It would in 99+% of cases trip, yes. Whether the fish would survive that depends. RCDs can occasionally fail though.
Although most of those sound unlikely, a mix of silicone and plastic fibres would put a new sheath on the cable that would be as safe as the existing one, and its an easy job. Just ensure a decent seal to the pump body, ie thoroughly clean and abrade, and ensure a reasonable coating thickness all over. Cost =A31.50, time taken 15 minutes.
NT
quite so, the human would see only a part of the 240v, and killing would not be likely. Its also easy to guard against by fitting some earthed metal round the cable. I'm certainly not recommending that as its far from best practice, but I think tinnews is right about the risks being overstated.
NT
no safety method is failure proof, hence we use several in combination to get excellent safety.
cables can be replaced and the pump resealed in minutes. Applying dc first would get rid of much of the ingress.
NT
Although my fridge and freezer is on an unprotected circuit I have a smaller freezer in the garage on a protected circuit so 2 years ago when I came back from holiday to find the RCD tripped I reset it forgetting about the freezer in the garage. Two weeks later I remembered the freezer in the garage. You can't imagine how much even frozen solid rotten fish stinks.
Kevin
The fish won't be hurt I wouldn't think, unless they actually had their noses on the leaking live part.
Insulating pond liner.
Thanks very much:-) Seriously, I'd like to do a bit of a Gedankexperiment. As I said, the rubber outer has degraded badly and there are places where the inner cables are exposed. If either of positive or neutral sheath degrades, we are in danger of David's worst case scenario. Could this be ameliorated with a 4-core cable, with a second earth just left exposed at the pump inlet? (I don't know where the present earth goes, but the pump appears to be exclusively plastic and ceramic at the accessible level.) Or could I simply earth the pond?
Douglas de Lacey
Is this pump mains-driven, or 24V?
Mains driven, at mains voltage. Via RCD, of course. Douglas de Lacey
I dont know what the voltage rating of your average fish is, the writing is hard to read. But I do know most animals are a lot more susceptible to electric shock than humans, so I wouldnt make assumptions.
NT
I dont see how this would solve the risk problem.
Pond is already earthed. Solutions have already been explained. Taking strips of 100% synthetic cloth, squish silicone into them and applying would give a reinforced waterproof outer sheath.
NT
On 8 Aug 2006 12:21:59 -0700 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@care2.com wrote this:-
Indeed. It seems strange that something as robust as a cow is very susceptible to voltage gradients, but they are.
On 8 Aug 2006 05:25:26 -0700 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@care2.com wrote this:-
I don't think I or anyone else has overstated the risks. However, they are not zero.
The point is whether one would want to trust one's life to a mechanical gadget, secondary safety, as opposed to the primary safety approach of proper cable insulation by replacing the pump.
Not strange at all, they're quite long compared with a person, along the ground anyway.
On 08 Aug 2006 20:44:46 GMT someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk wrote this:-
So are other animals that are not as susceptible.
Their feet are further apart, and they don't wear insulating shoes/socks.
That's rather a sweeping generalisation to suggest that other animals with a long spread between front and back legs are less susceptible.
It's predominantly cows that live in our fields and get electrocuted, and they invariably tend to be the farmer's very best prize milker or champion bull, worth more than any other. There's much less case history about other animals
I'd heard that most 'long' animals are just as susceptible, certainly horses are know to be quite vulnerable to voltage gradients in fields.
That's right. It's the same reason as why lying flat out on the ground in a thunderstorm, is a bad idea.
John
Hoe about heat-shrink sleeving + good dollop of silicone where it enters the pump? You need only do the underwater bit that way. If it's bad all the way up the garden, you can use something like
Chris
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