Overheating / Bad Capacitor

[bmtrimp]

Hello All

So I walked out to my pool today and noticed that there was no water movement and the pump had shut off. The pump was hot to the touch but still had power going to it. OK, so it must have overheated and the thermal protection kicked in. Great. Did some troubleshooting and found that my capacitor was bad. (it was pretty easy to tell it was puffed up pretty bad) My question is would a failed capacitor cause the running motor to overheat? The pump was running this morning and off this afternoon. It is on a timer but I pulled all the toggles off so it has been running 24/7 for the past week.

Specs:
Pentair superflo 1.5 HP pump
Capacitor is a 30 microfarad 370 Volt

it doesn't look like this motor requires a run capacitor so hence my question of would a failed cap cause overheating. I can't get a new cap until tomorrow afternoon so I can't continue on with my troubleshooting.


Thanks all!

 

[bmtrimp]

I think I figured out the answer, it seems like that my capacitor is a run cap and not a start cap. It is located on the motor itself on a hump. From what I read, my pump is showing exact signs of bad run cap.
"RUN CAPACITOR FAILURE - The effect of a failed RUN capacitor is usually "hi amps" and sometimes "humming with no start" and often times motor won't run in the hi amp condition without tripping thermal protector. When a RUN capacitor is starting or has gone bad, the end of the capacitor that has the terminals and sometimes the opposite end without terminals bows outward."All of which are true for me. Can anyone confirm and since the thermal protection kicked in, do you think anything was harmed? Windings, coils, etc?

Thanks!

 

[mas985]

Thermal protection, protects the motor from bad things so it should be ok. But a run capacitor will only cause high amps if it shorted. Was the capacitor shorted?

 

[bmtrimp]

Thermal protection, protects the motor from bad things so it should be ok. But a run capacitor will only cause high amps if it shorted. Was the capacitor shorted?

Yes, very much so. The bottom of it was puffed out.