New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

[lalittle]

I turned off my pump (Intelliflo VS) to check something, and when I turned it back on a minute later, it immediately gave me an "over current" alarm. The little red light blinked for 20 seconds, then the pump restarted automatically and ran normally. The pump is brand new (only a couple weeks old), and everything had been working normally. There was only negligible debris in the basket -- not even enough to bother opening it up for.

How concerned should I be? Is this something that can sometimes happen -- i.e. is this a "normal" glitch to have -- or is this a sign that something is most likely wrong?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[JasonLion]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

That error is fairly rare and usually means either a blocked impeller or failed electrical drive module. I've never heard of it coming up and then clearing it's self right away before.

 

[lalittle]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

When it happened, it was immediate -- i.e. I pressed the "on" button, I heard a "click," and the alarm went on. It was as if the impeller was completely jammed. According to the manual, it will wait for 20 seconds and try again, which is exactly what happened, but the motor went on just fine at that time.

Is there any way this might NOT be a problem, or does this behavior absolutely point to a problem?

I'm going to call Pentair as soon as they're open again, but I'm still curious to hear feedback on this.

Thanks again,

Larry

 

[lalittle]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

I found this when searching for information on Intelliflo overcurrent alarms:

Over current: Indicated that the drive is overloaded or the motor has an electrical problem. The drive will restart 20 seconds after the over current condition clears.

Since the motor started up again automatically after about 20 seconds, it appears to indicate that the over current condition "cleared" immediately after it happened. Does this point to a problem with the electronics? Has anyone ever heard of this happening as a "glitch"?

Larry

 

[Divin Dave]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

It's a possibility there was an obstruction to the impeller that quickly enough cleared itself, so this might be a one time thing. I know if it were me, I would be out there turning the thing on an off many times to see if the fault reocurred.

One of the questions the pentair guy is gonna ask is "has it happened more than one? How often has it happened? What speed were you trying to start it at when it happened?

those types of things are very useful information.

 

[JamesW]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

Possibly debris in the impeller. Make sure that the basket is clean and not cracked. Also, I would check the voltage under load to see if it drops too low. Although, I think that the pump would give you a low voltage warning if that were the case.

If it happens again,you might want to open the pump and check the impeller.

If the impeller is clear, it could be a faulty pump.

Did you upgrade the electrical supply to the pump?

 

[lalittle]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

It's a possibility there was an obstruction to the impeller that quickly enough cleared itself, so this might be a one time thing. I know if it were me, I would be out there turning the thing on an off many times to see if the fault reocurred.

One of the questions the pentair guy is gonna ask is "has it happened more than one? How often has it happened? What speed were you trying to start it at when it happened?

those types of things are very useful information.

So far it hasn't happened again after several restarts, but I'll continue to test it.

I don't think it mattered what speed I was trying to start it at because it goes through the same priming stages when it starts (1800RPM, then full speed, THEN the commanded speed), and it never even got to the first step -- it just stopped immediately.

 

[lalittle]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

Possibly debris in the impeller. Make sure that the basket is clean and not cracked. Also, I would check the voltage under load to see if it drops too low. Although, I think that the pump would give you a low voltage warning if that were the case.

If it happens again,you might want to open the pump and check the impeller.

If the impeller is clear, it could be a faulty pump.

Did you upgrade the electrical supply to the pump?

The basket is brand new and not broken. Could something big enough to jam the impeller really have gotten through those little spaces in the basket? I would think that nothing big enough to cause a problem could have gotten through there.

Given that it automatically started up again after 20 seconds, wouldn't this imply that if there WAS something interfering with the impeller, it would have been cleared already? I seems more like a glitch with the electronics.

No, I didn't upgrade the electrical supply -- it's the same as before, which worked without issue for years.

Thanks again for all the feedback,

Larry

 

[JamesW]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

With the basket in place and seated correctly, it's unlikely that anything large enough to clog the impeller would have made it through the basket.

The intelliflo requires a larger electrical supply than most pumps. Therefore, it might be undersized even if it worked for your old pump.

Hopefully, it won't happen again.

 

[lalittle]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

With the basket in place and seated correctly, it's unlikely that anything large enough to clog the impeller would have made it through the basket.

The intelliflo requires a larger electrical supply than most pumps. Therefore, it might be undersized even if it worked for your old pump.

Hopefully, it won't happen again.

If the supply wasn't enough, would it make sense to get an "over current" alarm? I guess it could theoretically draw more current if the voltage dropped, but I honestly don't see why the voltage would drop.

That said, it's just a normal 240V line, and the previous pump was a 2 HP with a bad bearing. Since modern pumps are much more efficient that older ones, I would think that the VS would draw LESS power, not more, than the older pump with the bad bearing. It's also important to note that since the VS starts out at only 1800RPM (which is when it stopped), it doesn't really draw all that much power right at first.

 

[lalittle]

Re: New Intelliflo VS - "over current" alarm - glitch or more serious problem?

I spoke with Pentair, and they didn't seem concerned as long as it started up again okay, which it did. He said that these units were fairly sensitive to voltage fluctuations, and that if the pump was malfunctioning, it would have continued to give the alarm. If it simply gives the alarm and then starts up on the next try, however -- AND if it doesn't do this repeatedly -- then the issue is most likely due to a voltage spike. I would also think that a momentary UNDER voltage situation could lead to an alarm.

Anyway, the bottom line is that according to Pentair, as long as this is a relatively rare occurrence, it shouldn't be cause for concern. So far, I haven't seen it do this again, but it normally runs on a schedule, so I don't manually turn it on all that often. I'll have to wait and see if the problem repeats.