Remove/modify ground on 3-prong pump plug?

[madpenguin]

They're being kinda chincey with the instructions. Cut the cord completely in half. Who cares. It looks like the only reason they tell you not to is that they are relying on the unbroken outer sheathing (and the neutral conductor) of the extension cord to act as a built-in strain relief.

Had they bothered to ship a proper box that would secure the cord then this wouldn't be an issue.

Completely cut the female end off. Get some small wirenuts and splice the neutral and ground back together after tying in the hots. Wirenuts aren't some hackish device that leaves you with an unsafe installation. They are a proper way to splice wires inside of an enclosure.

Your over thinking this one just a little me thinks. If you do cut the cord completely in half, then just make sure that when you pull on the female end of the cord, it won't pull apart your splices. These are what NM connectors are used for and they should make their assembly more proper. It's borderline hackish IMO.

Just a quick way to make a buck with the least amount of parts.

Use a hobby knife or small hand saw to cut a slot in the large side of
the project box just big enough to allow all the wires to come out of the box with the top on

That's silly. Again, had they shipped you a proper box with a round 3/8" hole and a plastic NM connector, all of this wouldn't be an issue.

Take what you learn from doing this and next time just go to a hardware store and do it with the right materials. A small AC disconnect box would have been ideal for this application.

 

[madpenguin]

A small AC disconnect box would have been ideal for this application.

Better yet, I probably would have bought a small 30A sub panel. One that only holds 3 breakers and is about the same size as an AC disconnect box. You could gut the hot buss part and just leave the isolated neutral terminal. Mount the relay where the hot buss used to be. Buy a separate ground terminal to screw to the inside of the enclosure to terminate all your grounds to. All the neutrals to the isolated neutral buss and then the hots to the relay and a plastic NM connector that holds one or both extension cords.

Additionally, you could mount a bell box directly to the outside of the enclosure and you could have hard wired your relays directly to a receptacle (A GFCI receptacle). Plug your pumps into the receptacle and then just have one cord used for the incoming power. Then, you wouldn't have to mess with any extension cords like they are telling you to do.

That would have been the proper way to do this, albeit a tad more expensive. I'm sure all that just went over your head but it would have been a choice way to do this controller, top notch. I hope they didn't charge you too much for that "kit"......

I wish I had the money right now to build one so I could throw up a step by step tutorial with pictures. These guys don't deserve your money. Completely hackish and violates the NEC in multiple ways.

 

[micro gro]

60A A/C disconnect boxes are $6.50 at HD. I'm in love.

 

[madpenguin]

Yea. Ground terminals are just a dollar or two as well. In fact, you could probably buy everything at HD and it would have been much cheaper than what these jokers are charging.