steeler wrote:
"Clive George" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
.. .

[And David Hansen was the first quoted author]

I assume that the circuit is RCD protected. Do you really want to
trust your life (and the lives of family and friends) to a piece of
mechanical equipment that is not 100% reliable? All for the sake of
a few pounds.

Nononono! It's for the sake of d-i-y!



How is anyone going to get killed (or even injured) by it? One's life
doesn't depend on the operation of a pond pump usually.

[David again:]

That should be fairly obvious. If they are in contact with the water
when the electricity finally escapes from the cable then they might
be killed.

I admit I was puzzled too; you mean "when the bodge funally breaks
down", right? I do have an RCD on the circuit; would that not
immediately trip? In which case only the fish are likely to be in any
danger.


The pond pumps I've seen have mains cables going underwater. Seems like
they rely very much on maintaining the insulation and seals. Replacing the
cable will inevitably disturb these, and if you do get it wrong, then it's
not the operation of the pump which you're worried about, it's the elecric
water feature you now have.



You would have to repace only the cable outside the water and weatherproof
the splice in some way. Less effort to get a new pump TBH.

No, Clive is right, the mains cable goes right into the pump, and has
degraded along the whole of the underwater length.

then added:

Replacement is the logical option. If for reasons unknown youre
determined to use it for another 20 years, theres always...

Hey, it's barely ten years old so far:-)

a) running it off isolation transformer and rcd
b) coat the cable with a mixture of silicone gloop and plastic fibres
c) or fit a new cable and epoxy waterproof the connection

That's more-or-less what I thought of

d) fit earthed gauze round the lead and add rcd
e) dangle the pump just above the water so the inlet just touches the
surface but the cable doesnt

Ooh, yes that could be fun!

and various other equally unlikely options.

Yes, I get the impression that "unlikely" is the key term. Anyone want a
*free* (but useless) pond pump?
(But I would like to know whether the RCD might fail to function
immediately the electrons begin to escape. What's the resistivity of
pond-water?)

Thanks, all, for your comments.

Douglas de Lacey