes when the deck is wet, people are walking on it, wet feet, they'll step on that and they'll actually get a shock from that. I've heard of that happening as well. So there can't be stray voltage everywhere, so just make sure that especially the pump is pump and motor are bonded, so that if you are working on it and you are working around it with water, that you won't get shocked. Normally, if it's bonded, you can touch it and not worry about it. You can walk back there when it's raining, and it's not going to cause any kind of problems. The other another thing would be the GFCI. Now, most modern pools, if not all of them, now have a GFCI that's connected. It's it's going to allow the power to be cut immediately when there's a problem with the pump itself within milliseconds. And you probably had this happen in your kitchen, and you have you probably have this in your bathroom. So if you're like, if you're I'm just gonna give you like a movie type worst case scenario, if you're in your bathroom and your your sink is full of water for whatever reason, and you're using a hairdryer, and you drop it into the sink and you're holding on to it, the GFCI will kill the power to that entire circuit before you have a lethal well, potentially it's supposed to happen. I wouldn't try this or test it, before you have a lethal uh jolt and it is continuously coming through because nothing is turning off the circuit. So the GFCI, as you can imagine, with that scenario, for the pool pump, if there is an electrical short or problem with it, the GFCI is the first line of defense for that system not having a continuous kind of open circuit giving it power when there is a problem with it that could potentially cause a fire. Now I've only had two pumps in the history I've been doing pool service that have actually caught on fire and burned up. I wasn't there when it happened, but I have told the story before of one of them where the neighbor saw this the fire, the the the brush around the pool could catch on fire, and he called the fire department. And the failure there was the fact that the motor got really hot, it was overheating. The initial failure would be the capacitor that would cut off the power to the motor that did not work, and so the motor kept getting power, and then the GFCI was faulty, so it wasn't tripping, and it went all the way to the breaker of the house, which when it got the overcurrent, the breaker did not trip because it was a really old breaker system, and the breakers were pretty much worn out, they were not effective, and it just got hotter and hotter, and then the motor caught on fire basically and burned it, burned up pretty badly. Also burned the filter and it burned the automated system that was attached to it. The fire department put it out, luckily. The other time I saw a motor catch on fire, or after the fact, I don't know exactly what happened to it, but I think it also had a failure. It was a fairly new motor as well, pump and motor. So there was some kind of again, triple failure, and that can happen, but it's something that's pretty rare. So the GFCI is there so that it'll cut the power immediately if there's a problem with the pump overheating or causing a surge of electricity, and that's the first line of defense by the equipment. So it should have an operating GFCI. You can test them, you know, there's a test button, and if you're testing it, it doesn't reset. I would, of course, have an electrician right away go out there, and usually that's tied into the pool lights as well, so it can become a dangerous situation if the GFCI is not working at the equipment pad, and I would have an electrician again be out there right away to check that and to get the GFCI replaced so that you don't have any kind of catastrophic failure. And like anything, these motors do go bad. You know, they may have failure of the insulate insulation, not installation, insulation. The wiring, of course, can arch as they get older. And without the GFCI, it's a dangerous situation that eventually could lead to a fire. Like I mentioned, you know, the current could also energize the the bonding grid to a point where there's a danger. And of course, if you go back there and it's wet, and there's a major electrical problem with the current arching that could cause a potential dangerous shock to you. So those are two things that I think always need to be checked and working at the equipment pad, the GFCI, make sure that's working, and the bonding is also important at the equipment area. In most cases, you'll never have a problem with the electricity or getting shocked if everything is working correctly. But these two instances where there have been fires at my accounts should be a reminder that this potentially can happen, and you've probably had something similar happen at your service accounts. Normally, if everything's working, the GFCI will cut power to the pump and everything will just stop working, basically. Pool lights also, if there's water in the light, it'll kill the GFCI. Usually it'll trip it and that'll turn the pool light off as well. A couple hazards that you don't really think about too much, and this usually happens on the older pumps, the older single speed pumps, is that when it is getting ready to burn out, or when you're having when it's having some issues, maybe the bearings are wearing out, that pump, the pump motor part gets actually extremely