Electrical problems can be among the most mysterious and frustrating that pool owners experience. They are also dangerous to the untrained DIYer so great caution – or a licensed electrician – is required when attempting to diagnose. Here are the most common reasons we see when it comes to pool pumps tripping.
Moisture
GFCIs are quite sensitive to moisture so if your breaker trips after a storm, you might just need to let the sun do its thing for a day or two. If it’s not summer, you can probably just leave the pump off for a day and try again once everything has had a chance to dry. In the summertime, you can still get by with your pump not running for one or two days but it will require some extra chlorine (shock) and manual circulation with a pole or paddle a couple of times per day.
Keep in mind that rain isn’t the only possible source of water. A misdirected sprinkler, spray from power washing, even high humidity can affect a GFCI.
Bad or Wrong Breaker
Sometimes breakers just fail due to age or inferior quality. If the problem does not appear to be with your pump and/or motor, try replacing the breaker.
You could also have the wrong size breaker if you recently bought a new pump or motor that was not an exact match to the previous model. Confirm you have the correct breaker size by checking how many amps the new motor requires.
Short in Pump
You might be able to spot an obvious pump motor short by disconnecting power and taking off the motor end cap. Make sure all wiring is properly connected and nothing appears obstructed or burnt. Insects who decide your motor makes a really cozy home can create an electrical short by blocking contacts.
Wrong Voltage
Most complete pumps and replacement motors leave the factory set at 230v to prevent installers from accidentally running 230 volts to a motor that is set to 115v. This has saved many motors from premature frying but it also results in many confused homeowners. Typically in this scenario, the pump will initially come on, then shut down, repeat. Check to see which voltage your motor is set to and what voltage you have running to it.
A Quick Fix
One quick thing to check is if the “reset” button on the GFCI simply needs to be pressed back in. If the GFCI trips, then you will need to press the reset button to restore electricity back to your equipment. Watch this helpful GFCI outlet video for more details.
Always remember that addressing electrical issues requires proper knowledge and safety precautions. If you are in any doubt, enlist the help of a qualified pool professional.
My pool stop working change the breaker I went to turn the timer on the breaker that I change the timer thinking that was the problem and it still makes the breaker trip I change the Outlet GFCI and the breaker still Trip no motor pump does not come on do you think it’s the capacitor or the motor
If it was the capacitor the motor would likely not turn on without flipping the breaker, or it would hum when power was applied. You can test the capacitor by following the instructions at the bottom of this article: Using the Proper Test Equipment to Troubleshoot Pool Motors
A read all the post and did what I read . Pump trips the breaker as soon as I turn it on. Mind pool was working fine for the last couple years. I check the imprellear and its fine the motor spines so it’s not stuck. What can I do? I shocked and cleaned connections tested again and same no results.
So you have changed breakers? Checked the wires ends for correct voltage coming from the breaker? Changed the wires?
If you have truly done everything other than change the motor, then you probably just need to change the motor.
My breaker kept tripping and I think that I didn’t have the shaft seal inserted correctly.
I had taken it apart and put it back together and breaker started tripping. I’m still not sure but that was one possible reason a rep gave me hear. Evidently those shaft seals must be put in 100% correctly or it’s an issue.
If the shaft seal is not inserted correctly, you would see a evidence of a water leak forming under your pump. I haven’t heard of the shaft seal causing this problem unless the water leeches down the shaft and corrupts the motor’s internals.
Hello. I replaced my pool motor and changed the voltage to 110 in error. It turned on for about 10 seconds then tripped the breaker. I changed the pump switch back to 220v, but the breaker won’t reset. Did I fry my motor or do I need to replace the breaker? Thank you in advance.
Update: I replaced the breaker and all is well.
When you say, the breaker will not reset, is the switch locked in place does trip immediately? If it is locked, that sounds like a breaker problem, instead of a motor issue. Try changing the breaker.
Hey Matthew
I have a Hayward PSC2100. It has run well for as long as I’ve owned the house. A few days ago I couldn’t get the filter pump to run. The water feature pump runs fine. After testing fuses a bond the pump itself, I removed the circuit board and found that the back of the board had a burnt spot on one of the lower fuse connector spot. I cleaned the spot out then resoldered it. Put a new fuse and it ran for around three hours but then it popped the spot again actually blowing my solder joint and burning again. Any idea why this would be happening? I rather fix this than spend 2k on a prologic.
Thanks. Mike
Mike,
That is a tough one, this may be a better question for Inyo’s Forum because we have some electrical savants over there. You may also want to post pictures of the unit and the problem area to help them figure out the issue.
