Pool Pump Motor Not Starting

Hi All,

I have a 20k gallon inground plaster/gunnite pool. I have a very old Compool LX-10 service panel that stopped working a few days ago. No LEDs or lights were on in the panel, and the pool pump wouldn't run.

I checked the voltage at the main breaker in the house and at the pool service panel and it checked out at 115 volts. I checked the wires going into the transformer and they registered 115v as well. However, the transformer wasn't producing current into the panel.

As a stop-gap to keep my pool running while I searched for the hard-to-find part, I wired my pump directly to the 115v wires coming in to the pool area. The only way to turn my pool on or off was with the breaker switch in my house. This worked for a couple of days but now the pump won't turn on at all. I've verified that the pump is getting electricity. Is there some kind of breaker or fuse in the pump?

My pump is a Flotec 1.5 HP from Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Flotec-1-...1501/100058897) that I bought earlier this year.

Thoughts, ideas, criticisms? I hope I didn't break anything serious.

Mark

As I have often had to note this season, pools and electricity mix in fatal ways, if you don't do it right.

Pump motors often have an internal overload, but it tends to be an auto-reset device. To test voltage at the pump, you have to verify BOTH that it has the correct voltage when off, AND that it maintains the correct voltage when running.

If you have a long wiring run to the pump, and stepped up the pump size (amps) you may have created a low voltage situation where the pump 'has' 115V but has to run on 100V once it's actually turned on. This can kill a motor. Usually, the internal overheat will protect it, but if it cycles enough times, they tend to fry and die.

Often when this happens there will be some odor at the motor, and some discoloration of the paint.