Intermatic Pool Timer Wiring

[sjeffers01]

The answer to your question about the cable it is a three wire (green, white, black is ground) with a three pronged plug 15A 125V. It isn't an extension cord. I bought one cable and one plug. It plugs into the outlet and has to be connected to the Intermatic Timer to run the pump. If the GFCI receptacle has one of those reset switches correct and it was used for another pool pump. The flexible cable is 12 gauge. It is inside because the 12 g cable has a three prong plug at the end of it to run the timer and the pump. The cable is less than five feet long. An electrician installed the plug to run another pool pump for a 30+ long above ground pool. The person who owned the pool before me had a cable with a plug that provided the electricity to the timer. The pool is a Legacy Laguna soft side portable above ground pool 13w x 21L x 48D. I do understand what can happen if wired incorrectly and how dangerous it is. I won't plug it in until it is wired correctly and someone else checks it if you don't think I've done it right .

[PoolDoc]

OK. pictures, pictures, pictures.

I think I have an idea what needs to be done, but it will require some changes, and I won't know till I see the pictures requested. But, the info you provided added a question:

+ ? Has the circuit you have ever been used on this pump?
+ ? If not, what are the listed run amps on the motor AND the listed run amps on the previous motor? (One way to answer is simply to include large pictures of both labels.)
+ ? On the 3-wire cable, you say "black is ground". Why is that?
(Blue is NOT a standard color, but is usually a power wire. However the B-W-G colors in a mfg'd cable ARE standard, with black=line (120V), white=common, and green=ground. That is what SHOULD be the case. It is dangerous to leave wiring in another state, because workers or homeowners at a later date are likely to assume that the standard will prevail.)

I just checked your picture again; I can see the black wire now that I look for it. Why in the world would you connect black to ground?

I'm sorry, but you are scaring me a lot with stuff like that. Right now, I'm very reluctant to give you instructions, lest it lead to someone being injured or killed. I have *personally* been nearly killed, twice, by bad do-it-yourself wiring on pools, and twice more (in years past, when I worked a plumber) by fly-by-night electricians or maintenance men cutting corners. One of those occasions was the origin of my hatred of conduit grounding! I also -- myself -- nearly killed a lifeguard, by not thinking through what could go wrong with a vacuum cart I made, even though that cart was 'code-compliant'.

Every body thinks it won't happen to them: I know better.

Is it totally out of the question to hire an electrician?

[sjeffers01]

I am not sure if my reply to this thread went through. Please disregard if you have. I do know that green is always ground. I thought it was strange. At least I made sure the black ground is connected to the green ground in the timer. The three prong plug had a hole label for each color. I must of misread it. I will fix it. I sent the pictures.

[sjeffers01]

I forgot to tell you that the GFCI receptacle has not been used for this pump. It was used for a pump I had over thirty years ago. I fixed the plug cable and made sure green is ground from end to end.

[sjeffers01]

I found some instructions for wiring the timer and it works. I attached a picture of it wired correctly but hadn't set the tripper pins. The timer keeps turning off and turning on for a minute or five minutes, or 15 to twenty minutes before I set the tripper pins. After I set the tripper pins the timer still turns off and on like before. Does anyone have any idea why and how to fix it. Thank you. I attached some photos of the timer and my pool system.

[PoolDoc]

The timer should not toggle without trippers in place. If it's doing so, the timer mechanism must be bad. The silver handle, just above the white wire in the photo, is the manual trip. Try toggling it back and forth -- it should turn the pump on, and then off, but should not be loose or floppy.

If necessary, you should be able to take this model:

Intermatic-T104-208-277-Volt-Mechanical-Switch

and swap the guts out, without having to rewire the box.

If you want a whole new timer, you'll need one like this, with an outdoor case:

INTERMATIC-T104P3-TIMER-INDOOR-OUTDOOR

[sjeffers01]

If I leave the timer the way it is, will it damage the pump? If not, should I keep the pump if it doesn’t cost twice as much or more for electricity to run and fix or replace the timer? I ran my old Intex pump 24 hours a day seven days a week during the summer and I paid around $10 to $15 more a month for electricity. My pool only holds 8190 gallons and the GPM is 17.07, I have a total of 10 feet or less of total return piping. The single speed pump rate is 90 GPM. The Pentair Clean and Clear filter Plus CCP-240 flow rate is 90 GPM and turnover capacity for eight hours is 43,200 gallons. My pool would turn over 42 times per eight-hour cycle. It is my understanding that a pump that exceeds the recommended turnover rate still needs to run a minimum of five to eight hours a day to properly circulate and clean the water. I don’t know why the previous owner bought an in-ground pool pump and filter for the size of this pool and sell everything for $300 ($250 + $50 to deliver.) The same used pump and filter is for sale on Ebay for over $600 without the pool. If I sell the pump and filter, I could buy another pump and filter for my size pool and could end up with more money than I paid for the pool. I still prefer to keep what I have if the cost of electricity this year is less than what I originally paid for the pool. Your opinion is appreciated.