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Motor Starter Contacts....better check!

R

Rudy

Active member
I was rinsing down a bay....when the pump just stopped. I went into the equipment room, and found the circuit breaker to the pump stand tripped. When I reset it....BANG! Smoke came out of the motor starter. (BTW...I hate it when the smoke comes out of electrical things....it's VERY difficult to get the smoke back in.....).

When I opened up the motor starter....the wire from the main panel was fried. About 1.5 inches of wire was obviously heating, and had finally melted, broken, and touched the metal case.

It turns out that the screw that holds this wire had loosened over the years. The loose contact caused the wire to heat...and trouble ensued.

Here's the moral to the story...

I checked the other "contacts" in the rest of the car wash motor starters. About 1/4 of them needed some degree of tightening!

You may want to check yours....... Just sayin.
 
It is generally the simple things that get us. I used to check this even on new machines.
 
If you have a thermal camera for checking your floor heat, It might wise to run that over ALL of your electrical connection points over time. It can save you quite a bit of headache and money in the long run. We used to have this performed annually to all cabinets and disconnects at the Amusement Park I worked at. they paid thousands per visit, but probably saved us millions in down time.
 
I bought a FlirOne Pro for my Android phone. It's a thermal camera attachment. It's allowed me to locate the heat loops in my floor heat.

Like everything else....it's sitting on my shelf...unused. Should of, would of could of......
 
Won't hurt to double check them every once in a while now though. Glad you didn't get nailed by finding it with your fingers. It's always better letting the smoke out of devices, rather than humans. (y)
 
Those screws have to be really tight. I can't tell you how many times I've gone through almost new equipment and found them so loose I could turn them by gripping the screwdriver shaft. I tighten them until I can feel the joints in my wrist pop.
 
PrecisionPyro said:
If you have a thermal camera for checking your floor heat, It might wise to run that over ALL of your electrical connection points over time. It can save you quite a bit of headache and money in the long run. We used to have this performed annually to all cabinets and disconnects at the Amusement Park I worked at. they paid thousands per visit, but probably saved us millions in down time.
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Pyro great idea. Wish I would have said that. They work and relatively cheap.
 
I just checked ours and although I definitely wouldn't call them loose they were not as tight as they should be. For some reason the ones at the top where the power comes in I could barely get them any tighter. The ones at the bottom going out to the motor I was able to tighten at least 1/4 turn and some were closer to 1/2. Good tip.
 
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OurTown said:
I just checked ours and although I definitely wouldn't call them loose they were not as tight as they should be. For some reason the ones at the top where the power comes in I could barely get them any tighter. The ones at the bottom going out to the motor I was able to tighten at least 1/4 turn and some were closer to 1/2. Good tip.
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Did you check the ones in the middle?
 
The pump stand is constantly vibrating and these should be checked at least once a month. Make sure to turn the breaker off when checking them and re tightening.
 
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