GFCI conumdrum

[Mister Byrnzoil]

We have a lovely little 'water feature' (WF) it has a waterfall and a pump of course... the GFCI outlet near the WF started tripping, so I ran an extension cord from a regular outlet to keep the pump going to keep the little fishies alive.

Anyway I figgered that the GFCI was almost 4 years old, and they get a touchy when they get old. So I replaced it with a new 15amp outdoor GFCI. Plugged the pump in and it ran fine... for about 6 hrs then it tripped again... now I cant reset the new GFCI with the pump plugged it.

So we are back to the extension cord situation... and I don't like it one bit.

the pump is an Aquascape 2" Stainless steel pump 115V 280watt and it runs gr8 (when plugged into a non-GFCI outlet)

Since the fish are still alive I assume the pump isn't leaking volts... any insight would be appreciated.

[WVOtoGO]

Is there anything else in line with/on that circuit?
Or, is it a straight line from the box to that GFI plug that the pump is plugged into?

When our previous house was built, the electrician ran from the box to the two upstairs bath GFI plugs. Then, for some reason I didn’t comprehend, he went downstream of the plugs to wall outlets in the master suit and upstairs office area. Every now and then our master bedroom TV would be dead, and I’d have to go reset the outlet in our kids bathroom clear across the second floor.
We also found out that he ran downstream of a GFI in our garage to the plugs outside the house. So much for Christmas lights and electric WeedEaters.

Needless to say, we checked into all that when we had this house built.

[Mister Byrnzoil]

Originally Posted by WVOtoGO

Is there anything else in line with/on that circuit?
Or, is it a straight line from the box to that GFI plug that the pump is plugged into?

Excellent question, thanx. We just went out w/ flashlight in hand to do some checking... I'm pretty sure that its the only thing on the circuit.

But we just had the bright idea to plug the extension cord into another GFCI on an entirely different circuit... Sooooo, if the pump is still runnin tomorrow morning, then I'll start looking at the romex run to the original GFCI, if the pump is not running tomorrow morning, I'll assume the pump is somehow compromised electrically and get another one.. $250

Any thoughts on this so-called 'logic'?

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by Mister Byrnzoil

Since the fish are still alive I assume the pump isn't leaking volts... any insight would be appreciated.

I don't think that the fish remaining alive necessarily guarantees that there is no current leakage taking place in the pump.

The GFCI is checking to see that all (or very nearly all) of the current coming in on the hot line is returning through the neutral line. If the difference is too great (5 mA? I'm not sure), then it trips.

If your pump is a three-wire, grounded device, then current returning through the pump's ground wire would trip the GFCI just as nicely as would current returning to ground by way of the pond and fishies. That is to say, you could trip the GFCI with current leakage that was taking place entirely within the pump.

[t walgamuth]

The GFI may need to be put in the panel with a GFI breaker and run a wire directly there with no outlet outside and no cord.

The GFI outlets are notoriously easy to trip.

Tom W

[Mister Byrnzoil]

pump has been runnin 24 hrs on the extension cord+alt. gfi outlet... guess I'll put a gfi circuit breaker in and normal outlet @ the pump and see if its a moisture problem... thanks for the help, you guys rock.

[Mistel]

Originally Posted by WVOtoGO

Is there anything else in line with/on that circuit?
Or, is it a straight line from the box to that GFI plug that the pump is plugged into?

When our previous house was built, the electrician ran from the box to the two upstairs bath GFI plugs. Then, for some reason I didn’t comprehend, he went downstream of the plugs to wall outlets in the master suit and upstairs office area. Every now and then our master bedroom TV would be dead, and I’d have to go reset the outlet in our kids bathroom clear across the second floor.
We also found out that he ran downstream of a GFI in our garage to the plugs outside the house. So much for Christmas lights and electric WeedEaters.

Needless to say, we checked into all that when we had this house built.

You can run plugs and lights off (out) of a gfci to another room so that those plugs are then protected by the gfci. You just have to know that it is wired that way so if the gfci trips, you know to reset the gfci, rather than looking at the fuse box to find the problem.

[sunedog]

Originally Posted by Mistel

You can run plugs and lights off (out) of a gfci to another room so that those plugs are then protected by the gfci. You just have to know that it is wired that way so if the gfci trips, you know to reset the gfci, rather than looking at the fuse box to find the problem.

But you can't put a three way switch downstream of a GFCI.