Help with Pond Pump

[KyleT4252]

Hi Everyone,

I hoping someone can help. I bought a house last year that had a small koi pond in the yard. It has been amazing and the fish are very happy. It has a waterfall that's controlled by a switch on the wall inside my house.

Today, I was cleaning around the pond and went inside to turn the waterfall on and the second I hit the switch, it tripped the breaker downstairs. When the breaker tripped, it turns some of my lights and TV inside my house closest to the pond. So I went downstairs and reset the breaker but the second I turn the pond back on, it trips again.

Now here's the weird thing that I cannot figure out. The pond pump is clear and has a black cable running to what appears to be underground. I cannot for the life of me see where it plugs into. None of my outside outlets have anything plugged into them.

Any thoughts on what's going on? Should I call a electrician?

Any help is great!!
Thanks

 

[mrsclem]

It may have been hard wired into the inside wiring! I can't imagine why someone would do that. Are there any outlets inside where the pump ire could be run to?

 

[KyleT4252]

No outlets at all. It's really weird.

The only thing I can see if a small grey box that seems to have some PVC pipe that runs underground. The PVC pipe also seems to be close to the pump. But there's no outlet or anything.

Its even stranger that when the breaker trips. it only affects my TV and lights inside. It doesn't affect the outside outlets. Those will still work as normal.

 

[snoozer]

I think that calling an electrician would be your best bet right now. They will be able to make sense of how it is wired and then do it the right way.

 

[mrsclem]

It sounds like it is hard wired . Call that electrician, they will be able to trace the wiring.

 

[j.w]

@KyleT4252 Yep I'd call an electrician or if you somehow know who owned the house last and can get a hold of them.

 

[Lisak1]

Hard wiring a pond pump would be an unusual choice for sure, but weirder things have happened! Good luck and let us know what you sleuth out!

 

[mrsclem]

Since the pump can be controlled from a wall switch, definitely hard wired.

 

[Lisak1]

Since the pump can be controlled from a wall switch, definitely hard wired.

I agree that it sounds hardwired, however we have switches that control outlets, so it is possible the switch is just turning off an outlet box somewhere.

 

[KyleT4252]

WOW, everyone! Thank you so much for your help! Called a local pond place who actually has an electrician on staff for these types of situations. I'll post once I learn more.

The pond seems to work at times but will cut off from time to time. It's really weird. For example, right now its running fine but all day yesterday if I turned on the waterfall, it would trip.

 

[mrsclem]

It's possible the circuit may be overloaded. They should be able to check to see what else is on that circuit.