sump pump recept.

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ardy

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I am a building mngr. in a building still under const. We are occupied and are using our parking garage. The garage elev. mach. rm. has a sump pump that is located in a small rm. 4' x 5' next to the mach. room. The sump pump is plugged into a GFCI and will on occasion trip. This is behind locked doors and will never have anyone or anything in this space. My question is does this have to be a ground fault recept. or can I change it?
 
Read 620.85

A single receptacle supplying a permanently installed sump pump shall not require ground -fault circuit interrupter protection.

All others in the mechanical room, Yes.

Hold up I just noticed the 4 X 5 room located next to the mechanical room. What does that mean? Is there anything in there other than the sump pump?
 
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No. It is a empty room next to the mach. room that catches ground water and any water line breaks or such. You have to go through 2 locked doors that are labled "MECHANICAL" to enter the small pit room. It is the only recept. in this room.
 
Ardy, I can't come up with any reason why you can't change out this to a single non-protected receptacle. I would look at this room as being part of the elevator mechanical room where there is a definate exception. I would lock the door and keep the key.

There are people that are smarter and dig deeper than I do. Maybe they can come up with a reason not.
 
Thankyou. I'm in a situation where if I ever have a water problem I will and no one will Know the difference. However we are still under construction and the parking garage has been accepted and is not under warrenty anymore. I don't like going behind and changing things in front of the contracters.
 
just got out of a meeting.I brought up this topic with our engineer and he said because of it being submersible it has to be gfi.
 
No a sumersable pump does not require gfci. How else would the pump work if not submersed?

I will look at code someone else prebly has it at the tip of their tongue
 
Because the pump is submersible? That doesn't mean it has to have a GFCI receptacle. Not unless the instructions on the pump say a "GFCI" receptacle is required.

But I'm not sure why a new pump would be tripping a GFCI? Sounds like something else might not be quite right. Any other stuff wired off the GFCI?
 
Here is Code reference

Here is Code reference

620.85 Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupter Protection for Personnel.
Each 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacle installed in pits, in hoistways, on elevator car tops, and in escalator and moving walk wellways shall be of the ground-fault circuit-interrupter type.
All 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in machine rooms and machinery spaces shall have ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel.
A single receptacle supplying a permanently installed sump pump shall not require ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection.
 
I think this guy is looking at 680.51. He's right, if this submersible pump is in a simming pool then it has to be GFCI protected. But I doubt if anyone is doing much swimming in a 4' X 5' room.
 
ardy said:
just got out of a meeting.I brought up this topic with our engineer and he said because of it being submersible it has to be gfi.
Click to expand...


Is this pump cord/plug connected or hrad wired?

EDIT:
ardy said:
I The sump pump is plugged into a GFCI and will on occasion trip.
Click to expand...

Is the pump double insulated?
 
If the sump pump is tripping the GFCI it has some leakage more than 6 mA. I had a sump pump tripping the GFCI and it was most a dead short to ground.
What if the leakage was 100 mA?
It could be bad pump, cord or motor...
 
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