On the pump motor cord. The GFCI on the outlet works fine. It’s the fat plug on the end of the pump cord that has the two buttons, one is test the other is reset. I always have to press the reset every time i turn off the power.
it used to work fine, now it doesn’t so I have to manually turn on the pump and keep it on until; I turn it off. I used to run it on teh cheap timer the intex sand filter pump has built in and wanted to have that switch on all teh time and work the pump off a adjustable timer I got. Every time the power goes out the pump doesn’t auto restart when I had it in the timer posirtion, thanks.
GFCIs can go bad whether they are wall mounted or in a cord, I would try it with a different cable to see how that works out. you may also want to use a thicker gauge cable to make sure the motor is not pulling too many amps.
This is strange, my intex sand filter pump runs fine but only when I push the reset button. As soon as i turn off the power supply I hear a click on th eplug which is the plug tripping. when I plug it back into the extension cord the motor does not start until I push the reset button then the pump runs fine. I want to set it up a timer and not use the timer on the Intex pump. Could it be moisture that is causing it to trip when I turn the power OFF every time? My concern is that the pump won’t turn on every day because of this. It has rained a lot lately and the kids splash water around the pump area, but I do have the plugs somewhat covered. Any ideas? Thanks.
For clarification, is the reset button on the pump/motor or is it on a GFCI receptacle?
There both on seperate breakers,, that’s what I found wierd about it
There may be a fault in the line somewhere, the best route would be to have an electrician come out and check it out.
When I turn on my filter and the central air is running it trips my breaker,, but if I turn off central air and turn on filter it runs ok
This sounds like a classic case of a breaker being overloaded or needing a replacement. The two electrical units are pulling more than the breaker can dish out, put a larger breaker on the circuit or put them on separate breakers.
Brand new pump. Hooked it up. 2hp, 2speed. Runs fine on 110v but when I switch to 220v it trips breaker. Running 100amp power from the house for the salt system. Any chance I have wires wrong?
Two-speed motors run on one voltage, either 115 or 230. Do you mean you when you switch it to high speed it flips the breaker?
If we are talking a high-speed issue, it could be a bad switch, relay, shorted windings or run capacitor problem. Read this guide on how to test most of these issues: Using the Proper Test Equipment to Troubleshoot Pool Motors
It its the windings, I would take the motor back and ask for a replacement.
Just replaced a 1.5 hp above ground motor. Plugged into garage and it worked. Put on Pool trips breaker. Plugged and extension cord in from garage and trips breaker there too. What else could it be?
The extension cord being used may be the incorrect gauge. The longer the cable the thicker the wire gauge needs to be to accommodate the motor’s draw.
We have a 4 year old hayward pump that keeps tripping the breaker when the pool starts first thing in the day. A couple times we were able to get it to come on after waiting several hours and then resetting the breaker. However, because it kept doing it, we took the pump to the pool place and they put it on their equipment and it worked fine. Fired right up. They didn’t seem to think it was the pump. They said maybe the breaker or plug. So, we changed the breaker. It worked fine for about 4 days and then tripped again upon start up. We got it started again and thought maybe it was the timer panel so we turned off the timer and tried just starting it manually. That didn’t work either. Again, we were able to start it after a few hours. It worked for another day or 2 and did it again, so we change the actual plug. Got it running yesterday and this morning when it tried to turn on, it tripped it again. Any suggestion on what else it could be? I would be surprised if this pump is bad after only 4 years, but we are kind of at a loss on what could be going wrong.
We have seen pumps last only a year, or less, so we can’t go purely on the age of the motor. Have you changed the wires that connect the breaker to the pump? Excuse me if that is what you meant by “replacing the plug.”
Outside of having an eletrician come in and inspect everything, I would replace the motor.
We changed the outlet…sorry I wasn’t clear on that. Our next step was to change the actual plug that goes from the motor to the outlet. My husband is leaning toward a new pump too, so maybe we will go that route instead. Thank you.
Hi Jennifer, did you get the new pump. Did the issue resolve?
Thanks
Hi, my pump has ran just fine for three years, and this summer by mistake I turned the pump on without opening the inflow and outflow valve…(yeah…oops). It tripped the breaker. The pump I have is a 2-speed. When I reset the breaker, the pump runs on low without any issues, however when it is on high, it trips the breaker within a matter of minutes. Does it sound like there is damage to my motor and is somehow drawing more power than usual or is it more likely that there is damage done to the breaker? Thank you in advance.
My apologies for the lag in reply, Kyle.
It’s possible that that the motor is drawing more amps on high speed causing the breaker to trip. I don’t think that because failing to open the valve caused this problem because the motor still works on low speed.
i turned off/on the pool power breakers and now the jets/waterfall/and lights are not even recognized, but everything else does (filter pump, spa, heater). Any suggestions on what may have happened?
nevermind…..i didnt properly turn off/on the breakers. got it fixed now.
