Not sure if this is the correct place for these questions or not….
A few days ago I had an issue with our pump motor not turning on. I was in the house and could hear it humming rather than running. It took several seconds to get out there and turn off the timer (TightWatt) that the motor is connected to. The motor was very hot and there was the unmistakable smell of burned or hot insulation. So I naturally thought that the motor was spent. To make sure, I took it to a local shop and it checked out OK. The electrician did not think that the odor that I smelled came from the motor as there was no residual smell from the windings. His theory was that there was a high resistance connection somewhere in the circuit causing a voltage drop and the motor was not seeing enough voltage to start. He suggested to measure the voltage that the motor sees when it is trying to start and inspect the wiring for burned insulation. After assembling the motor to the pump and hooking up the wiring, everything worked perfectly. After looking at the wiring, the only evidence that I found is on a few wires near the terminal block on the timer. There is some slight corrosion on the twisted copper under some of the wire nuts, but nothing excessive. The motor/timer have been working fine for the last 1.5 weeks and none of the wires are hot/warm to the touch when the motor is on.
Nothing worse than an intermittent electrical problem!!!
TightWatt is no longer in business, so they can’t offer any advice on the wires near the terminal block or if there are components in the timer that are prone to putting off odors. Any ideas on the source of the odor or what to do at this point?
Also, if I replace the timer, what is recommended for this outside application? It seems most are mechanical in function rather than electronic, is mechanical the norm for pools?
Any advice or insight will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
A few days ago I had an issue with our pump motor not turning on. I was in the house and could hear it humming rather than running. It took several seconds to get out there and turn off the timer (TightWatt) that the motor is connected to. The motor was very hot and there was the unmistakable smell of burned or hot insulation. So I naturally thought that the motor was spent. To make sure, I took it to a local shop and it checked out OK. The electrician did not think that the odor that I smelled came from the motor as there was no residual smell from the windings. His theory was that there was a high resistance connection somewhere in the circuit causing a voltage drop and the motor was not seeing enough voltage to start. He suggested to measure the voltage that the motor sees when it is trying to start and inspect the wiring for burned insulation. After assembling the motor to the pump and hooking up the wiring, everything worked perfectly. After looking at the wiring, the only evidence that I found is on a few wires near the terminal block on the timer. There is some slight corrosion on the twisted copper under some of the wire nuts, but nothing excessive. The motor/timer have been working fine for the last 1.5 weeks and none of the wires are hot/warm to the touch when the motor is on.
Nothing worse than an intermittent electrical problem!!!
TightWatt is no longer in business, so they can’t offer any advice on the wires near the terminal block or if there are components in the timer that are prone to putting off odors. Any ideas on the source of the odor or what to do at this point?
Also, if I replace the timer, what is recommended for this outside application? It seems most are mechanical in function rather than electronic, is mechanical the norm for pools?
Any advice or insight will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
