About a dozen year ago, the topic of pool bonding (including the rebar of a concrete pool shell) was new and much-discussed.  For personnel safety, codes began to call for bonding of all metal parts in the pool environment to create an equipotential voltage plane. Then there was mistaken use of terminals which were not adequate for the environment.  Copper terminals (with the lay-in configuration as well as the tang-and-collar type) with zinc-plated mild steel screws were mistakenly used; those screw materials have exhibited corrosion over the years.

Sometimes, aluminum terminals and aluminum wire were used for economy, with very poor results (aluminum degrades quickly and dramatically in the presence of chlorine).

Grounding and Bonding Terminal Standards

In recent years, National Electrical Codes have called for Direct Burial connectors in the pool/spa environment, but now with this new section *680.7, the 2017 NEC, emphasizes and clarifies that “copper, copper alloy, or stainless steel” shall be used, as well as the terminations being “listed for direct burial use.”  

Greaves Corp. also strongly cautions that the copper alloy must be bronze (copper + tin) rather than brass (copper + zinc), because brass readily degrades in the presence of moisture and normal electrolytic contaminants.  

All of the Greaves Pool/Spa family of products have satisfied this requirement for many years. All are listed for direct burial, and all are made of copper, copper alloy (bronze) or stainless steel. These include:

• Jones Rebar Clamps – J29-DB, J30-DB, J31-DB, J32-DB
• BTL Lay-in Lugs – BTL-4-DB, BTL-4-DBP, BTL-414-DB, BTL-414-DBP
• MESH-BUG Split bolts – A2-DB, A3-DB, A5-DB, A8-DB, A10-DB
• CBM Copper Bonding Mesh – CBM35K, CBM310K and other direct burial listed products, such as:
• G1S-DB, G1R-DB series pipe/rebar clamps
• G150-DB series pipe/rebar clamps
• U-bolt pipe clamps and others.

Greaves Corp.

Since 1947 Greaves has been a leading provider of electrical connectors to the electrical construction trades. Greaves has contributed innovations such as USA insulated power distribution blocks and has over 4000 different inventory items including grounding, bonding terminals, and much more.

For information regarding our products or catalogue, please contact our team today.