hot to the touch. And I've heard of people burning themselves on it. Definitely, you know, there's been people that have been injured from it getting super hot, so that does happen. And I've personally felt some that have been extremely hot, you know, thermal overload or the windings are overheating, the metal shell can be extremely hot. So just be aware of that, also. That you don't want to be just randomly touching the back of the motor, especially if you notice that the motor is getting really hot, and if you notice that the pump is making weird noises or the motor is making weird noises, be aware that can be hot to the touch. Here's another caution as well, and this has happened to me out there. Sometimes the water level gets low in the pool and the pump is running dry. So you'll get to the you get to the service account, you'll go back there. For some reason, this has happened to me a couple times, and both have been Penta Whisperflow pumps. So there's no correlation there, it's just that that's the two times this has happened. So I get back there, the pump's been running dry for quite a while, and the system has been on for a few hours. I'll go to take the pump lid off to prime it. So I turn the system off, I'll hit the lid to get it off, and really, really hot boiling water will come gushing up over the top of the lid. Now, fortunately, and this is something that I really recommend you do as well. I wear these nitro gloves that I get on Amazon. They're really great for when you're doing repairs and working around chemicals, but they also will prevent you from being scorched and burned. In this instance, I was wearing my gloves so I didn't get burned, but this water actually kind of boiled out and came over the top of the pump when I got the lid out, lit off because it was just super hot in there. So there is a lot of heat generated by the pump and motor, and if there's no water being pulled, the water inside the pump itself can get super hot. Now, another thing that happened at these pumps is when I took the pump basket out, it was really tiny, like a little shrunken head that you see in you know in the cannibals, you know, they'll shrink heads down and warm around their neck. This pump pot, this pump basket looked just like that. It was totally shrunken and melted from the heat. So be aware that is a danger when the pump overheats if it's running dry. When you're removing that pump lid, be aware that really boiling hot water can come out of that and burn your hands. So, again, not something that's super common, but something that can happen out there. Everything I'm telling you here has happened to me personally, so it could happen to you as well. And I'm sure not many of you had this happen to you, but you can actually have a capacitor explode or pop. A star capacitor can do that, or a run capacitor. I've had this happen before to me. I think the worst one was where I had this happen where the pool pump was up against a brick wall, and when I went to go turn on the pump, the capacitor popped, but the noise was so loud because it kind of vibrated off the wall that it hurt my ears, and so this can happen as well, too. So just be aware that a capacitor, if there is a surge, can actually pop and explode, and this can also happen when you're going to replace it because the capacitor does store energy, so you want to be careful when you're replacing these, also it can give you a pretty good shock, too. I haven't had this happen to me, but I've heard of people having this happen where the capacitor does still have an electrical current there, and so you can discharge capacitor with an insulated screwdriver across the terminals, and you can also they also sell a uh resistor discharge tool that you can also uh use. Just avoid touching the terminals directly, and you know, usually the capacitor doesn't have any power at that point, but sometimes they do have stored power, so just be aware that there is some stored potential electrical power still in the capacitor, even if you have the pool pump off or if you think the capacitor is bad, that can still happen. But yeah, these are all kind of things that can happen around the pump to be aware of that I would consider to be on the dangerous side of things. Pool service is relatively safe, but of course, components can malfunction, and if you don't have the proper safety mechanisms like bonding and a GFCI, it can potentially be a very dangerous situation back there. And of course, these rare instances where things pop and explode do happen as well. I've had a um what is it, run capacitor explode in the back of a pump as well, right in front of the customer when I went to go turn on the pump, he was standing next to me, and I was we were just talking about how how old this equipment was getting, and I went to go turn it on, and it actually popped, and then flame started coming out of the back of the motor, which was pretty cool and a pretty easy sell for me. That yes, you need a new motor at this point. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those on my website, swimming pool learning, swimming poollearning.com on the banner. Click on the podcast icon. That'll take you to a drop down menu of uh 1800 podcasts for you there as well. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at PoolguyCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have you rest of your week and God bless.