I notice at 9:30am this morning that water was not circulating. I checked the timer and see it had turned the pool on but stopped at that moment. The breaker at the pool was tripped for the pump. Reset it and tried again and it immediately tripped. Pump was working fine yesterday. What should I check????
Breaker tripped - where should I start looking???
- Thread starter kirbinster
- Start date
Is it a GFCI breaker? If so, start looking for water in the motor housing or conduit feeding it.
It could be the breaker, the wiring, or the pump. Since it isn't a GFI breaker, all three are fairly reliable. So there isn't an obvious first place to look. Some of the easy things to check include: make sure the pump impeller isn't completely blocked by something and the pump turns by hand, look for damage to the electrical conduit or water in the conduit. If you are electrically handy you can disconnect the wire from the pump and see if the breaker still trips, taking appropriate electrical percautions.
That is sort of what I figured, but I have a head cold today so I did not want to mess with the electrical while I am a little hazy.
Its a Hayward Super II Pump, and I can not see an easy way to try to turn it by hand. I guess maybe take the back end off the motor to gain access to the shaft?
Its a Hayward Super II Pump, and I can not see an easy way to try to turn it by hand. I guess maybe take the back end off the motor to gain access to the shaft?
I haven't tried this with a Super II Pump, but generally you can remove the strainer basket and get access through there to the impeller. Turning the impeller will turn the shaft.
If the motor is stalled or overloaded, it would try to start, then hum or strain while it heats up and either trips the breaker or activates the built-in thermal overload. But the trip should not be instantaneous when the motor is started - it'll take a second or few.
If the trip is immediate, then most likely it is not a bind or an overload. It is most likely a short (or nearly short) circuit, either between the two 220 legs, or between one of them to ground or neutral. It could either be in the motor, or in the wiring leading to it.
As a quick test, you may disconnect the wires at the motor, and insulate them with electrical tape or wirenuts so that they cannot contact anything. Then kick the power on briefly to see if the breaker trips. If so, it's the wiring. If not, it's the motor.
If the trip is immediate, then most likely it is not a bind or an overload. It is most likely a short (or nearly short) circuit, either between the two 220 legs, or between one of them to ground or neutral. It could either be in the motor, or in the wiring leading to it.
As a quick test, you may disconnect the wires at the motor, and insulate them with electrical tape or wirenuts so that they cannot contact anything. Then kick the power on briefly to see if the breaker trips. If so, it's the wiring. If not, it's the motor.
Ohm_boy - I finally got around to pulling the wires off the motor today. When the wires are off everything is fine, that is when I put power one there is no breaker trip.
I checked that the shaft was not bound, it turns freely from the back. Put the wires back on and tried again - it immediately blew the breaker again. SOooo I guess I need a new motor - Crud.
Is it worth putting a new motor on, or should I just replace the motor/pump as one unit? I think it is about three years old.
I checked that the shaft was not bound, it turns freely from the back. Put the wires back on and tried again - it immediately blew the breaker again. SOooo I guess I need a new motor - Crud.
Is it worth putting a new motor on, or should I just replace the motor/pump as one unit? I think it is about three years old.