Wife called me while I was out of town this past week and let me know that my lights weren't on. Since I was in WI there wasn't much to do about it beyond troubleshooting some basics. The lights were on a power strip and I asked her to plug something into it to make sure it was working. It was not so I had her unplug the skimmer and check the breaker box. That was the issue and the lights powered up. Took me a few days to get home but I pulled the skimmer and found this.
For those of you who are new to the hobby, that is not good. Very not good.
How did I know to unplug the skimmer? I'm not proud of this but I had it plugged into a GFCI outlet and it kept tripping. Not my best moment. I've had so many GFCI outlets go bad that I just figured I needed a new one and didn't feel like getting into it. Besides, when I plugged the skimmer into a "regular" outlet it worked just fine. I pulled the pump, cleaned the unit and was getting ready to plug it back in to see if maybe it was just a dirty and drawing too much power (or something like that). When I glanced at the wire I noticed it was clearly broken and as it dried the rust colored corrosion is really evident.
Lesson learned. My Radions seem to be fine but I'd feel like a real jerk if my laziness caused a short that smoked my lights.
For those of you who are new to the hobby, that is not good. Very not good.
How did I know to unplug the skimmer? I'm not proud of this but I had it plugged into a GFCI outlet and it kept tripping. Not my best moment. I've had so many GFCI outlets go bad that I just figured I needed a new one and didn't feel like getting into it. Besides, when I plugged the skimmer into a "regular" outlet it worked just fine. I pulled the pump, cleaned the unit and was getting ready to plug it back in to see if maybe it was just a dirty and drawing too much power (or something like that). When I glanced at the wire I noticed it was clearly broken and as it dried the rust colored corrosion is really evident.
Lesson learned. My Radions seem to be fine but I'd feel like a real jerk if my laziness caused a short that smoked my lights.