New Whisperflo Pump Trips Breaker

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J

jzerf

0
Mar 9, 2008
5
I just finished installing my new 1.5 HP Whisperflo Pump (one speed 230V). My old pump pump was a 2HP Mustang (230v). I connected electrical with ground going to ground, one hot to Line 1 and the other to Line 2. I fired up the pump and after about 3 or 4 seconds of the pump trying to prime it trips the 20 amp breaker. Suspect of my connections I reconnected and made sure they were tight, fired up the pump again only to have it trip the breaker again. I pulled the connections off one more time and pulled out my voltage meter and both line 1 and line 2 measure 120 v. I don't understand as the old pump was running fine with the same electrical circuit and runs at a higher amperage rating then the whisperflo.

One thing I don't understand is the factory has a white wired connection on one of the Line 2 poles that connects somewhere into the motor. does this white wire stay connected? Of course Pentair seems to have no trouble shooting information anywhere that I can find for electrical issues.

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem with the Whisperflo? I can't believe I may have to call for pool service because of a tripping breaker!

Any help is greatly appreciated!!
 
The WFE-26, WF-6 and WF-26 are all 1.5HP WhisperFlos with 115/230 motors. The WFE-6 is the only single speed 1.5HP single phase WhisperFlo. If you have the WFE-6, there is only one way to wire, otherwise you have a jumper.
 
I checked and it is the WFE-6. Not sure what the wire is doing but it goes from Line 2 to somewhere inside the motor. Perhaps that is not the cause of my issue then.

The wiring diagram looks like this:

A
Line 1 ------- Line 1
Line 2 ------- Line 2 -------- White
B
 
There isn't really any way to wire that model wrong and have it work at all. That means that either the pump or the breaker is defective. Since the breaker was working before, it is most likely the pump that is defective.
 
We had kinda the same issue when we put our sand filter in. We went from cartridge to sand, kept the exsiting pump which worked just fine. Shut everything down hooked up the sand filter, and went to the garage to flip the breaker and WAM it would trip right off the bat. Did this for almost a half hour before my hubby tried something. We have a GFI breaker, so he held the test button in while he turned the breaker back on and this allowed the pump to fully prime and WOOHOOO it worked and havent had a prb since. Just my opinion on what we did to get out pump running
 
I received my new motor from Pentair via the Warranty process. I put the defective one on the tool bench and decided to inspect the starting cap again. After removing the cover this time I noticed two tiny black marks on the inside cover where the wires attach to the capacitor. I suddenly realized that the cap was shorting on the inside cover because it was not seated in the correct position. I reseated it correctly, put the new pump back inline, and presto it works!!

I could of saved myself much aggravation if I just noticed that before!
 
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