New pump electrical issues

[matt_n3]

Hi,

Just purchased a replacement pump for my 14*28 in-ground pool. Specs on the pump:

Dual speed - 115/230 volts
Hz60
HP 1.5
Max amps 15.0/7.5

I wired it for the 230 volt configuration. When I turned it on, it appeared to start running for several seconds and then I saw a small explosion towards the rear of the motor. The breaker then tripped. I also tried the 115 volt configuration after that. The motor ran but started immediately giving off a rubbery smelling smoke. So I gave up. Reading around, it sounds like the capacitor may have blown.

Would that be your assessment as well? Do I need to order a new capacitor?
What could have caused that? I did confirm that the electrical feed is 230 volts.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[danpik]

Disconnect the power and pull the back cover off of the motor (if equipped) and see if you can see what exploded. It is possible there is a start or run capacitor in there. Do not try to run the unit untill you can figure out what went wrong. by the sounds of it you may have damaged the windings by the smell you described.

 

[JamesW]

Are you sure that it's two speed? Most two speed motors are only 230 volts

Can you post a picture of the motor label and back wiring?

 

[matt_n3]

Sure. There doesn't appear to be any damage. Here are the photos.

 

[JamesW]

That's a single speed motor, not dual speed. It looks like the wires pulled out of the terminal ends. It looks like the ends were never crimped on properly.

 

[matt_n3]

I removed the wires so you could get a better view of the terminal

 

[matt_n3]

Here is how i originally wired it.

 

[danpik]

Did you put some unused crimp-ons o the lugs????? Can you show us which terminal you had the two hot leads on in the picture?

 

[pool&spatech]

there are separate schematics on the motor face plate for either 115/230 volts, you cannot guess with electrical connections, you have to know, that starts with knowing what the voltage reading from the end of the two wires reads, the white and black wire, if it is 230 volt then you verify the pool motor circuit board has the white,black,brown wires in the locations indicated on the motor face plate schematic, to match the 230 volt source voltage, you have to understand this and be exactly right. unfortunately, when you applied what according to you was 230 volt source voltage to 115 volt motor configuration, you burned up the motor, if that were reversed and instead had 115 source voltage and tried to connect that when your motor was configured to 230volt, then the motor would run very hot and slower,and thermally kick off, cool down then kick off,cool down etc. Initially, you may have had it wired correctly based on how you first explained it,then the small explosion you describe could have been a poor connection to the wire terminal that wasn't crimped tight enough to the wire ,and the wire pulled out and shorted, which would explain the scenario you described regarding explosion,then tripping of breaker( the breaker tripped when wire got loose and made ground contact with part of motor ) you cannot configure the motor to run on 115 volts and connect a 230 volt power source to it,it will fry the motor,period.

 

[pool&spatech]

any mention of wire color on the motor face plate schematic pertains only to the wires within the motor itself and where they connect to the terminal board relative to the voltage line source that will be used, just because you have a white wire and a black wire that supplies the voltage to the motor means nothing as far as there color, those wires are considered to be the "line" and it looks as if you regarded your white wire to be connected where it said white, but that was incorrect, your wires are represented on the schematic as "line" and this is the symbol (------line) the solid lines on the schematic, that are like this (_____ white) or (______black) or (______brown) are for the motor wires.