CoverStar cover trips GFCI, motor appears bad, how to prevent in future?

[gtemkin]

Starting a month ago, my CoverStar started tripping its GFCI when being closed. What started as 1 trip per closing has become many trips per closing.

Replacing the GFCI had no effect. Measured the circuit wiring without the motor connected with a Fluke handheld; it was over-range (>40Mohms). Measured the motor and it was 500Kohms to 1.5Mohms (varied if I measured it in the cold, damp morning or if the sun made an appearance midday).

So it appears the motor is bad. I'm just over 2 years since it was installed so I believe, this time, it will be covered by warranty. Seattle has been very rainy this winter. The motor and mechanism are set down in a chamber behind the pool. The chamber does drain however it's certainly stays damp all winter. Plenty of slugs and worms and spiders live down there.

Any idea if this is what I can expect at any frequency in the future or is this an unusual failure? Should I encase the motor in a sealed dry box to minimize it's exposure to damp conditions? I'm thinking it has such intermittent operation that it doesn't need much in the way of air circulation for cooling (I think it's a totally "sealed" motor already).

Appreciate any comments or advice.

 

[JasonLion]

Those symptoms are not all that common. The GFCI tripping usually means water has gotten into the electrical system somewhere. Damp isn't enough to cause that. The meter readings suggest that the problem is at the motor, instead of in the wiring.

If you can get it properly fixed it shouldn't reoccur. But there is some risk that there are two problems, the GFCI tripping and now something else in addition. If so, fixing one of them won't be enough to prevent it from happening again.

 

[gtemkin]

Guess it's possible there's another contributing cause like motor being overstressed due to mis-adjustment of friction brake that then causes motor insulation to degrade, but because all the scenarios I come up with are pretty far fetched I'm going to assume this is just a random failure. In any case, it gave me an excuse to clean out the chamber and flush out the cold brewed leaf tea at the chamber bottom.

 

[racket]

How old is the cover motor?

 

[gtemkin]

2 years and 4 months. It is covered under warranty, but if the next motor only lasts 2+ years, that's going to get very expensive, because by then I'm not sure if it will be covered. I'll have to ask that question.