pump hums but doesn't turn on, hot housing

[Tere]

Considering this Hayward pump has only been pumping off and on for 24 hours, it's is now humming and not turning on. The housing is hot, hotter than I would have expected a pump to be. I ran the pump 4 hours some on high yesterday and some times low after I glued all my connections the day before. I turned it off for the night as I wanted to watch it. I was skimming dog hair ( she discovered the pool and had a few jump ins) and had the pump on high after for about an hour, emptying the skimmer basket and sock frequently. It was on low some today also. I shut of the pump to use the power cord to drill and reconnected and now the new Hayward is humming. Our sun is intense-any idea if external temp has much to do with overheating?

Husband says 15 amp 3 prong 50 ft extension cord should be ok. Manual doesn't seem to like extension cords. In manual it was under Motor hums but does not start: Check centifugal switch to see if stuck open or binding of motor shaft,

Manual does say it has an overheat shut off too.

Any ideas?

Just when it was going so well. We are planning on having an electrician come out for it's own electricity.

:-(

 

[jrs_diesel]

Motors pulls the most power at startup, so I'm not surprised that it's overheating as it it trying to spin and it can't. A few things could have happened:

- Impeller clogged and preventing motor from rotating.
- Start capacitor burned out, this will prevent a motor from starting
- Centrifugal switch stuck preventing connection to the start capacitor

The capacitor can only be checked with it disconnected and with a electrical meter that has the ability to check capacitors.

Extension cords are not a good idea. A bad idea if the cord does not have big enough wire gauge, the cord can overheat and presents a fire hazard.

It's good your having an electrician come out and give it permanent wiring. Please ensure that there is a GFCI installed for your pump. The NEC (National Electric Code) requires GFCI protection on all pool pumps now.

 

[Tere]

JR my husband is an electrical engineer and has some meters, I'll ask him. I checked the impeller and it does turn. There was no dog hair in the pump basket at all. Husband said capacitor is 106 ?micro ferrets

OK I found the centrifugal, open close open close. Now to put it all back together back.

There is a 3 1/2 week wait for small motor repair as I was just at the lawn mower place.

What are the chances running the pump at high with a skimmer sock with a small amount of dog hair did this, or was it the extension cord? and the hot sun? The sun is very intense here and the metal housing was very hot. I learned that the centrifugal switch gets upset if there is not enough electricity like from and extension cord.

wish me luck cause the pools gonna turn green.

I'm not sure I can get an electrician here very fast and I sure don't think he wants to dig a trench.

I did read in the instructions under "shaft seal change Instructions" "Do not use extension cord" BUT because I was not doing a shaft seal change I neglected to read this part. It also says "no more than a 3 ft twist lock cord set with GFCI". I saw the twist lock cord at Lowes and thought the plug surely can't go into that.

I told my husband I want a simple Intex pool but he insisted on a better pool.

so I guess back to just a submersible sump pump to circulate and use bleach? Until electrician can come, dig a trench and hard wire.

 

[jrs_diesel]

The motor can either be hard wired to a motor controller or be wired with a twist lock style plug (if using a plug, this is safer than a normal outlet since it can't be accidentally pulled out).

The impeller turns, which indicates that the rotor turns freely and is not jammed.

106 micro Farads seems ok, but you'll have to check the manual or the capacitor itself for the correct rating and compare that with your test result.

The extension cord may have contributed to the problem you have, especially if the wire was too small. Big loads and small wires don't get along. If the wires were too small for the load, there is a chance that the voltage drop at the end of the cord fed your pump low voltage. And motors do not like low voltage. I can't say for sure that this your problem or not.

The skimmer sock, sunlight, and dog hair did not cause your pump to fail. My pump sits out in the Texas sun and I use skimmer socks, no problems. These pumps are designed to be outside. Just ensure that the air vents are always clear. Starving a pump for water usually damages the pump side (called the wet end), not the electric motor.

In the meantime while the pump is not working, you can still use bleach and circulate the water manually. Many ways of doing this. Brushing the pool walls will move water, even more so if you have the "wall whale" brush. Swimming will move water around. Sub pump will do it too. This will help keep your pool from turning green.

 

[Tere]

Hi JR, The capacitor says on it 108 micro ferrets so pretty close. EE husband said same thing extension cord dripped voltage. Could have been the garage freezer is on that ? circuit too. This house is so under electrified. The pump was beautifully filled with water so no way that was sucking air. I was outside a few hours near the pool before it happened. It was running fine till I shut off the pump, unplugged the pump and use the cord for the drill to screw on the pool top rail then tried to plug in and switch on and hmmmmmm.

I tried activating the centrifugal switch but I really don't know what is on or off. I didn't want to remove the springs and the switch though painted red is very hard to get too. I wish my 17 y.o son would take an interest in motors and not the XBox ( useless).

I could call the poolsupples.com but I think they will say I did it with the extension cord.

 

[mgarf33]

Im sure I can't be the only one thinking....if your husband is an EE, why are you messing with it?

I would NOT run a refrigerator and a pool pump off of a 15A circuit?

You need a dedicated GFCI circuit from the main panel to the pump, and wire it properly.

Start with that, then double check to make sure you're capacitor is not reading Nano Farads, as many meters are auto ranging.
Also, if it has a bleed resistor across the terminals, it will not show a proper reading through a multimeter. You have to disconnect at least one lead of the resistor.

Is it a run capacitor or a start capacitor? Are you certain you're looking at a centrifugal switch?

There are other ways to check run capacitors, but it would be only for the electrically savvy.

 

[Tere]

lol the reason I do all this is cause he is allergic to "sweat". He has no desire to be involved so I called an expensive electrician, who is an outdoor/spa/pool type electrician. He is capable of fixing multi million dollar semiconductors.

I'll check the other stuff you mentioned. But I'll check on finding an expert to fix the pump. We had a flood and it ruined the ceiling and walls, still not fixed 2 yrs later maybe 3. He doesn't like rushing things.

 

[morzh]

I feel for you.
We, EEs, are indeed often allergic to any kind of yardwork, especially in the summer when it is hot.
The sole reason I do the pool 'cause there is no way in heck my lady will do it, even regular maintenance, let alone actual troubleshooting or handling wires.
He is lucky

 

[jrs_diesel]

Capacitor sounds fine. 2 micro Farads difference is within 5% tolerance.

If the centrifugal switch moves freely, and springs back to its default position, then it's likely fine too.

I'm thinking the motor itself may have some sort of problem (shorted winding, etc).

A standard fridge pulls around 6-8 amps by itself when it runs, so I'm a little surprised that the breaker didn't trip when the pump kicked on (when it worked).

 

[morzh]

that has to be some mammoth fridge as most if them are about 200W, the worst never exceeding 400W. Which would roughly translate into 2 to 4 Amps, even accounting for power factor. Starting current is large, but running is not. A fridge of medium size costs 16-20 bucks a month if this much.

 

[Tere]

the pump doctor said it wasn't the extension cord unless the freezer came on the same time the pump was on high. He reset the centrifugal switch which I had bent a bit beating the thing up putting it back together. $50 but 2 days only turn around. I have 3 electricians coming next week for an estimate. One charges for the estimate $29 or wait a few weeks longer and it's free go figure. I might cancel him. It's one of those jobs where they make a one price for the job so no way to compare, I'm not thrilled with that sort of bid. The other two were recommended but pool spa stores. Both have good references.

So far I'm plugging in the pump to a bedroom outlet through a window and running it only on low for 1 hr just to mix chemicals.

Thanks