Whisper Flow Pump Issues

[Butterball05]

Hello all! Just joined the community after some time reading up on pool maintenance and water chemistry in the forums. Sorry for the long post, but here goes...

I'm having issues with my pump after the recent lightning and rain storm here in southern California. Not sure if it's related to the storm or not , but I noticed the pump did not run completely Tuesday and the timer showed it ran for a few minutes but then stopped. Checked the breaker panel and found it was tripped. Switched the breaker off and then back on and was able to manually start the pump. I figured it was just a one time issue and reset the timer.

Today the pump won't turn on at all and all I hear is a humming sound coming from the pump when I manually switch it on. It will trip the breaker if I leave it powered on for a bit. The pump is a Whisper Flow WFE 3 for a 10,000 gallon pool. I didn't get to perform much troubleshooting other than flipping the breaker to see if it would turn on. The pool service guy tested the power and said it was a bad motor and he can replace the motor for $500. I said I would look into it before moving forward.

I read about changing the start and run capacitor, but have not looked into that deeper as well as rotating the shaft from the back of the motor. I also noticed the timer does not run (sound) like it normally does. The timer running noise isn't as loud and constant as it was when I installed it new a couple years ago.

What are my options from here? Could it be a bad timer? Is the motor really shot since he tested the voltage? I watched a couple YouTube videos and the motor replacement seems pretty straight forward and I'm confident I can accomplish it myself. Any tips or ideas to point me in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Peter

 

[ajw22]

Check the input voltage at the motor with a multimeter. If the voltage is good then replace the capacitor.

It is likely a bad capacitor.

Pump Capacitors - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Butterball05]

Ok thanks for the reply! I will check it out once I get home today.

On another note, I'm getting conflicting information when looking for replacement parts and would like anyone's thoughts....

I was looking for a Century VS motor, but there does not seem to be any for 120V power. Had my mind set for a Century B2981 2 speed motor as an alternative, but the pool guy says since its 3/4 HP that 2 speed does not matter since it won't be pushing that much water at low speed and I won't save much money vs the increased cost. He recommends a straight replacement of a SS 3/4 motor to save money vs the 2 speed or a full pump replacement.

InyoPool.com was where I was going to source the 2 speed motor and they said I would see cost savings and that it would pay for itself over time.

Local pool store said to remove the entire pump and replace it with a Pentair Superflow VS which is significantly more but has a VS motor I'm looking for and makes the most sense in the long run due to the new laws in California and replacement parts being no longer available for the single speed and 2 speed pumps in the future.