Troubleshooting noisy Hayward pump

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mas985 said:
You probably won't. I believe that is one of the reasons why Inyo recommends a professional motor shop for VS motors.

I know some members have used standard bearings in a VS pump and that is there choice and may work out fine for them for at least a little while. If operated on low speed most of the time, some of the issues of using standard bearings in a VS motor may diminish.
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I saw that video by Inyo prior to disassembling my pump last week for the seals. That's why I didn't order the bearings in the first place - Inyo made it sound like a very challenging (and dangerous) process. I was a little surprised when I got everything apart and noticed the bearings were so easily accessible. Now I've got to do the whole process again this week!

Pump sounded great this morning at 8:30AM when it first started up. At exactly 9:00AM, the shrill vibration noise returned, and I turned the pump off to spare the neighbors' sanity (and my own). I'm guessing the noise only manifests itself when the bearing(s) get to a certain temperature and just slightly expand. I'll know for sure by tomorrow or Friday! Replacement bearings deliver tomorrow - I'll start disassembling the pump tonight and will look at the bearing numbers.
 
The bearings went bad on my 5+ year old Pentair Superflo VS recently. I wanted to change them myself, but based on recommendations here and from Inyo, I took it to a local electric motor shop. In addition to replacing the bearings and seal, they checked the windings and drive unit. Fortunately all of that was OK and it was just a seeping seal that caused the front bearing to wear. Normally I try to do things myself for the self-satisfaction and to save some money, but in this case I wanted the pump back in operation quickly and didn't want to worry about damaging some other part of the motor.
 
mas985 said:
Did you ever look at the fan in the rear to make sure there is no issues back there?
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It spun freely when I took it apart originally, and although I suspected some buzzing might be coming from the cover, that wasn't the case when I looked closer when the pump was running.

rowiac said:
The bearings went bad on my 5+ year old Pentair Superflo VS recently. I wanted to change them myself, but based on recommendations here and from Inyo, I took it to a local electric motor shop. In addition to replacing the bearings and seal, they checked the windings and drive unit. Fortunately all of that was OK and it was just a seeping seal that caused the front bearing to wear. Normally I try to do things myself for the self-satisfaction and to save some money, but in this case I wanted the pump back in operation quickly and didn't want to worry about damaging some other part of the motor.
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The bearings are so easy to replace, it's worth a shot to try it myself. If I still have issues after this final replacement, then I'm more likely to just buy a new motor instead of trying to repair this older one. I also finally got good contact info for a local resource that can give me a second opinion after I've exceeded my own capabilities (which we're getting close to).
 
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Update: SUCCESS!

Longer version: the bearings that were in the motor ended up being 6204DU and 6203DW and were made by NSK. I can't find these bearings in NSK's catalog, nor can I find any reference to the 'DU' or 'DW' designation anywhere on their site. I found these bearings for sale on eBay and a couple of other seemingly obscure websites, but I decided to just stick with what I have.

I installed the 6203-2RS-C3 and 6204-2RS from Timken. I see these bearings referenced a ton in various electric motor applications (including variable speed pumps), so I am optimistic they'll be good. I originally got those bearing numbers from another thread on this forum for the same motor, so there's at least some precedent. The 'C3' code on the 6203 bearing is for some additional clearance to allow for heat expansion of the bearing. I don't know if that's necessary or not for this particular application or if a standard 6203-2RS would have been sufficient.

Whatever the case, the pump sounds amazing. The bearings that came out didn't look bad visually, but they were extremely tight and can barely even be rotated by hand. The pump now starts and stops without that bearing chatter, and it is running more quietly than I have ever heard it. No air leaks this time around; the pump basket has no bubbles and is retaining water when the pump is shutoff. If these bearings end up going out prematurely, then I'll reassess which ones need to be put in as replacements. It's generally a very easy process, and now that I've had to completely disassemble this thing multiple times, I'll be able to do it pretty quickly in the future.

Huge 'thanks' to the various folks that offered advice! A special shoutout goes to @mas985 for a lot of dialogue and assistance! The most recent comments from @1poolman1 and @wireform convinced me that it had to be the bearings, and I should have just replaced those from the start.
 
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Do you still have the old bearings?

Double check the numbers because the 6203W could actually be a 6203VV which is a double sided non-contact seal bearing.

Curious as to which was the front vs rear bearing.

Also, a couple of pictures on both sides would be useful to see if there was any insulation on the old bearings.
 
mas985 said:
Do you still have the old bearings?

Double check the numbers because the 6203W could actually be a 6203VV which is a double sided non-contact seal bearing.

Curious as to which was the front vs rear bearing.

Also, a couple of pictures on both sides would be useful to see if there was any insulation on the old bearings.
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It's definitely a 'W' and not 'VV'.

Both sides look exactly the same.

The 6204 was towards the front closer to the strainer housing. The smaller 6203 was at the rear towards the fan.
 

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Do happen to have an ohm meter?

If so, could you measure the resistance between the inner and outer race? Just curious if they are isolated.
 
Not sure if I am doing this right, but getting 'O.L' on the resistance setting with the leads touching the inner race and the outer race.

With the leads touching the outer race on the 6204 bearing, I am getting 0.2. Inner race is 0.2. For the 6203 bearing, I get the same readings. I don't know the unit of measure.
 

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That has a resistance setting right below the HZ setting. Put one lead on the outer race and the other on the inner race.

The attached manual can give you more details if needed.
 

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mas985 said:
That has a resistance setting right below the HZ setting. Put one lead on the outer race and the other on the inner race.

The attached manual can give you more details if needed.
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Yep! That's exactly what I was using. Was confused because the selection was going to continuity by default, and I had to toggle over to resistance.
 
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OL means the races are isolated from each other as would be expected for a VFD motor.

Thanks for the confirmation.
 
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