So this just happened....

[Saturn94]

…I dislike anything Jandy/Polaris/Zodiac. Of the “big three” pool equipment makers, they are the “most evil”. …

I’m curious why you say this.

My experience with the Polaris 280, purchased from Amazon in spring 2012, has been good. When I installed it, I messed up on the hose measurement and cut it in the wrong place. I contacted Zodiac about purchasing a new hose, but they sent me one for free despite it being my fault.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Matt, this is a great investigation you're doing and documenting. I appreciate it much. I can't stand the thought of not being able to get another s200. And I completely agree that motor is very poor choice for that application. I wonder if there is any way to get an alternate motor and replace it before the two-year mark or something like that. Seems like the right motor for that application could easily yield 5 plus year life.

There is no alternate motor. The top plate of the motor is a custom brass bushing for the motor shaft that seals to the motor housing body. It also holds the front bearing. So it appears these motors are either manufactured as a complete unit or Maytronics (in Israel) does a little custom engineering of their own. Either way, it’s not a simple swap. As well, I have never seen the water pump motor unit sold separately. I have seen the other motor (drive motor) sold as a replacement item. So it doesn’t seem that Maytronics wants anyone replacing these pump motors which is both sad and frustrating.

I’m going to search for the rear bearings tomorrow. I believe it is possible to rebuild these motors with a little bit on elbow grease and tenacity…

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Geez Louise. That’s a lot for something disposable. Maybe if there were other cheaper versions. I could see myself spending $400 for a 5 year run, but more than that seems unreasonable. Maybe $500? I don’t know. Though never say never! I secretly want one still and my husband is a fan of “high tech”

Appreciate you delving deep for the greater good. I’m learning a lot from your investigation.

It’s definitely a steep hill for a lot of people. Yes, yes, yes, pools are luxury items and all that blah, blah, blah, but …. Maytronics can do better. If every one of their robots lasted 5+ year without malfunction, you could almost justify their high price. But, many robots are duds out of the box which, if your patient, can get covered under warranty. But what about the robots that fail at 2 years and 6 months? That’s outside the warranty period and means someone will either be buying a new robot or laying down $450 for a new motors assembly … that’s ridiculous. Maytronics ought to be offering prorated warranty, something along the lines of a 5 to 7 year warranty. That would certainly make the later-life cycle failures more palatable to the robot owner.

But, Maytronics doesn’t care about the end user, they only care about the sales channel. They have to sell and warranty robots according to what the retail shops want or else the shops won’t move their product. Hopefully some very stiff competition will come their way and use direct sales to the consumer to challenge Maytronics into being a better company … I wont hold my breath though ….

 

[mgtfp]

Thanks for sharing the complete life cycle of your robot with us, Matt. I was toying for a while with the idea of replacing my suction cleaner with a robot, but kept wondering if it's really worth the money. I think your story was the last nail into this idea's coffin.

 

[Mdragger88]

When I decided to pull the trigger on a bot the cost compared to longevity was a huge part of my decision. That is why I chose a refurbished model to reduce overall cost. $100/year for 5yrs for a clean pool is reasonable to me but $200/yr is a no go for my budget. Neither choice is cheap by any means but it’s definitely a luxury type of product. I know people who have large older model dolphins that are still kicking so obviously Maytronics has sacrificed some things to make them more financially accessible with the newer low profile models vs the old school big float handle models which are now only available as premium or commercial models with a huge price tag.

 

[setsailsoon]

I'm in similar situation on the budget. Seems like there's Definitely orin opening in the market for a modular design - even if it's at a moderately higher cost.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I've got a new rear bearing and new carbon brushes on order. ~ $40 worth of parts. I'll rebuild the pump motor and see if I can't get Mr. T back to life ... it's a quadruple by-pass surgery so wish him luck ...

 

[Mdragger88]

Awaiting the results of your experiment !

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I love McMaster-Carr. Ordered the parts at 1pm Arizona MST and they replied in 30 mins that all my parts are in the mail and will be here by Thursday …

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Awaiting the results of your experiment !

Literally in my Top 5 favorite movies of all time …

 

[setsailsoon]

Literally in my Top 5 favorite movies of all time …

Why does that not surprise me!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Cleaning up the motor and parts in anticipation of new bearings and carbon blocks -

IMG_4680.jpeg

• JoyfulNoise
• Apr 26, 2022

Clean(ish) rotor

That rear bearing really is shot. After cleaning it up it really does not turn smoothly at all. Thankfully the front bearing is fine as it turns very smoothly.

Also, the back plate that houses the carbon brushes has a red and black wire. These are brushed DC motors so polarity matters. If you connect the wires backwards then the impeller spins the wrong way and you'll probably launch the robot out of the pool ... yellow strip under the cover plate corresponds to where the black wire is connected ...

52910747-F710-4DCC-9E56-2F5407EA02BE_1_201_a.jpeg

• JoyfulNoise
• Apr 26, 2022

Back plate of DC pump motor ... yellow strip is black terminal

 

[wireform]

If you have a drill press I'd grab one end in the chuck and the opposite side still with bearing attached in a vise below and clean up the commutator. It looks like it's not flat where the brushes make contact. Also scrape clean the lines between the commutator segments.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

If you have a drill press I'd grab one end in the chuck and the opposite side still with bearing attached in a vise below and clean up the commutator. It looks like it's not flat where the brushes make contact. Also scrape clean the lines between the commutator segments.

The commutator is not flat, it’s scalloped slightly. I don’t know how much that will matter as it was like that when I opened it up. And yeah, I need some thin stiff plastic to clean in between the segments.

 

[Katodude]

If you connect the wires backwards then the impeller spins the wrong way and you'll probably launch the robot out of the pool

I might actually pay to see that.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

WOW … I ordered these online YESTERDAY AFTERNOON -



In the era of COVID supply chain headaches, this is as close to a shipping miracle as you get … even Amazon wanted 2 days to ship.

 

[wireform]

The commutator is not flat, it’s scalloped slightly. I don’t know how much that will matter as it was like that when I opened it up. And yeah, I need some thin stiff plastic to clean in between the segments.

Plastic collar stays may work great

 

[Orion7319]

Does Maytronics use this motor across multiple product lines? If this works would you consider creating a separate thread to detail a thorough write up including part numbers etc?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Does Maytronics use this motor across multiple product lines? If this works would you consider creating a separate thread to detail a thorough write up including part numbers etc?

I know the motor assembly is used across all the S series robots. I imagine it’s used in all of the variants (ActiveXX, AXX, etc) as well.

I’ll talk to the boss-man in the morning and see if we can’t get all this info wrapped up in a TFP Wiki article. Shouldn’t be too hard.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

WOW … I ordered these online YESTERDAY AFTERNOON -

View attachment 404253

In the era of COVID supply chain headaches, this is as close to a shipping miracle as you get … even Amazon wanted 2 days to ship.

Gotta love McMaster Carr! They had prime shipping before Amazon made it a thing. I remember ordering things mid afternoon, around 3 pm central time, and stuff showing up the next morning, in Oklahoma, around 10-11am from their ATL warehouse. And paid for standard shipping. Crazy.

--Jeff