18-month old S200 appears dead

[djw]

Fedex brought the replacement S200 motor yesterday. It took 4 screws and about 5 minutes for the swap. Now runs perfectly.

So the start, move forward move backwards about a foot then stop, turned out to be a bad motor.

So if you can handle a screwdriver, the best option for purchasing and DIY for warranty repair for me hands down is Marina Pool and Spa & Margaret.

 

[BowserB]

That's encouraging to hear, since I bought my Dolphin from Marina P&S, too. I also kept the box in case of having to ship back. When I bought my M500, I had called and left a message about what I was looking to buy at a semi-local (Houston metro area is very big) dealer. They took so long to call back, I gave up and bought from Marina. When the local guy finally did call, the M500 from Marina had already arrived. The local guy's price was a couple hundred higher than Marina, and I told him I had given up waiting and where I bought it and how much I paid. He made a point of telling me they only did warranty work on units they sold, so if I brought mine to them, I'd have to pay for a repair. I'm a halfway competent DIYer, so your Marina P&S story is comforting. Thanks.

BTW, if you don't mind saying, do you leave the robot in the pool, or run it and take it out. If you do take it out, do you rinse it with fresh water before storing? Thanks again.

 

[djw]

BTW, if you don't mind saying, do you leave the robot in the pool, or run it and take it out. If you do take it out, do you rinse it with fresh water before storing? Thanks again.

My robot comes out to get emptied. That's about it.

I suppose you could make it last 10x longer by putting it in the water once or twice a week and then storing it optimally. Maybe some day I will find out.

 

[djw]

Here we go again. 29v at the power supply, but no noise from the motor. Into debug mode.

 

[markayash]

wonder if the power supply or cord are bad burning out the motors?

 

[djw]

I got to debugging on it. My hat is off to the designers of the maytronics cleaners - they are so incredibly easy to work on. This entire procedure too me maybe 10 min and I had the motor completely out, and back in. On a tigershark this process would have taken at least an hour.

The PS was 29v. Pulled the motor to check the motor end of the cord (no voltage). Disassembled the swivel - it looked ok and the round connector end had PS voltage. I cleaned it a bit, did not seem to have moisture, but it looked pretty worn. Reassembled it and had 29V at the motor end. Put it back together and it is running, but it did stop again, I swiveled the swivel and it started. So it looks like the swivel mechanism may be getting iffy.

Running now. Keeping an eye on it for a while to see what happens.

 

[markayash]

I can't remember how it looked inside, is there a spring that keeps pressure on it that could be weak?

 

[djw]

Yes I think there is a spring. It's underwater right now As with all mechanical things as fiddly as that semi-functional swivel, I see how it could wear out over time. That swivel may be the only questionable design on the s200.

 

[bmoreswim]

Sounds like if I need to replace my non-swivel cord, a new non-swivel cord is in my future (I'll take the devil I know over the devil I don't). Thanks for sharing your experiences. Hopefully you get squared away soon.

You could do the same if you have reservations I suppose.

 

[djw]

Sounds like if I need to replace my non-swivel cord, a new non-swivel cord is in my future (I'll take the devil I know over the devil I don't). Thanks for sharing your experiences. Hopefully you get squared away soon.

You could do the same if you have reservations I suppose.

Everything remains working fine. If I needed to swap cords, I would opt for non-swivel - it is not apparent to me that the swivel actually does it's job (my cord is usually in knots after a day), more expensive, one less thing to fail.

 

[HeyEng]

Thanks for the info, it could come in handy. On occasion, mine won't even start. If I unplug it from the power supply for 60 seconds or so, it seems to "correct" whatever is going on and then rocks on out. It may be just coincidental, but like that OP mine stays in the pool all the time.

 

[markayash]

Thanks for the info, it could come in handy. On occasion, mine won't even start. If I unplug it from the power supply for 60 seconds or so, it seems to "correct" whatever is going on and then rocks on out. It may be just coincidental, but like that OP mine stays in the pool all the time.

Mine has stayed in the pool 95% of the from when i got it early last year. I have cleaned the swivel a couple of times and added a little pool lube to the cane where it hits the housing.
I did take it out when I was concerned with the water freezing to be safe

 

[djw]

Mine has stayed in the pool 95% of the from when i got it early last year. I have cleaned the swivel a couple of times and added a little pool lube to the cane where it hits the housing.

I think you're right. Units that stay wet most of the time probably deserve some annual maintenance to the swivel unit.

 

[markayash]

I think you're right. Units that stay wet most of the time probably deserve some annual maintenance to the swivel unit.

Mine has a little green algae around where the cord goes through the seal. I wiped it down and added a little pool lube. The swivel did seem to act better after that also.