Spa booster pump shuts off quickly after startup

[Guest]

Have an older spa booster pump (1.5 horsepower replacement series hayward) that just started intermittently shutting off right after startup. Some of the time, it would trip the breaker, sometimes not. It will run, then stop, then automatically restart. The run times are in the few seconds, no more. No external water leaks that I know of.

Advice of what is possibly wrong?

I do have a 1 horsepower rs1000 hayward i just have laying around after installing an intelliflo replacement pump, with a leaky seal. Would it make sense to replace the seal and use that instead of the 1.5 booster I have now? Would flow/bubbles be dramatically less?

 

[Guest]

Have an older spa booster pump (1.5 horsepower replacement series hayward) that just started intermittently shutting off right after startup. Some of the time, it would trip the breaker, sometimes not. It will run, then stop, then automatically restart. The run times are in the few seconds, no more. No external water leaks that I know of.

Advice of what is possibly wrong?

I do have a 1 horsepower rs1000 hayward i just have laying around after installing an intelliflo replacement pump, with a leaky seal. Would it make sense to replace the seal and use that instead of the 1.5 booster I have now? Would flow/bubbles be dramatically less?

bump. Any ideas here? Read somewhere it might be a starter capacitor. Is this sufficiently DIY?

 

[Bama Rambler]

The restarting doesn't sound like the cap. It sounds more like thermal tripping. If you have a motor shop near your best bet would be let them look at it and give you a prognosis.

 

[Guest]

The strange (or not?) thing is that this motor will exhibit these problems while cold. Today I attempted to turn the motor on (flip the switch) and nothing happened, not even an attempted start. I again tried, and the motor started, and immediately (1 second?) stopped. Then I opened up the pump basket and felt around for the impeller (which turned and felt OK/undamaged to the touch), closed it, and restarted it. Ran fine for a few minutes. Turned it off manually, and then attempted to switch it back on. Ditto. No power and can't get it to restart.

The day I made this post, the motor never ran for more than a few seconds and never got even warm to the touch.

 

[cheddar85]

If it's only running for a few seconds, it shouldn't be getting hot enough to trip the thermal cutout. However, if the bearings or windings are going bad, it could certainly build up enough heat to cut out pretty quick.

The thermal cutout itself could be bad. Or possibly, since it does trip the breaker also (sometimes), the windings could be on their way out also.

Is the motor running slow or making any strange noises? Any extra information would help pinpoint the problem.

 

[Guest]

If it's only running for a few seconds, it shouldn't be getting hot enough to trip the thermal cutout. However, if the bearings or windings are going bad, it could certainly build up enough heat to cut out pretty quick.

The thermal cutout itself could be bad. Or possibly, since it does trip the breaker also (sometimes), the windings could be on their way out also.

Is the motor running slow or making any strange noises? Any extra information would help pinpoint the problem.

Not really sure since it is just a motor I use for bubbles, so I don't really have a controlled way to evaluate the quality of its sound. That said, this motor (as well as most others) at high rpm of course sound sickly in comparison the the fluid VS3050 running a smooth 1300rpm. Do you think replacing it with a 1HP will sacrifice much in terms of bubbles? I have a working spare lying around. This pump barely gets used.

 

[cheddar85]

Do you think replacing it with a 1HP will sacrifice much in terms of bubbles? I have a working spare lying around. This pump barely gets used.

Probably not too much, but which sounds better? Less bubbles than before or none at all? Hook it up and give it a shot. If you're not happy with how it works, then you can worry about getting the broken one fixed or replaced.