Skimmer Voltage/ground Leak, new pump? Vertex IN-80/100

[craigwmiller]

Okay, time to stop testing and time for bed, but here's what I've found:


From outlets around the tank (far from the panel) the potential between Neutral & Ground is 0.0 -> 0.1 (sometimes, but it just bounces there for an instant so if you blink you'd think it was always 0.0VAC). But on some other circuits (mainly in the basement, close to the panel) the Neutral/Ground potential is up closer to 0.5VAC.

I found two outlets in the house are wired wrong (hot and neutral are reversed). They each only have very minor loads on them. Shutting down these two bad circuits (and their loads) didn't remove the 0.5VAC potential.


Another 2 outlets in the garage (single garage circuit) don't work at all - but their immediate upstream outlet works, so I'm thinking a loose connection inside either the last working or the first non-working outlet... I will check out the garage properly tomorrow when it's light out.


I have not tested quite all the outlets in the house yet - family sleeping, etc... there very likely may be another outlet with a load on it that is wired backwards feeding current incorrectly -- or heck, possibly feeding return current down the ground.


Never a dull moment

Craig

[craigwmiller]

Okay well I fixed the badly wired outlets, and the odd voltage potentials are cleared up - glad nothing bad happened from those.

My skimmer is still still causing an issue though, so after all of the troubleshooting not being able to find a specific problem somewhere else it must be the skimmer.

Last test, before I re-post a request for a pump to try/buy

I unplugged everything inside the water and then tested conductivity between the water and the plug pins, here's what I found:

Pump, 2x Heaters, ZEOvit pump:
Ground or Neutral or Hot (from cord) -vs- sump water... Infinite Ohms (perfect)

Skimmer:
Ground -vs- sump water... 20K Ohms
Neutral -vs- sump water... 15M Ohms
Hot -vs- sump water... 15M Ohms


15M Ohms is high, sure, but there is conductivity there. 20K is very low, considering there should be no conductivity where I was measuring.


I should have done some of this specific conduction testing earlier, but first time troubleshooting something this odd there are so many things to try.


At least I resolved the Hot/Neutral mixup on those two outlets!!!!!


Now, to replace the skimmer pump.


Thanks!
Craig

[Baldy]

How old is your house/electrical? I don't see how you could have any voltage across the neutral and ground at all unless either your picking up inductive voltage from another wire or the neutral isn't properly.bonded in your panel. If your comfortable opening it up, check the jumper/bus bar/screw that bonds the neutral bar in your panel to ground as well. Just another idea.