Current to Equipment

[Culchie]

I should have everything I need to build my ponds now. Now I need to know what guage power cords I need to power my pumps and filters. I got a great deal on a couple 25' triple tap cords 16/3 SJTW. But I don't think they are rated high enough, especially if I share pieces of equipment on them. And here's what the people I bought my stuff from said. " Thanks for contacting us and thank you for your purchases.
We can only recommend that you connect the power cords directly to a GFCI protected outlet. The use of extension cords is not recommended.
Please let me know if you need anything further.


Regards,


But what if My ponds are further from the house than the power cord ? What do you all do ? Use extension cords anyway ?

 

[addy1]

I ran our pond pumps and aerator on extension cords for over a year, honey finally ran some electric line. The power cords were 12/3, 75 foot long.

 

[DrCase]

They gave you the right advice
If you bought some under ground romex you could dig the trench and put in the wire ,
Then let a electrician hook you up.
mine comes off my air conditioner breaker box

 

[icerabbit]

What size pump and related equipment are we talking about? For which size pond?

Small pond pumps, a small aerator and a set of pond lights don't consume much and could be fine on a 16 gauge extension cord line, though I'd prefer to hear you had a 14 gauge extension cord, as that is basic 15A capacity and what goes to the typical household outlet.

Personally, my previous small pond had a dedicated 12 gauge 20A line, for two small pumps, pond lights, small aerator and landscape lighting.

Current medium size pond with small pump & lights shares a 12 gauge 20 amp line with garage aquarium, some outdoor lights in a shed & several sets of landscape lights.

Next year's bigger pond will get two dedicated 12 gauge lines as the line run will be 75ft and one line will be required for the waterfall pump on its own.

 

[addy1]

They gave you the right advice
If you bought some under ground romex you could dig the trench and put in the wire ,
Then let a electrician hook you up.
mine comes off my air conditioner breaker box

totally agree! I bugged him until he ran lines to the pond. But the extension cords, plugged into a gfi outlet worked fine until he did.

 

[Craig58]

All good advice above. You really need the ground fault outlets.

Best ot run underground wire and install the outlets where you need them.

Craig

 

[addy1]

When I started the dig, we trenched in pvc from the house to the pond. 3 foot down, four different runs of pvc It took him a year, well longer than that, to pull the wires and get it hooked up for me. Until then we used good extension cords. We are using all except one run.

 

[Culchie]

I plan on adding outlets to the back of the house. I just put up a deck. Good idea running PVC. Do you just splice the Romex onto the equipment's power cord ? There's no problem keeping that waterproof ? I have a Savio Solids 5000 pump, Savio SkimmerFilter with 16" weir, Savio F100 Waterfall filter for a 2000 gallon pond. And a Laguna (PT 260) ClearFlo 700 Kit includes Pressure-Flo 700 Filter & Max-Flo 600 Pump for a 400 gallon pond.

 

[addy1]

We ran the line into a box with multiple plug outlets. Just plug the equipment in, good to go.

 

[Fishylove]

As craig and everyone has said above---To keep that waterproof, you would need to run the wire in conduit, at least to do it right. As far as splicing the pump to the wiring, I personally would Not splice it and then put that splice in the ground, would definitely Not be to code. If you were needing to run wire out to a pond from the house or garage, I would run the wire (in conduit) buried in the ground ( you would have to see what code was, as far as how deep, for your area). Your state coding should tell you how far the GFI box would need to be from the water source also. You would run that wire in conduit to a permanently fixed GFI outlet in a water-resistant box ( they normally have a hinged lid or cover on them. Then your pump could be plugged into the box without having to splice it.

 

[Craig58]

Also, depending on your pumps, filter and design, you can put everything into a pump house/shed near the pond. I've seen people build replica spring houses for this. I used a prefabbed plastic outdoor garden shed that is around the corner of the house from the pond. All the electric is run into the shed and multiple GFI outlets are housed in the shed. My filter, pump, UV, air pump, etc are all housed in the shed. I ran underground water and air lines to the pond. Nothing has been hard wired.

Saw one local ponder that had an old WWII bomb shelter that was used for all the pond equipment. Seen others bury everything in Rubbermaid style boxes, than cover with mulch. Seen others build quite elaborate cinderblock pump houses that even included stero systems for the garden areas for entertainment.

Craig

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
Yes Do not use extention cords for long periods of time and do not use them burried.
They are not made for that.
put it in conduit and if your ground frezee the deeper the better for us in Calif is min 2' I would thing deeper in your area.

Ruben

 

[sissy]

If temporary you can protect the power cords from chewing animals or damage by taking an old hose and slitting it and tucking the extention cord inside it and putting a couple of zip ties around it to make sure power cord stays inside .Some pumps also say on them not to plug them into extention cords and you should never overload extention cords and they should be protected by a gfci breaker .I would not use extention cords long term though as they can over heat and cause a fire .

 

[jhenkel]

Shalom - heed the above; you can also buy direct burial wire which I have used for 12 years, no undeground splices and it can be wired into the junction boxes. Where I came above ground I used the grey outdoor pvc and boxes. GFI is the most critical item.

 

[brandonsdad02]

I know this is a old thread but don't put romex wire in conduit outside. I know from years of working the trade, no matter how good your joints are in your pvc pipe, there will be water in the pipe. May not happen right away but it will happen. I would recommend pulling 12g THHN solid wire or direct burial romex wire. I have direct burial romex run down to my pond, I ran 12-3 w/g so I could have 2 circuits. My pump and landscape lights are on one circuit and my pond lights, air pump and uv lights (when needed) are on the other circuit. I have 2-2gang pvc boxes with the in use covers on them and 2-single gang boxes with the in use covers.