Air Blower Dying After Minutes

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NotAnAd

In The Industry
Mar 30, 2024
45
Jersey Shore, NJ
The “Silencer” air blower will turn on strong and run for about 5 minutes and then stop.
Breaker is not tripped.
It’s about 10 years old but the issue has occurred for last few years.
I was thinking of just replacing it but is there another issue that could be causing this?
Anyone have a similar experience?
 
Thermal overload. Mine will occasionally do that when I am using it to winterize my water features. Have to wait a decent amount of time for it to reset.

--Jeff
 
Best I can figure is too much backpressure on the blower. Some sort of blockage or something like that. If the blower is 10 years old, the thermal overload may be weak and tripping out sooner than a 'fresh' one may.

That is just my best guess.

--Jeff
 
In the 10 years the blower was in place has the pump been replaced with a more powerful pump?

The blower has to be able to overpower the water flow from the spa jet pump. If the spa jet pump was upgraded to a more powerful pump the blower can overheat.

If it is a VS pump, reduce the RPM until the blower stays on.
 
ajw22 said:
In the 10 years the blower was in place has the pump been replaced with a more powerful pump?

The blower has to be able to overpower the water flow from the spa jet pump. If the spa jet pump was upgraded to a more powerful pump the blower can overheat.

If it is a VS pump, reduce the RPM until the blower stays on.
Click to expand...
No, still and always has been an old school 1.5HP Hayward SuperPump. I guess I will inspect what I can for blockage before trying a new blower. It’s a tiny pool. The one thing I did notice while it was running was that it was only bubbling out of a few returns. Not all of them.
 
NotAnAd said:
The one thing I did notice while it was running was that it was only bubbling out of a few returns. Not all of them.
Click to expand...

That is a clue. I am sure when new it bubbled out of all the jets.

A blockage in the air line not letting all the air blow out from the jets will overheat the blower with too much back pressure.
 
ajw22 said:
That is a clue. I am sure when new it bubbled out of all the jets.

A blockage in the air line not letting all the air blow out from the jets will overheat the blower with too much back pressure.
Click to expand...
If there’s some sort of blockage deep in the line that’s not visible, and unfixable. (Client is not going to dig up the whole yard over this.) Would a less HP blower have a higher overheating threshold?
 

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Create a manometer with some vinyl tubing to measure the backpressure.

Spa Blower Help needed -pics attached!

First of all, thanks again to all in this invaluable forum. We're over a year into our build, and have water in the pool, and nearly everything complete. However, I cannot get attention from my pool builder and am past the point of frustration. I got a verbal agreement from her to have the...
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swamprat69 said:
Most normal multimeters can check amps below 10 amps when put in series with the motor. Just be sure to insulate any meter or motor leads.
Click to expand...
Think that’s above my level of electrical knowledge for now. I’ll have to just try to figure out if there’s a blockage or maybe remove the blower from the pipe and see if it runs or dies when there is no back pressure. I can maybe create a vent in the line like others have mentioned.
 
We seem to be working on the wrong assumptions. If the airflow is being restricted, the motor is doing less work and the amp draw would go down not increase. Only variable speed and constant torque motors would see an increase in amp draw from a restriction. But if the motor is an AO (air over) motor that uses the airflow to cool the motor that could cause the motor to overheat from the reduced aiflow and cooling. I know the blower for my spa jets is not cemented to the pvc, and lifts right off. If you remove the blower from the pvc and run it with no restrictions and the amp draw does not exceed the nameplate rating and it runs ok then it may be shutting off due to a restriction. If it still shuts off you may have a problem with either the motor bearings or the internal temperature sensor.
 
Yes, but the air that is compressed would only be on the outlet side of the blower and the volume of air would be reduced due to the supposed restriction. An AO motor is cooled by the air from the blower inlet, The inlet air volume would also be reduced due to a restriction.
 

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