Wiring a 2 Speed swimming pool pump

[mas985]

In the US, hot wires are colored Red Black and Blue. In some areas, blue is common for an alternate hot wire. Three hot wires most likely means a 230v 2 speed motor. But the terminal connections I mentioned above I know are correct as I have 2-speed motor with the same labeled terminals.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/po...es-d_1687.html

[CarlD]

Mark is usually pretty good on pumps. I'd go with his assessment. Despite that, 220/230 wiring is usually: Black and Red: Hot, White: Neutral Green: Ground.

[mas985]

Except that neutral (White) is only used on 115v wiring. 230v wiring generally does not have a white wire unless it is mixed with a 115v load.

The only real unknown is which colored wire is the common, high speed and low speed. Most of the time black is chosen as the common and red high speed and blue low speed but it depends on the electrician.

[BigDave]

In Mark's link, Black, Red, and Blue are for 3 phase service - rare in the US outside industrial settings. In 3 phase 120V, you'd measure 208V between any two legs (each phase is 120 degrees apart). Most household service is 120V/240V. The 120V is from one phase to Neutral (the same as ground at the service entrance). The 240V service is also single phase with two 120V hot legs 180 degrees apart. As Mark points out, Neutral is not needed for 240V.

Please hire a licensed electrician with pool experience.

[mas985]

Blue is identified as part of 3-phase but it is also optionally allowed for a third color in split phase wiring. Where I live, blue seems pretty common in household wiring. In fact, when we had our kitchen redone, that is all they used because I think that they wanted to be able to tell the difference between new and old wiring since the old wiring was both red and black (70s house). I asked the electrician about it and he said that the code now allows them to use blue for household wiring.

For a 230v 2 speed motor, there are three hot wires to contend with so to tell them apart, you really need three colors. My pump motor is also wired with three colors; red, black and blue.

[PoolDoc]

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