Ok, fantastic!
I am recently having problems with my pool breaker circuit tripping. I tried to reset it and as soon as I turn on the pool pump it tripped. I don’t have this problem before. It has not been raining in Houston Texas and it’s hot here for the last few weeks. Also, the bump motor is less than 2 yrs old.
Have you tried replacing the breaker to determine if it is just a bad GFCI?
Last week I replaced my pump motor. The motor ran great for 4 days then it tripped the breaker. I tried to flip the breaker but nothing happened. I went back through troubleshooting and rechecking everything. After waiting a couple of hours I tried it and it came back on. The next day it tripped the breaker again. This time when I tried to restart it, there was a humming sound. I removed the “cap” to see if anything was arching or burnt looking. When I tried to restart it again it made the humming sound. I took a screw driver and tried to spin the shaft. It was hard to turn. After it moved slightly I tried again and the pump restarted. I don’t know if it is getting too hot, the capacitor is bad, or just a bad pump motor?!?
Hello Chris,
You have quite the problem on your hands. We have guides on how to test your voltage, capacitor and other parts of your motor on this guide, Using the Proper Test Equipment to Troubleshoot Pool Motors
If that one does not do the trick, browse this guide: Pool Pump Motor Answer Guide
Thank you in advance of any advice you can give me. I have breaker that operates a single line going to a GFCI attached to my deck, and then continues to run to a pole with another GFCI to operate my pool pump, which also has a GFCI built into the plug itself. When I plug into the GFCI on the pole the pool pump never trips, but when I attach an outdoor timer to have the pump come on at specific times, it ALWAYS trips but ONLY at the pool plug GFCI that is built in. Can you please help me figure why and what I may need to do (if anything can be done)? Also, I considered cutting off pool pump plug end and attaching a normal plug to it. Considering I would still have two GFCI to protect the pump, can this be done? Thanks!
Greg, I am just a tinkerer and not an electrician so your problem is a little over my head. But maybe if you pose you question in our Forum, maybe one of our wiring guys can take a look at it.
Greg, did you ever get this resolved? I’m having that exact issue right now. I have a time plugged into a GFCI at the house, then an extension cord to the pump. The pump has the GFCI built into the cord. Without the timer, no issues. With the timer, pump’s cord GFCI trips with ever on/off cycle.
I have an aquarite salt chlorine system. The power and generate lights were not coming on and pool was turning green. I purchased the quarter sized resistor thing from digikey and had it saudered on by a computer technician. He noted some burned marks on the board around the resistor and another area. I reinstalled the board and as soon as I turn on the pump it trips the breaker (runs for about a second then trips it). This was not happening before. Do you think this could be the PCB board? It was burnt before but the capacitor thing was broke so it didn’t trip. Now capacitor thing is fixed so burnt marks are causing the breaker to trip?
I would troubleshoot pump and breaker but none of that was the issue before. Fuse is not blown either. Thank you for your time
Never mind. It was the recent rain. Just needed to let the sun do its thing for awhile.
Hi, we just purchased a 1.5 HP In-Ground Pool Pump With Strainer Basket Dual Voltage 110V/220V and when we installed it it trips the breakers for the whole house. What are we doing wrong? Please help.
Just to get confirmation, is it flipping all the breakers in the breaker box or just the single breaker the pump is connected to?
breaker trips when I turn it on and pump hums what’s my problem
Test your breaker, and your motor’s capacitor to determine which one is bad.
I was wondering if you know of any way to better insulate an outdoor breaker. Our electrician installed an emergency breaker (as required by law for an outdoor spa) within the specified distance from the spa. It looks like he did a good job. It is inside a metal box with a hinged cover. The spa works fine and stays on until we have a big temperature shift during the night. (If you have ever lived in Texas, you know this occurs quite frequently during our twice a year shift in seasons from summer to winter and back to summer). I know the breaker is tripping because of the moisture in the air during these shifts (usually around 35 degree shift within a 6-7 hour time frame).
We had the electrician come back out to check it, and he said it was most likely this moisture, or condensation causing the problem and there was really nothing to be done about it.
I would love to hear if you have any insight on possible solutions to this. Thank you
Hi, I have an outdoor pool and when I plug it into my garage it trips the breaker. But when I plug it into a GFCI outlet inside my house using an extension cord it works fine.. obviously this isn’t safe so if anyone has any ideas as to what is wrong please reply.
Hello, Nathan, with the facts you gave me it sounds like there is an issue with the breaker tied to the plug in your garage. Have you tried changing the breaker? Also, just as a precaution, test your GFCI to make sure it is working properly. It may not be tripping because it is faulty too.
