Grounding questions

I've got a stainless single tier with two pump mounts, also stainless, welded to the lower beam. I've also got a control panel that will be mounted on a wall beside the stand. The stand is located in my basement. I'm wondering how to safely ground both the pumps and the CP. I'm planning on mounting a small two position terminal strip on the underside of my mounts, then run the wires from the pump to the CP via wire tubing. The grounds would be directly mounted to the stainless pump mounts.

Here's my question. Would it be safer to mount the pump grounds to the stand, or run a ground wire with the pos. and neg. to the CP, and ground it with all the rest of my components in my CP?

If you ground it to the stand, what will the stand be grounded to? If you touch the stand, you could be the ground. Or, if you touch the stand and another electrical component, you could complete a circuit and get a nice jolt. Fortunately, the few times it's happened to me over the years, I haven't died from it. I'd run everything I could to a common ground.

So wire the pumps to a common ground and run a wire from the ground strip to the stand to ground it as well?

You should definitely ground your stand. Once you have a ground run to the stand there's really no reason why you can't use the stand as your common ground and save yourself from running the extra wire.

Let's talk Hot (Black), Neutral (White) and Ground (Green). Everything, as trigger says, should have a common ground. That would be the Green or bare copper wire which could be attached directly to the control panel housing, the panel then being connected (welded) to the brew stand.

Running the B,W,G wires for your pumps back to the control panel and attaching the Neutrals (if un-switched) and connecting the (Green) grounds to a grounding buss or to the panel would suffice. It is assumed the Hot (Black) will be switched.

Be sure your receptical ground is properly connected to the grounding buss in the Main Distribution Panel. If not, the whole system floats at some potential above ground and you will get bit!!

To piggyback on Dunerunner's post,

If you have two wire pumps (i.e., hot and neutral are the only wires going to a two pronged plug), DO NOT wire the neutral as if it's a ground by connecting it to your stand. That would mean that the current path would flow through your stand any time the pumps run - not good. Instead, wire the hot and neutral lines to the black/white wires, respectively, coming from the outlet in the wall. Switch the hot wire in your control panel. Ground the frames of the pumps by connecting them to your stand, which should be grounded.

If the cords include a green ground wire, follow Dunerunner's post.

Good point Yuri! Never considered a two wire pump motor....my bad!

Yuri_Rage said:

To piggyback on Dunerunner's post,

If you have two wire pumps (i.e., hot and neutral are the only wires going to a two pronged plug), DO NOT wire the neutral as if it's a ground by connecting it to your stand. That would mean that the current path would flow through your stand any time the pumps run - not good. Instead, wire the hot and neutral lines to the black/white wires, respectively, coming from the outlet in the wall. Switch the hot wire in your control panel. Ground the frames of the pumps by connecting them to your stand, which should be grounded.

If the cords include a green ground wire, follow Dunerunner's post.

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The pumps are March 809HS. It has a black, white and green wire (hot, neutral, ground respectively). I'm thinking of putting a small two position strip underneath my pumps, then connect a black wire and white wire to this strip to then run to the CP. The ground wire could be mounted to the pump mount that is welded on the stand IF the stand is grounded, yes?

If you ground the stand somehow then yes. Otherwise, like I said before, you could potentially become the ground which = bad day.

Would a ground wire welded to the frame, then running to the ground bar in the CP (grounded to the house service ground) work? Otherwise, in a basement with a concrete floor, what is my best option for grounding the stand?

Maltose, mounting the pumps on the stand should ensure a good ground. You can also use ground terminals and #8 copper to bond the frame and motors together (like pool motors are grounded). The CP should be fed from your circuit breaker panel with a two wire circuit (unless it's 240 VAC) (1 hot, 1 neut., and 1 ground; ground doesn't count as a "wire" because it normally doesn't carry current.) Tie the CP ground to the rack ground and you're done. pete

The pumps should already have a ground on the wires coming out of them. if you attach that directly to the stand then the stand has to be grounded somewhere. Otherwise, you can just run the ground wires to your switch or whatever you have powering your pumps. If there is a ground going to whatever you're plugging into then it will share ground with your house.