Troubleshooting A Small Electric Motor That Fails

The motor s design may be capacitor start or capacitor run.

Troubleshooting a small electric motor that fails.

A motor placed in storage may or may not work regardless of its physical appearance. A damaged or burnt out capacitor may hold only a fraction of the energy needed for the. Motor capacitors store electrical energy for the motor to use. Most of the electric motor failures occur at the start up.

There are also other factors which greatly affect the performance of electric motors such as low resistance dirt moisture over current and vibrations. Fuse or circuit breaker is tripped replace the fuse or reset the breaker. As with all modifications on electric or electronic equipment make sure that you unplug the motor before making any modifications or repairs. Electric motors should be installed very carefully and should be looked after at regular intervals.

Motor overloaded or jammed. Stator is shorted or went to ground motor will make a humming noise and the circuit breaker or fuse will trip check for leaks through the coils. You may hear it humming or observe that it s getting hot. A quick check out can be done with a simple ohm meter but there s a lot more information to collect and weigh before actually putting it to use.

Electric motor starting run capacitor troubleshooting faqs questions answers about electric motor start boost or run capacitors capacitors are electric devices that get an electric motor running at start up or that help keep a motor running once it has started. The higher the capacitance of the capacitor the more energy it can store. Hatfield vp of engineering and repair at heco all systems go goes over common types and causes of failures in electric motors at the 2016 reliabi. The most common cause of hvac failure during the hot summer is a motor capacitor.

If the capacitor has failed the symptom is that the motor won t start. These types of motors are what you will find in most home and workshop applications. Here we provide an electric motor diagnostic table a troubleshooting guide that helps diagnose and repair most electric motor problems for motors found on hvac equipment in buildings such as air conditioners furnace or air handler blower fans oil burner motors well pumps and condensate return. Special purpose industrial motors dc three phase will have some differences and i still know nothing about them.

Electric motor test repair guide. Most of them are caused by the over heating of motor. A bad motor capacitor may cause starting problems or could shut off the motor while running. Motor has been running then fails to start.

If leaks are found the motor must be replaced.