Stray voltage in your backyard pool is an annoying NJ problem

I read the story of a Brick family who is having a problem with stray voltage in their backyard pool. It made me remember the nightmare that we had suffered.

The Volk family has been having this issue since putting up their above-ground pool this past summer.

They have to walk carefully in the grass because every once in a while they receive a mysterious shock. Sometimes even in the pool, they would feel a strange vibration and a shock.

They’ve done all the fixes recommended to them by experts that they’ve called, including the town and JCP&L, the electric company.

They’ve installed different types of grounding mechanisms and still, the shocks remain.

When we installed an inground pool in a home we owned in Long Branch, we experienced the same thing.

It seems that our phantom electrical current was not as strong as the Volks. But it was a nightmare because you had no idea when it would show up.

Sometimes you could just be sitting outside the pool on the concrete dangling your legs in the pool and you would feel it.

If you had any type of open wound on your skin a little cut or even a hangnail and you were outside the pool, you’d feel a zing when that cut hit the water.

It wasn’t a real shock like the ones the Volks describe, where their whole body would vibrate.

It was more like the feeling you would have if you put your tongue on the leads of a battery. It wouldn’t always be there and it was so inconsistent that it was hard to track.

We called everybody— from the pool company to the town, to the electric company and had multiple electricians look into it.

The answer was— this happens. No one knows why or how. But it seems not to happen as much with gunite or concrete pools. Ours had been fiberglass. The Volks obviously had an above pool with a liner.

Our problem was more of just a small nuisance but the idea that you never knew when you were going to get this little zap was annoying and frustrating.

And when we looked into it we found out that in New Jersey, although it’s rare, it happens.

And we heard of others who have the same issue and found that there is no solution to it.

Imagine putting so much money into your backyard pool and then finding out that it zaps you and nothing can be done.

I’d love to hear from anyone who says they have ever gotten to the bottom of the stray voltage problem. It could be a help to others who have had this problem.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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