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grounding probe
- Thread starter gene22
- Start date
Depends on who you ask! There's two lines of thought. 1.) It eliminates voltage induced by installed electrical equipment by providing a path to ground. 2.) By providing a path to ground it allows a current to pass through the water.
I look at it this way.
If you're not getting a shock when you touch the water you don't need a ground probe. If you do feel a shock then there's something wrong electrically with you're system.
Forget the ground probe. Install a GFCI instead.
You'll probably get advice to the contrary on this.
I look at it this way.
If you're not getting a shock when you touch the water you don't need a ground probe. If you do feel a shock then there's something wrong electrically with you're system.
Forget the ground probe. Install a GFCI instead.
You'll probably get advice to the contrary on this.
I've got GFCI and was originally thinking of doing grounding probes, but have since changed my mind. If all of your electrical equipment is in one area then it would probably be nice protection to have the probe over there too. On the other hand if the leaking equipment is on one side and the probe is on the other, then you've got that nice flowing current across the entire tank 24/7.
I'm with toolfanatic. If I get a shock from touching my tank water I'll be inspecting my equipment not looking to just route the stray current somewhere.
Seems like people with grounding probes are more apt to have problems with electronic ph/temp/etc probes. Although I don't know if that's actually true or not.
I'm with toolfanatic. If I get a shock from touching my tank water I'll be inspecting my equipment not looking to just route the stray current somewhere.
Seems like people with grounding probes are more apt to have problems with electronic ph/temp/etc probes. Although I don't know if that's actually true or not.
Well i had an experiance not so long ago that may or may not shed a little light on this. First off i am an electrician so i know a little bit about what i'm talking about, I recently had a heater break in my sump and never trip the GFCI it was connected to. Originally i had thought that the GFI was bad but after some investigation and some thought this is what i came up with....Mostly all tanks and sumps are for the most part isolated from the ground and all the electrically run equipment in these systems are insulated to protect against voltage leaking into the water. Now that being said GFCI brakers or individual recepticals trip on overcurrent, short circuit, and an unbalanced potential between neutral and ground. If none of this stray voltage has a place to go "ground" then thats where stray voltage comes from and also protected or not the GFCI will not see the potential and therefore will not trip.
