Pool pump shutting off when switched to high speed after a few seconds

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Mar 26, 2017
79
Gilbert
Hello,
I hope someone could help me out, I have a Pentair Whisperflo 1.5 HP two speed pump. The pool pump runs fine on low speed but when switched to high speed, after making a little different louder humming noise than usual, it starts for about 2-3 seconds and shuts off. If I am fast enough and switch it back to low on those between those 2-3 seconds it continues to run, otherwise it just shuts off and I need to wait a few minutes before it would allow me to turn it back on and run it on low again. I have a start capacitor and a run capacitor on top of the motor. Does this sounds like a bad capacitor?
 
James, I took it to the shop and they said something was stuck in the windings. So they offered to rebuild the old one or buy a variable speed one. Since my two speed pump was about 12 years old I decided to go with the new one.
My old one goes to two timers. One that runs in low most of the day and the second one at high at night. I took pictures of the wiring so I could put it back the same way. The new one only had a green and the two loads. The old one had the green, two loads and a purple which I believe it's the one that goes to the switch in the motor. They told me to ignore the purple and remove it or cap it off. I went to the timer panel and found the purple wire had come off and was not connected. This purple wire is also on the high timer switch side. I figured that was my issue to start with so I called the shop and questioned if did could've had anything to do or cause the "stuck" winding issue. They said if these high and low come up at the same time, it is possible the windings got fused together. How would it come on high and low at the same time if the wire got disconnected?
I wired the new motor in and capped off the purple. Turned on the power at the electric box and nothing. The display on top doesn't even come up. Any ideas? Also was I told the truth about my old one?
 
Here is a picture of my old motor wiring and also the two timers. The low speed timer switch and the high speed timer switch with the purple wire.View attachment 58439View attachment 58438image2.jpg
That purple wire was off and not connected. I am not sure how it came off loose. Since I left the old motor behind, I was not able to hook it back up to make sure that the old motor was indeed having a problem with the windings or if it was just that the purple wire was off. Do I need to connect the purple and orange together on the new motor?
 
You have a lot going on with the wiring and it’s hard to be sure without being on site. Some of the wiring looks bad and I suspect that you have some bad contacts as well. I recommend that you get an electrician to check it out and wire it correctly.

However, I will give you my best estimate of what you have. But don’t go by this.

The timer in the bottom picture is a double pole, single throw switch. 240 volts from the breaker come in on two wires going to terminals 1 and 3. This timer turns the pump on and off. We’ll call this the On/Off timer.

The timer in the top picture is the two speed switch. It is a single pole, double throw timer. We’ll call this the two-speed timer.

When the On/Off timer is on, 1 closes to 2 and 3 closes to 4. When the On/Off timer is off, 1 is not connected to 2 and 3 is not connected to 4.

When the On/Off timer is on, On/Off timer terminal 2 sends power to pump terminal 1. Pump terminal 1 is the common line.

When the On/Off timer is on, On/Off timer terminal 4 sends power to terminal 1 of the two-speed timer and through the purple jumper to terminal 3 of the two-speed timer.

The purpose of the two speed timer is to switch from high to low speed. It has two positions. In one position, 1 closes to 2 and 3 and 4 are open. In the other position, 3 closes to 4 and 1 and 2 are open.

The two-speed timer terminal 2 goes to pump terminal 3, which powers low speed (purple wire). The two-speed timer terminal 4 goes to pump terminal 2, which powers high speed (orange wire).

If your new pump is 240 single speed, then you don’t need the two-speed timer. You just use the On/Off timer. You would have a wire going from terminal 2 to one pump terminal and a wire going from terminal 4 to the other pump terminal. You could use the orange or purple one. The orange looks burned in one spot, so maybe use the purple one.

Again, this is just an estimate. You really need someone on site that can check everything.
 
James you are absolutely correct. This is exactly how its setup and you also described how my timer switch work. After you described this and I followed the wiring, I am now wondering if I might have yanked the purple one when I was disconnecting the old motor. There's no way that it would've worked even on low speed if the purple wire was loose to start with. This is what the shop told me as well when I explained that I found the purple one just dangling loose. They were baffled as to how it was working on low speed. It was probably me when I disconnected the pump to take it to the shop. Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.
 
James, pump is up and running. Thanks again for your clear, thorough explanation of what I had going on. It made me understand how this was all setup. The other cables you see in the pictures are connected to the pool light and the other one is my waterfall pump. It's all wired up at the bottom and not showing in the picture. I am not an electrician but with great explanation that make sense like yours, I could manage my way around. All I had to do was completely disconnect the second timer. I was left with the purple and orange wire. I just removed the orange wire, and just connected the purple on load 4. All the rest where already were they were supposed to be :). Again thanks so much for your help!
 

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James the pool pump has been working great, no issues but I want to clarify something as I thought I understood the logic of a timer install and now I am double guessing myself after looking at the picture of the on/off timer. I thought as required by code, wiring is supposed to follow certain color coding. I guess I thought it was more strict than what I am finding out. My confusion perhaps comes from thinking the 240v wires coming from the breaker should always be black and red but I am coming to find out that as long as it's a hot color coded wire then two reds, two blacks etc. could be used? If I understand the pump timer wiring correctly by looking at install videos, the L1 and L3 on a T104 timer/pump install are usually red and black wires coming from the breaker. The pump wires which are the load wires are supposed to be connected to Load 2 and Load 4.
My line wires seemed to be both red. Since I removed the second timer, I just proceeded to hook the purple wire to the load terminal marked 4 (4th post from left to right). If I was to follow the standard of the I thought existed with the red and black wire, it might seem my Line1 - Load 1; Line 2- Load 2 setup on this timer picture goes from to right to left. It seems like a lot of babble but I am trying to understand the color coding logic that seems to vary from electrician to electrician. It seems as long as they follow the code and use a hot color coded wire then it's ok.
Maybe I am overthinking this. Again there are no issues but I want to understand. It would make sense to me that the wires coming from the breaker would be the red and black as those are also thicker.
 
Aside from green wire you can use any color for any connection. Qualified electricians and good DIY people will do there best to stick to using the same colored wire the same way. When diving into a panel especially one that is wired with THHN you should always trace out the wires and make sure you know what the person who wired it before you did. Sometimes it's almost easier to rip out all the wire and start again. I've had the pleasure of working in panels where every wire is white and half the wire labels have fallen off or are unreadable.

The standardized colors in NM wire (romex) that all houses are wired with these days generally takes most of the confusion out of things, but You should always verify with a meter. When it comes to outdoor pool panels NM and direct burial wire is against code so you loose the prepackaged standardized colors of those cables. Often times when running THHN in conduit people will make do using an off color because its what they have and don't want to spend the money to buy a different color. You can technically use any color wire you want to make a ground connection so long as you mark it as a ground wire say by putting a green piece of tape on it. The only thing you are never supposed to do is use green jacketed wire as a hot wire.

Sadly I have even seen green wire used as a hot wire. A good multi meter is you best friend and might save your life or your expensive pool pump. No the free one from harbor freight doesn't count.
 
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