Wiring – What gauge wire for 1HP pool pump

electric motorpoolwiring

Have a 1hp 11 amp above ground pool pump that is going to be about 50 feet away from the breaker. Will 12 gauge wire be enough to run it?

Photo of the pump can be seen at link below
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qZxYcZ9aCNohwWk67

Best Answer

Your wire sizing is fine

Motor conductors are sized as a continuous load (125% of Full Load Amps), so 12AWG is more than adequate for an 11A motor.

But your choice of wiring method is partly off the mark

However, unjacketed MC cable like what you linked is not suitable for wet locations or direct burial, so it can't be used outside. Furthermore, since this is a pool pump you're wiring, NEC 680.11 governs what wiring methods you can use:

680.11 Underground Wiring Location. Underground wiring shall be permitted where installed in rigid metal conduit, intermediate metal conduit, rigid polyvinyl chloride conduit, reinforced thermosetting resin conduit, or Type MC cable, suitable for the conditions subject to that location. Underground wiring shall not be permitted under the pool unless this wiring is necessary to supply pool equipment permitted by this article. Minimum cover depths shall be as given in Table 300.5.

As a result of this and the fact PVC-jacketed MC (which can be buried) isn't typical big-box fare, you cannot use direct buried cable for this, and basically are forced to go with conduit (typically, rigid PVC at Code burial depths), with individual 12AWG THWN wires inside instead of a cable. Once you get into the house, though, you can transition at a box to a different wiring method (such as regular MC or NM).

Related Topic