If a ground from the same breaker box would eliminate the possibility of the barefoot user conducting electricity even for an instant before the GFCI shut down, I can see if the GFCI outlet next to the switch has a ground, and run a ground from it. That worried me too which was why I flagged the issue in my first post. A person standing barefoot in the wet grass would act as a ground and the electricity would pass through his body. By fault, do you mean a failure which creates a connection between the hot wire and some metal part of the plastic switch which comes in contact with the junction box? It has some metal parts. Your post implies that the GFCI is insufficient to protect the user in the event of a switch fault. Since the Instamatic diagram calls for a GFCI breaker for the switch, and none had been installed, I decided to install a GFCI when I replaced the switch. It was too difficult to repair the cam switch, Instamatic was selling a replacement for over $500, so I bought this plastic momentary six way switch, which was hermetically sealed compared to the cam switch, and therefore less likely to suffer another ant invasion. It failed because tiny ants invaded it and made mush of themselves. The whole system has been maintained by Coversafe, who have been responsive and responsible. The system was professionally installed before I bought the home. The Instamatic wiring diagram shows that only the motor is grounded. Just to be clear I did not design or install this system. Would a ground to the switch from the same breaker box to which all the pool equipment is connected better eliminate the possibility of shock in the event the switch faults? I reasoned that in the event of a fault the GFCI would shut off immediately because it would detect a difference between the voltage flowing through the hot wire and the neutral wire. Could a short occur in the switch which would expose the user to shock, that only a GFCI would mitigate? This is outdoors, near a pool and the ground is wet. I assume the ground won't do anything to protect the user if he opened the box and touched the hot wire, but I am trying to make that very difficult. Am I right that finding a ground for the new switch junction box would at least protect against shock from a hot junction box (first switch failed and I had a hot box, about to install a sturdier switch). Am I going to have to go digging for these three neutral wires and route them back to the new GFCI breaker? I'm already thinking I answered my question, but I do not know if I did so correctly, or how important it is to have the GFCI installed. As I review the wiring diagram I see there must be two neutral wires coming off of the dual hydraulic solenoid, and one coming off of the relay. Without a load neutral going to the GFCI, I did not think it could detect a difference in voltage between the power and neutral wire. Just to be clear, the breaker was carrying 120 volts. However there was only a load power wire connected to the old 20 amp breaker. When I opened the new breaker I realized it had a connector for the load neutral and the load power, plus the tail going to the neutral bar. The wiring diagram calls for a GFCI as well. I bought a 20am GFCI breaker to replace the non-GFCI in the box, mostly because there was no ground readily available at the junction box I was using to install the new switch (the cam enclosure had not been grounded either). Sorry for the long intro, but here is the question. I am in the process of replacing it with another momentary six way switch. The old cam switch which was remotely installed failed. It explains that the six way momentary keyed switch should be mounted remote from the pool equipment including the Hydramatic motor, hydraulics etc. This document contains a description of the system and a temporary wiring diagram.
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