Warm and Noisy Electrical Conduit

Intravartolo

Hello everyone! I'm brand new to this phenomenal board and I first have to say it looks great! My question is this:

Inside my garage I have conduit and wires run off of an electrical outlet to a box on the outside of my garage. The box on the outside of my garage then has conduit and wires run to a post where my outdoor pool plugs into. Well, my outdoor underground conduit went bad last year and I had it replaced this year. Everything seemed to be working fine until this morning I was in my garage and I noticed a little bit of a noise. Kind of like a rattling noise. I'd liken the noise to putting uncooked rice in the metal conduit and shaking it gently. So I proceeded to find the conduit that was making the noise. It's the conduit that runs from my electrical outlet to the box on the outside of my garage. I also noticed that the conduit was warm right where it connect to the electrical outlet. So, i quickly figured this was maybe somehow connected to my pool running. When the pool is shut off, no rattling or heat on conduit. When the pool is on, the conduit seems fine for a few minutes, then rattling appears and conduit warms up at base. I didn't leave the pool running to see if it would trip the breaker. I'm not sure if it would becuase I've had the pool running every day for the past few months. Could I just be loosing my mind and this be normal for the conduit to be warm and maybe there's just a rattle somewhere? Or, should I have an electrician come out and take a look. I can provide pictures and video if necessary.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!

-Michael

AllanJ

Turn it off right now. There is probably a loose connection inside that is sparking and likely to start a fire.

Generally the circuit wires from a breaker daisy chain through various outlet boxes along the way. A loose connection where a wire connects to the receptacle (or a switch) is not unusual. It is better to screw the wires on instead of using the "push in and it sticks" holes in the back.

Loose connections have a tendency to get hot and once the wire gets burned, the resistance goes up and it behaves as an even looser connection.

Either that or you are overloading one of the circuits inside that conduit.

It is definitely abnormal for electrical wires to heat up noticeably when you turn on appliances or things.

__________________
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Red Squirrel

How far is the conduit to the pool? Maybe the pump is vibrating and making the wire move inside the conduit? Would not really explain the heat though.

goose134

Sounds like it could be an overload. I don't like the heated conduit. I've seen overloaded circuits that were 'pulsed' and the wire would actually slap in the conduit in time with that pulse. The shaking sound may be due to a similar problem, just higher frequency. It may be as simply as upsizing the wire, but I'd say get whoever 'fixed' it back out at check it.

frenchelectrican

I just don't like heard the word " heated conduit " that will lead few serious issue comming up.

First thing most common is overload that can cause the conduit to viberated in the conduit it should be very quiet or very littel slapping when you have motor load start up.

To expand the question here what kind of conductor you have in the conduit ??

A side note here the UF cable is not really legit for pool pump useage at all the code is very strict on that due the UF cable have bare conductor.

If you have THHN/THWN or other type like TW { older style conductor } it may be ok but some point the insulating materals may gone bad and can cause issue there as well.

And what size conductor you have in the conduit and the breaker size as well.

Which type of conduit you did use the EMT or Rigde or PVC ??

Merci.
Marc