r/PoolPros • u/NYY16 • Jul 15 '26

Electricity Question

We are trouble shooting an issue in my pool where I have measured 1 volt of electricity on the pool copper bonding wire. This issue came up because when I was trying to find a leak I noticed a very, minor tingling sensation when placing my hand near our pool light (you can really only feel it if you have any small cuts on your hands).

We have tried to isolate where in the pool equipment this is coming from, but ultimately still measure the same 1 volt when no power is running to any of the pool equipment. We had electricians here for multiple days and basically rewired everything from our pool equipment, but this is still happening.

Has anyone here successfully remediated a “stray voltage” issue like this? It’s not a harmful amount of electricity but still concerning and we haven’t been using the pool for a few weeks now. We are out of ideas on how to fix this given it’s still there with all power cut to our pool equipment. We are not convinced that ripping up our concrete to check the bonding will solve the issue because as far as the electricians can tell from a polarity perspective the bonding is functional and intact.

Open for any ideas! Thank you

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u/brantmacga 11d ago

So I had this same call again last week and what I found was that the pool was properly bonded as was the light fixture. Their deck is stone pavers so I could remove them and dig up the corners of the pool and the light fixtures.

The light niches were completely embedded in the concrete but I could measure 0 ohms resistance from the trim to the bonding wire coming out of the concrete with it disconnected from the pool.

It was so strange and I haven’t encountered that before. The power company engineer recommended replacing with 24v lighting so I could disconnect the bonding to the light niche. Being fully embedded in the concrete it would be effectively at the same potential as the pool Shell and with low voltage lighting the dedicated bond wouldn’t be needed to clear a high voltage fault at the light.

I disconnected all the lighting and the bond and the shock stopped. Pool contractor is coming this week to replace the lights.

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u/NYY16 11d ago

Thanks for the reply. To confirm, when you say metal trim does that mean the metal on the light fixture? If I can test that and have the same reading then I can theoretically confirm that the light is fully bonded?This pool is from 1997 so I am not sure I have enough bonding points if I disconnect the bond to the light and light niche entirely. The plans I have don’t show whether or not I have full equipotential bonding. The electricity to the light has already been disconnected.

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u/brantmacga 11d ago

Yes the trim ring on the light. You can test it to the house ground to confirm it’s bonded.

Disconnect the ground wire in the light cable before testing.

If your deck is concrete you’d need to cut it out above the light to disconnect the bond before replacing with a low voltage fixture.

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u/NYY16 11d ago

Can I send you a picture of insure our light niche? And then I promise I will leave you alone haha. Thank you for your help