I have a Hayward Super Pump and it’s about 4.5 years old. I was away on vacation for 3 weeks and I had the pump turned off during the time. When I got back last week I turned it on but it tried to run a second or two and trips breaker. My breaker box is inside garage so there is no moisture problem. Can anyone help?
Thanks
The first thing I would do is put the motor on a different breaker; this will help you isolate the issue, whether it be motor or breaker related. Once you figure out which is bad, then the real troubleshooting begins.
If you put the motor on the new breaker and it doesn’t flip, then you would replace the busted breaker and be done with it. If you switch the motor to a different breaker, and it still flips then you have a motor issue that requires a deeper look.
Is there any humming/buzzing from the motor, before it trips?
I have a motor that does that buzzing noise and when it does I turn the shafts little and the motor goes on but after an ahore or so it trips off . And l have to wait for buzzing noise to turn shaft again .. what do you think the problem is ?
A few people have had that problem on this article thread. The problem is almost always a bad capacitor, which is a very easy fix. Find the capacitor on your motor, match the rating to a cap on either one of these lists: Start Capacitors or Run Capacitors.
Here is a guide that will walk you through installation: How To Replace a Pool Pump Capacitor
Mine has the humming/buzzing before it trips, most of the time.
I have the same issue. Its dry as a bone here and the pump humms for about 10 secs then trips the breakers. I let it sit a day and same but it did start finally and the pump runs fine once it starts??
Did you do any of the troubleshooting mentioned in the article, first? In situations like these, not everyone’s pool equipment is the same. It always helps to give some insight into what you have already checked for, so time is spent suggesting troubleshoot methods that have already been covered.
I plugged mine into a non gfci outlet in the house Got the heater to work and fire up. Once it bakes out water residue plug it back into the gfci again.
Thank you for your blog.Really thank you! Really Cool.
Mine has tripped after every major storm in Louisville this summer(making me think it’s directly caused by the rain). But didn’t trip at all the prior two years, and we had similar big storms. I haven’t changed anything with the system this year… HFCs is only three years old- any ideas? Thanks!
The first thing that came to mind was, water getting in somewhere to pop the circuit. When you first open the breaker box after a rain do you see any residual water? Or have you tried checking the wire/conduit going to your pool equipment for open wires or cracked insulation?
Hello Matthew. I recently installed a intex pool and up graded the pump with sand filter. I also put in a salt water Eco system. I ran 2 12-3 electrical cables in the attic and installed a dual pole 15amp breaker for each unit. The plug s are in the attic and out of the elements so I just used the gfi plugs that came with the units.
I have the units inside a weather proof cabinet away from the pool. The filter pump will run on selected time as required but it trips its protection breaker at the plug. Is the pump getting hot and doing this? or do I have the wrong breaker? I did the math and the pump pulls 4.6amps and a 15amp breaker should provide the power as required? Please help as this is driving me nuts…
Best regards,
Noah
Our pump stopped working..we opened the plug water ran out..so we are waiting for it to dry out. We can’t open the top part of the plug. We need a weird screwdriver.
Use an extractor set. Use smallest bit, a couple hammer taps the remove.
I am having the same problem in Louisville. It think my breaker box got soaked. Can you shed any light on what you did to fix problem. Last big rain really kill both of my pumps. Good lord it never ends.
I am having the exact same issue. The pump only trips the GFCI when it rains. I’ve check all components of the electrical circuit and the rest of the pool. Issue only occurs with the pump plugged in.
Rain is reaching the circuit somehow. It is not a coincidence the pump is tripping only when it rains. I would call an electrician to find the issue.
Or buy the pump an umbrella. 🙂
I called 2 electricians and they didn’t find anything wrong and all my motors have cases
I’m sorry, but I am not sure what else I could tell you to check if two professional electricians inspected the site and came up with nothing. Working blind to find an electrical fault is not the easiest thing to do.
Short of rewiring the circuits and switching out a breaker I don’t know what you could do besides replacing the motors.
Hey, thanks for the blog.Really thank you! Cool.
I bought a brand new pb4-60 Polaris booster pump to Replace my old Pentair booster pump. Both pumps run 230 or 115 But the new Polaris pump trips the breaker immediately when I turn it on. I have no idea what’s going on?
The PB460 can run on 115 or 230 voltage, but the motor has to be set to the specific voltage you are using. The motor is set to accept 230 voltage during the manufacturing process. If your original pump was running 115, you would need to switch the new pump motor to that setting. We have a guide on how to wire a pool pump; give it a look: How To Wire A Pool Pump