Good morning all!
This is my first post here, although I've been a reader for years (long enough to have used the calculator before there was an app!).
I have a non-working Pentair Intelliflo VSF that I bought from a pool owner who just wanted to see it gone. I'm $50 into it. It has a August 2022 build date and was kept away from the sun so it looks brand new. Previous owner had it up for sale for a few months, so I figure it had maybe a year and a half of service, tops.
Of course, the drive is dead. Pulling the keypad cover gives a delicious smell of fried PCB. Luckily, the motor spins freely and the windings in the motor ohm out as expected, with no shorts to each other or the frame (ground). I've read here that the prevailing opinion is to replace the pump entirely when the drive goes bad, but this one is in such good condition I feel it's salvageable.
So, couple questions:
1. Has anybody had luck with Pentair honoring the three-year warranty for someone not the original purchaser? I'm reading the black-and-white of the warranty card and the warranty really whittles down to not much of one at all for such a high end product. But, sometimes customer service folks are friendly and offer a hand.
2. Has anyone gone the route of driving one of these pumps externally? Properly matched for load, a VFD screwed to the top of the motor is the same as a VFD sitting in a NEMA 4 enclosure on a wall. I've eyeballed pricing on replacement Pentair drives and I know that any solution will be a few hundred dollars, but I'm not seeing the economy of paying new-VFD prices for a used Pentair part to replace a young failed Pentair part to begin with.
I thought I'd pick everyone's brain on this and see if there's anything I've missed. This pump is pumping nothing right now so there's no time-critical need to get it running. I'm more interested in the experimentation piece with what is truthfully a pretty fine piece of pumping equipment.
This is my first post here, although I've been a reader for years (long enough to have used the calculator before there was an app!).
I have a non-working Pentair Intelliflo VSF that I bought from a pool owner who just wanted to see it gone. I'm $50 into it. It has a August 2022 build date and was kept away from the sun so it looks brand new. Previous owner had it up for sale for a few months, so I figure it had maybe a year and a half of service, tops.
Of course, the drive is dead. Pulling the keypad cover gives a delicious smell of fried PCB. Luckily, the motor spins freely and the windings in the motor ohm out as expected, with no shorts to each other or the frame (ground). I've read here that the prevailing opinion is to replace the pump entirely when the drive goes bad, but this one is in such good condition I feel it's salvageable.
So, couple questions:
1. Has anybody had luck with Pentair honoring the three-year warranty for someone not the original purchaser? I'm reading the black-and-white of the warranty card and the warranty really whittles down to not much of one at all for such a high end product. But, sometimes customer service folks are friendly and offer a hand.
2. Has anyone gone the route of driving one of these pumps externally? Properly matched for load, a VFD screwed to the top of the motor is the same as a VFD sitting in a NEMA 4 enclosure on a wall. I've eyeballed pricing on replacement Pentair drives and I know that any solution will be a few hundred dollars, but I'm not seeing the economy of paying new-VFD prices for a used Pentair part to replace a young failed Pentair part to begin with.
I thought I'd pick everyone's brain on this and see if there's anything I've missed. This pump is pumping nothing right now so there's no time-critical need to get it running. I'm more interested in the experimentation piece with what is truthfully a pretty fine piece of pumping equipment.
