Pump Question

[Raceman]

Running pump continuously over the weekend, and it got awfully hot, could just about keep my hand on it.

It's in direct Arizona sunshine, so most things are prone to getting hot, but is this normal, or should I be looking at new pumps in the near future?

 

[Charlie_R]

Try putting some sort of shade cover about a ft over it, and check it several times during a long run.

 

[duraleigh]

Too hot to keep your hand on it for more than a few seconds is pretty normal. Shading it is always a good idea.

 

[mas985]

How old is the pump and has it started making any unusual noises? Is this the first time you checked the heat or did it run cooler before?

 

[Raceman]

Hi,
Thanks for your comments so far.

I have literally just bought the house, so have no idea what it was like before. It's a Hayward I believe, 1.5hp, and quite possibly the original pump. did seem a little noisy originally, but once I cleared the large amount of leaves and seeds for the traps, the noise changed noticably, and it SEEMS to sound ok to me, if possibly a little loader than I would have thought.

One small "problem" is that I seem to have self clean pop up nozzles in the pool, and when certain of them pop up, just for a few seconds, I get a slight pipe "hammering" noise from the pipework, what might that be? Also I seem to have 3 returns in the walls of the pool, only 1 of which seems to have a flow, the one furthest from the skimmer, but the pop ups seems to have adequate pressure. Is that normal?

With regards shade, was thinking of boxing the pump, and some of the rest of the pool equipment in, to keep it a little shaded, anbd to keep noise down. Is that a good idea, or will it get to hot?

Thanks in advance

(Stil waiting for testing kit, ordered from ebay, one of the
ones you suggest for only $52

 

[mas985]

Water hammer occurs when there is a sharp change in water flow. It might be indicative of a poor design but without reviewing the entire plumbing setup, it is hard to say.

But the hot motor could be due to bearings that are starting fail so I would keep an eye on that. If the pump starts to shut off on its own, it may be time for a new motor. As for shading the pump, you can use a box but keep the ends clear so there is some air flow through the box. A higher shade is usually better but for most pump motors, you really shouldn't need any sort of shade. They are designed to work in direct sunlight. Of course there are other reasons to keep the sun and rain off the pump.

 

[gwc]

The nameplate of the motor has a temperature rating. The photo shows the AMB = 50 degrees C. That means the motor temperature can be the ambient air temperature plus 122 degrees F. If the sun has the motor at 100 F then it could be 222 F when fully loaded. Quote "The ambient temperature plus the
temperature rise is the maximum temperature" at which the motor should operate at full load.

 

[mas985]

Heat gain of the motor and sunlight is not directly additive because heat loss is also proportional to difference between the air temperature and the temperature of the motor housing so under normal operating conditions as the motor temperature increases, so does the heat loss. I have had my pump motor in direct sunlight on 110F days without any issue.

BTW, AMB 50C means that the motor is rated to operate in an ambient temperature of no more than 50C. However, it does not specify the maximum motor temperature. That can be much higher than 50C.

http://www.pdhonline.org/courses/e156/e156content.pdf