Zapped In Water Bin

[chatyak]

Just went to do a water change. Stuck my hand in the rubbermaid brute bin and it felt all tingly and electrical. Reeled my hand back but thought maybe it was my mind... placed my water jug back into the bin to scoop out more and same thing.....

Grabbed the multimeter and tested.... set it to 200V. Black in ground hole.. red in water.

Reading 25 V


7+ year old Danner Mag 9 pump was running.


1) How high is "dangerous"?
2) Toss pump?

Edit: It's a GFCI - every outlet is GFCI individually wired. Tested wiring as well and it's correct

 

[nereefpat]

Have you pressed the test button to manually trip the gfci? It should be tripping with stray current.

I suppose you will have to toss the pump...or stand on your plastic salt bucket when your hands are in there. (Tongue in cheek)

 

[chatyak]

Tested the test/reset button - it shuts off fine when manually pressed.

It wouldn't shut off on its own with the pump running in an empty bin though - because the stray voltage would have no path to ground... or have I lost it? :fun5:

 

[nereefpat]

It definitely should trip when you stick your hand in the water and it shocks you.

 

[chatyak]

Ah I see what you mean - I thought you meant with just the pump running. Well, it wasn't a "shock" like an electric jolt.. it was more of a constant tingly feeling.

Did not trip though. Works fine with a manual test button - and the 3 prong tester shows a correct setup (was setup properly too no worries).

So I guess my question is... is 25V from an old danner mag pump highly dangerous? Should it be tossed?

Or more importantly.... should the readings be near zero for a tank?

I tested it with just the heater and it was 00.01

 

[nereefpat]

Good question. I wouldn't say highly dangerous. I don't think I trust that gfci though. The 3 prong tester probably shows correct wiring whether it's a standard recep or a gfci.

The readings in the tank won't be zero, but shouldn't be more than a couple volts.

Anyone else have an opinion?

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

Is the brute isolated from the rest of the system and the only possible source is the pump? I assume it had salt mix already added but 25 volts is a weird number. If you run a wire from the water and contact house plumbing or some other ground with the other end, does the GFCI throw?

 

[chatyak]

The brute is just a water mixing bin. 100% separate. Each GFCI outlet is unique and not daisy chained - so if it one goes, the others don't shut off. All were wired correctly and tested couple years ago.

The water in the bin had some salt water mix and there were some rocks in there too (stored).

I haven't tried that with house plumbing. Are you saying the red wire from multimeter and the black wire to a water pipe or something?

 

[Desert Sea]

It could be potententialy very dangerous if that pump is 120v. You may only be seeing 25 volts on the meter but if the current is coming from the pump, the potential for the full 120 volts is there. Remove the pump and test the water again to be sure nothing else is the source. If it turns out the pump was the issue, time for a new one.

 

[chatyak]

Only thing in the bin are the pump and heater. Heater was unplugged. Only running item was pump @ Desert Sea

 

[JamesHolt]

It definitely should trip when you stick your hand in the water and it shocks you.

Even if the pump isn't grounded/doesn't use the ground wire?? I am not up to speed on how the GFI works...

 

[chatyak]

GFI works by monitoring the current flow and if it sense a miniscule difference (you being electrocuted and absorbing it) it will trip it.

My question is then - if the multimeter is showing 25V and the hand feels tingly (no shock or "stuck" electrocution feeling)... maybe that doesn't cause it to trip? Anotherwords the current didn't go through me into the ground... it was just "fuzzy" or "tingly" within the water.

Either way - it shouldn't be 25V in a plastic bin with a pump. Something's not right.

 

[JamesHolt]

so if you made a cord up using just the ground and dropped it in the tub, it would most likely trip the GFI..

I believe I would toss the pump.

 

[RWEngineer]

so if you made a cord up using just the ground and dropped it in the tub, it would most likely trip the GFI..

I believe I would toss the pump.

No. There would be no power on the ground. GFCI work by comparring the current on the hot wire with the current on the neutral wire if it is not within 5 mA it trips.

 

[Capsle]

25V is 25V, it's high for a car but low for (residential)AC voltage. Also the shock you get is dependent on the amperage, the higher the amperage the bigger the shock. The GFCI is based on amperage, the same way a breaker or fuse is.

My guess is the Amps are very low, especially if it didn't trip the GFCI.

However that being said I would toss the pump, as it will only get worse and you don't want to take any chances.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gil03]

If there is any stray voltage in your water the answer is simple...get rid of the equipment that's causing it. There's really no other option from a safety standpoint.

 

[Sk8r]

I had this happen and the culprit was the house pipes---to hose---to water. When I separated the inflow hose from the water surface, the charge went away.

 

[zooman72]

I have had several pumps over the years start to "leak" voltage, and noted the tingly feeling - every one gets the heave-ho as it is just not worth the trouble (to put it mildly), and they were relatively inexpensive to replace...

 

[Ocelaris]

Are you 100% sure you're testing for AC voltage with your multimeter? What are you testing for, water to ground? i.e. are you sure you're not measuring DC voltage on the multimeter...

 

[JamesHolt]

No. There would be no power on the ground. GFCI work by comparring the current on the hot wire with the current on the neutral wire if it is not within 5 mA it trips.

Thanks for that info,,, so it makes the assumption that it went somewhere it wasent supposed to and click....
Guess that would be the fastest way...