shocked in spa

[joebeadg]

Hi guys, I got a customer , its a condo, with a community pool and seperate in ground spa/hot tub. A guy claimed today he got a shock when he tried to go in. Don't know the whole story, like if he was touching the the stainless rails or not. I checked for any continuity between the heating elements and pump motor windings to ground and there was none. Heater wasn't bonded, so I bonded it. Will go back tomorow . Place is in fl, probably from the sixties, a lot of corrosion in the equipment rm. I guess they bonded the spas and rails back then, Right? But, what I'm thinking is, if I don't find why he got shocked, I can't really say its safe to use, witch of course would be a big problem. Suppose he's lying, or just had a muscle spasm and thought he got shocked. Anybody ever deal with something like this? Thank you, Joe

 

[Volta]

The pool article didn't appear until 1962, and equipment grounding back then generally wasn't done that well anyhow, so I wouldn't count on the original stuff to be done the way you might expect. I would absolutely believe him unless shown otherwise. There was no GFCI protection on it, has anyone added any? Very good idea to do so. There is no perimeter bonding, and they will probably have to live with that for now. No water bond either, that could be done, but maybe lower on the list.

If you can meg the insulation rather than simple continuity to ground, you might see something failing. Of course it's also possible that the trouble is from another circuit using the spa circuit grounding as a path.

Welcome to the forum.