Drive Motor ran tooo long

[SSadmiral]

Long time reader... first time poster.

I have a WWI approx 5yrs old. The past several weeks I have come in to find the please wait sign lit up and unitec says wash purchased. It has happened three times over the course of two weeks.

Red lion alert says drive motor ran too long. and my three pole 100amp breaker is tripped. If I reset the breaker we are back up and running. Thinking of going up to a 125amp. Not sure if the breaker is causing the problem or just an effect.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

[Greg Pack]

When you shut the three phase breaker off, is your red lion still powered up? If so, then I think the tripping of the three phase will result in that error. The PLC is still running and looking for movement that is not that there- hence the "drive motor ran too long error".

I believe that Coleman specifies 125 amp fused disconnects for wizards with dryers.

 

[SSadmiral]

Yes the Red lion is still running with the breaker tripped. I don't have a dryer and have moved my presoak to it's own breaker several years ago. I can't seem to find any siemens 125amp 3 phase breakers appearantly they don't make them. Somebody told me I can get a two phase 125 and add a third by drilling a hole in the switches and through bolting them. I may try that.

 

[Greg Pack]

The three phase breakers I have looked at are linked together so that when one leg trips the other two trip. If you bolt a single pole to a dual pole you will not have that feature.

Have you checked the overload in your ECC for it's setting? Ideally it should trip before the 100 amp breaker trips. I think mine is set maybe 10-15% higher than FLA on the pump motor. If someone hasn't tinkered with it I would take a closer look at the amps the unit is pulling, and if the electrical connections are still snug, I would check running and start up amps with an ammeter. It may just be a bad/old three phase breaker. I think a unit w/o dryers is OK on 100amp circuit

 

[MEP001]

It may just be a bad/old three phase breaker. I think a unit w/o dryers is OK on 100amp circuit

Perhaps not if it's running 208 volts.

 

[SSadmiral]

I replaced the breaker with a brand new three phase 100amp and still same problem. I came in today and found it tripped with above symptoms. I went out and bought two 2 pole 125amp breakers and took the connector off of one of my three phase breakers. Luckily I just so happened to have an vacant spot there. So only three are hooked up leaving the third by itself. I spoke to an electrician friend of mine and he said sometimes ambient heat from a neighboring breaker will sometimes cause these things to go.
He did say some are internally connected but it shouldn't matter as long as they are physically connected if one goes they all go.

I'll keep you guys posted on results

 

[Greg Pack]

If your unit has run for five years on a 100amp breaker and you swap out to a new 100 amp breaker and it still trips you've got issues. IMO, you are not fixing the problem, you are just concealing the symptom. Someone needs to spend some time there with a meter and find out what's causing the spike making the breaker trip. How about the unloader?

 

[Jeff_L]

Not sure I would recommend using a larger breaker, could cause more problems and I agree that you may be covering up a problem. If you've been running fine and all of a suddent the breaker is tripping, then there is something causing the breaker to trip. Perhaps inspecting all your cables to make sure there is nothing that has worked free and is causing a short, or making sure the connections are all still tight.

I'm not familair with a WWI, but if there is a contactor involved, you might have a contactor going bad. Possibly the contacts are sticking or the springs in it have gone bad. Just some thoughts for you.

 

[SSadmiral]

o.k. found out the original breaker installed was 100amp and the previous owner modified a 125amp much like the one i recently have done way back when they first opened. The old 125 three phase was illegible so I couldn't have known. I found out that it is wired @ 208 volts which is why I needed the 125. So far so good

Thanks for all the feedback. It's nice to have a place to bounce ideas off of.