Dolphin Triton PS motor replacements / or parts, even better!

[nanobooboo]

Hi, have my Dolphin Triton PS motor apart. Seems like I saw a post where a replacement drive motor was located. Symptoms: robot starts, moves forwards, stops, reverses and stops again. Same exact problem I had before in 2019 and "the motor was bad". Maytronics replaced it under warranty. The impeller turns, no hair or debris was in the fan. I did notice it has a "skip" - it turns, then hits a bump, then turns again with a fair amount of resistance. The drive motor puts up a good bit more resistance, but the gear moves forward and reverse. I tested the power in and have the required 29.6V DC. I plugged it in and both the motors turn, seems like the sequence is correct. I do hear a slight "sizzle" sound upon powering it up, coming from the impeller half of the opening unit. Does the impeller motor supposed to have that bump? Would that indicate the bearings are bad? Thanks!

** update: bench tested unit several more times and the impeller motor stopped. Tapped the blade and it started back up. Took it apart, tons of carbon from the bushings. Found Luke's awesome video about replacing the bearings. They are a little rough so will replace them. Does anyone have specs and sources for the brushes?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Call Margaret at Marina Pools and Spa in Colorado (easily found on the Goog) and ask her about parts. She's a wiz at this stuff and may be able to help. I hope so

Maddie

 

[Viper501]

I found that the brushes for the motor on my Triton PS Plus were severely worn down to the point that they were not making full contact. I was able to give them a little slack by repositioning the wires that lead to the brushes and it started working fine. On the other hand, it died about a year later. I've just torn it down again thinking that the brushes would need to actually be replaced only to find that it was full of water inside. I suspect a shaft seal failed for the drive motor or the impeller. Time for a replacement.

 

[nanobooboo]

Hi, so I had to hunt around a lot but I did finally find an older guy who does motor repairs. He scrounged around and found me a set of brushes which I had to wear down a little to the correct size. I will solder those into place and run this thing on the bench to test. NOW the question is, what is the best type of O-ring sealant to use to keep the water out? I see there are basically two types, silicone and teflon. My first best inclination would be silicone. The OCD in me wants to wipe down the O-ring before applying the new lubricant. What would be a safe cleaner to not harm the rubber? I'm so close to getting this together that I don't want to kill all this work with a water leak!

 

[Viper501]

I ended up having a water leak in the housing which eventually fried the motor / board inside. I think if I did it again I would use some RTV very sparingly.

 

[nanobooboo]

OK, I got the new brushes onto the impeller motor and all that went well. It was a task getting those screws back in, but a wooden shishkabob skewer lined it up nicely. All tests went great! Put him back into the water. It goes forward, goes backward, climbs the steps, but won't pick up anything. Checked everything again, even held it upside down in the pool to see what was going on. Help! If I spend any more time with this thing, it's gonna have to marry me.

 

[nanobooboo]

OK, I got the new brushes onto the impeller motor and all that went well. It was a task getting those screws back in, but a wooden shishkabob skewer lined it up nicely. All tests went great! Put him back into the water. It goes forward, goes backward, climbs the steps, but won't pick up anything. Checked everything again, even held it upside down in the pool to see what was going on. Help! If I spend any more time with this thing, it's gonna have to marry me.

 

[lykedoctor]

OK, I got the new brushes onto the impeller motor and all that went well. It was a task getting those screws back in, but a wooden shishkabob skewer lined it up nicely. All tests went great! Put him back into the water. It goes forward, goes backward, climbs the steps, but won't pick up anything. Checked everything again, even held it upside down in the pool to see what was going on. Help! If I spend any more time with this thing, it's gonna have to marry me.

My dude, we need to have a beer together after fighting those motor housings! That was one of the most frustrating reassemblies I have done. One the 2nd motor brush replacement i did I made sure to draw lines across all the joints so I could easily realign everything and you definitely need a "skewer" device to line up those blind holes. Also that little metallic o-ring that was impossible to keep in place. Holy Crud I am glad I could vent about this 6 months after the fact! It's so depressing how a 1 dollar brush can fix these robots but Maytronics wants $400+ for the entire motor assembly unit. Also these motors are like $12 motors from China.

Cheers!