Is my mixed water safe?

Ahetrick74 · Oct 29, 2023

The bare live wires from a pump were exposed in my mixed saltwater container. Will the saltwater still be safe to use or is there a significant chemistry change? Any risk of melted rubber poluting the water? The wires were not exposed when I place the pump back in the container yesterday. I heard sizzling this morning.

blaxsun · Oct 29, 2023

So what all melted into the saltwater?

BubblesandSqueak · Oct 29, 2023

answers my question about GFCI outlets.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 30, 2023

Ahetrick74 said:
The bare live wires from a pump were exposed in my mixed saltwater container. Will the saltwater still be safe to use or is there a significant chemistry change? Any risk of melted rubber poluting the water? The wires were not exposed when I place the pump back in the container yesterday. I heard sizzling this morning.

I would reject salt water that may have had current from copper wires flowing through it. A lot of copper can be released to the water due to the electrochemistry taking place.

Ahetrick74 · Oct 30, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I would reject salt water that may have had current from copper wires flowing through it. A lot of copper can be released to the water due to the electrochemistry taking place.

Thank you! I was afraid something like that could happen. Hate to waste the water but I'd rather be cautious.

Ahetrick74 · Oct 30, 2023

BubblesandSqueak said:
answers my question about GFCI outlets.

Mine was actually plugged into a gfci, which didn't trip for some reason...yeah I'll need to get that checked. When I pulled the pump up by the cord (thankfully not putting my hands in the water) it was sizzling and sparking.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2023

Ahetrick74 said:
Mine was actually plugged into a gfci, which didn't trip for some reason...yeah I'll need to get that checked. When I pulled the pump up by the cord (thankfully not putting my hands in the water) it was sizzling and sparking.

Did you have a ground probe in the water? If so, it should have tripped.

If not, and all current went in and out of the same gfi outlet, then it wouldn’t trip.