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I bought a house which has a pool that we believe to have been built in 2001. I am installing a new pool heater and ran into the situation where it asks me to attach the bonding wire. The problem is I do not see one. The only wire going to the pump is through the conduit. The old heater did not have anything either. The electrical box does have a sheathed wire that dives directly into the ground but it seems to be regular 14-3 wire (not 8) and is only split off to wires inside the box. Is there a way to check for the bonding wire? If there is none is there a way to create a semblance of one? I read somewhere that you can take an 8 AWG wire and run it from the junction box to all the lugs available as a best effort without having to rip everything up. Thoughts on how to check and if that workaround makes sense at all?

Justin Pihony
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Any pool built after the code update in the 1950’s should have bonding. If you can find a ground wire 8 AWG or larger, solid or stranded, insulated or bare, it will be from the bonding. If there aren’t any, the home inspector you used for the purchase wasn’t very good at the job.

If its a concrete pool and/or deck it will take some work to get a clamp onto a reinforcement rod in the pool shell and/or decking reinforcement mesh and add bonding to the motor and heater and lights. I’m not sure where to look for a ground lug for the wall panels in a vinyl liner pool or if they have to be bonded is they aren’t exposed.

Don’t wait until you can dig to get everything just right. Add 8AWG solid stranded or bare from the pool panel’s ground bar to the motor, heater, and lights right away.

Oliver Street
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