Mystery power to fountain pump

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Benton

Senior Member
Location
Louisiana
I went to a customers home today he has a fountain pump that is being fed from an extension cord located on his front porch to his fountain pump in the yard. The power that is in the yard and is supposed to run the pump is a mystery. I get 120v hot to nuetral and 110v hot to ground. When I unhook the pump from the extension cord and plug it into the power that is in the yard the pump does nothing. I don 't understand why the pump want run. Maybe because the circuit has lights on it. Any idea? Again the receptacle in the yard has 120V.
 

hurk27

Senior Member
You most likly have lost either the hot or neutral underground, and using a DVM to read voltage wont load the circuit down to show the loss, try mesuring the voltage again with a load on the circuit.
 

stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
I went to a customers home today he has a fountain pump that is being fed from an extension cord located on his front porch to his fountain pump in the yard. The power that is in the yard and is supposed to run the pump is a mystery. I get 120v hot to nuetral and 110v hot to ground. When I unhook the pump from the extension cord and plug it into the power that is in the yard the pump does nothing. I don 't understand why the pump want run. Maybe because the circuit has lights on it. Any idea? Again the receptacle in the yard has 120V.

Hurk is right. Put a load on it and it will disappear. I use Ideal circuit analyzer where I can put a 15A or 20A load on it to test. Any signs of digging, edgeing etc. between the house and the fountain?
 

Benton

Senior Member
Location
Louisiana
yeah I think you guy are right.We are going to have to pull a clean circuit. When I ohmed it out there was nothing. Thanks
 
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