Hit the Lights

[thilbert]

Well somebody had to start a thread here, and I had a nightmare of a repair job. Might as well share it.

Two years ago, early in spring I discovered the light in my pool stopped working. I called a repair guy to come put a new one in (I was hesitant to do it myself as I had never owned a pool before).

Repair Guy comes out with the new light and starts to get down to business. Obviously the first thing he does is disconnect the power to the light and then he unscrews the bezel that holds the light in place.

He starts pulling on the light and it's not budging. Repair Guy scratches his head and said, "It's stuck, dude." To which I reply, "Ya think?"

At any rate, I thought that a little leverage would be in order, so I grabbed my wetsuit (I SCUBA dive) and hop in (the water was... brisk). I proceeded to grab the light, with my feet planted next to the light bezel and pulled... nothing, not a budge. It didn't move a millimeter. I must've tried pulling that thing for 15 minutes and I could not get it to move; it was obviously stuck, just like Repair Guy said.

I hop out and I ask Repair Guy, "How do they run the cable to this thing, man?", to which Repair Guy said, "Through conduit." A brainiac, this one. A different tack was in order. So I ask, "What is the NEC code for running the conduit?" and Repair Guy said, "dunno, dude". He obviously chooses his words carefully.

So here we are, a new light in hand and Repair Guy is clueless as to how to install it. I ask him if I should dig up the ground from the switch to the pool to see if perhaps the conduit was broken or bent, and he says to me "Sure, dude, but I gotta go home. Call us when you get done. Here's my card." Huh?

OooooKay then. I decided that I was going to take care of this problem myself (I should have gone to the library). I grab a pick and start digging a trench following the conduit from the switch to the pool. After digging for 15 or 20 minutes I had a nice trench with easy access to the conduit, but I could not see a problem. No bends, crimps or any other kind of damage. What the heck?!!! So I figure that there is probably a 90 degree bend somewhere underneath the edge of the pool which is causing too much friction, obviously some kind of lubrication was in order. So I go to the garage and get my PVC cutter and stop in the kitchen to get some liquid detergent.

I cut the PVC, added a good squirt of the detergent and let it sit while I drank a beer. After having soaked in soap for a few, I decided that I might try and pull the cable out the other way so I lopped of the light and went to pulling. DANG, it was stuck!!! I pulled and pulled and only managed to get 3 inches, but of course it was getting harder and harder to hold on to, because I used SOAP... dumb, dumb, dumb...

So next, I get an axe handle and tie the cable around it for leverage and go to pull and what happened next is unbelievable... the .5 in. diameter cable snapped sending me a$$ over tea kettle. Ooooops, this is not good, the wife is going to have a cow if I don't fix this thing. Now it's urgent, before it was simply an annoyance. I must fix this thing or I'll never get to work on the pool (or house) again.

Hmm, what to do. I'm sitting there playing with the loose end of the cable, pondering my options (fix it, or rent a hotel room for the night) and I hear a faint, tink. I turn around but nothing is there and the noise stopped. Must've imagined it. So I start toying with loose end again and there's that tink sound again. Ah Ha! I started to really push and pull on the cable and I hear tink, tink, tink and it's coming from under the diving board. Is this redemption?

Off to the garage I go to get a 7/8 in. wrench to unbolt the diving board. First bolt comes off real easy... Uh oh, so I start to work on the other and it's STUCK too. Off to the garage for a hacksaw. I manage to cut almost entirely through it, but my saw blade has had it. Off to the garage to get a cold chisel to finish the job. After a few whacks with the hammer out comes the bolt and the diving board flies up, smacks me in the chin and sinks into the pool, CRAP WEASEL!!! That HURT.

After recovering, I was anxious to see what I could see and peered into the base of the diving board and there it was. A stinking junction box, through which the cable made a 180 degree bend. I managed to get the old cable out, the new light in (instead of the garage, I had to make a trip to Lowes to get a fish tape and some new -- stainless steel -- bolts) and the diving board re-mounted. Whew, problem solved. Well sort of. The light works

A few weeks later:

Keep in mind that this was early spring and I had MASSIVE algae blooms and about 18 trees worth of leaves... and no knowledge of chemicals or pool care (what's a pool vacuum anyway?)

So, instead of the garage, and instead of Lowes, I go to... Leslies. Surely they can help, right?

So off I go. Water sample in hand. Mr. Thilbert, they said, you need one of everything, and may I recommend tri-clor pucks. They all but eliminate the daily drudgery of pool maintenance, doncha know.

At any rate, to make an already unbearably long story short(er), I spent about 6 months (using the Leslies method) and about $600 (light not included) getting the pool to a point that I COULD SEE THE FREAKIN' BOTTOM (honey, let's fill in the pool before I kill something)

That's when I found PoolForum (or as we call it at home, "The Library") and finally got my pool together. It cleaned up nicely, thankyouverymuch, but there was this ugly brown stain all over the liner (yes it's vinyl -- didn't need the calcium after all). Remember when the diving board flew off the base and into the pool? Well apparently a washer or something went with it and disappeared into rust, leaving me to deal with a new flippin problem.

I decided to tackle that one, this year... along with a new pump. Wish me luck.

[rrwcm]

Thanks for sharing your hard luck experience - I thought I was the only poor soul who had these headaches!

[PoolDoc]

Well, thilbert, I've got to print that one out to share with some local pool 'dudes' I know. I think they'll bust a gut!

[thilbert]

Heh,

As I look back on it, I have to laugh, but at the time, I can't tell you how... angry I was.

I've since come to discover that according to NEC, it's a requirement that any electrical to the pool needs to be 18 in. above the water line (I think that number is right), which mine is decidedly NOT. It might be 10 or 12 but certainly not 18.

Another project...

[Poconos]

18" above the water line for electrical? Say What? Phooey...my dyvin board ain't 18" above the waterline. Love to live in a place where nobody gives a rats behind about rules.
Al

[PoolDesignnet]

The "j" box should be 8" above water (min) and anything electric 5' away.

[Hubjeep]

What surrounds the pool? Did you have to dig up a patio?

As I understand there is usually a tether (few feet) of cord inside the wall housing allowing you to bring the light to the surface to replace the bulb, I suppose this is not true in all cases. How old is the pool?

Our light failed when the pool was about three years old. The housing (brass) built into the steel wall (vinyl in-ground) leaked around the conduit… instead of draining the water below the light, digging the bricks up, and installing a new housing we just removed the light and puttied up the wire hole (the light was pretty, but attracted too many bugs).

[waste]

Great story, like Ben I'm going to share it with the boys at work! FWIW, the pool 'dude' should have recognised that the wires comming into the garage junction box weren't the light, but I wouldn't have guessed that the box was in the diving board without an hour or two of searching.

[Kimcoltonterry]

This story made me laugh so hard!! You ARE at the point that you can laugh about it....right...
especially CRAP WEASEL.... now that is just FUNNY!!
Thanks for the laugh as I go out to tackle my light greenish pool <down from a deep DEEP dark green!>

[sock monkey]

We were just in the process of deciding if we should hire someone to replace the light in our pool, or get rid of it now while under construction. I think I just decided!

Why do I need a light anyway, I swim with my eyes closed!

THX for sharing!