Issue with Motor Overloading

jweiss

New member
Hi everyone! This is my first time posting ever on any forum, but anyways here I go. I called Clear Vue tech support this morning and left a voicemail. I realize this is a humble operation, so I figure I should throw up my details to see if the community can help me out. Hopefully I am posting this in the correct place - an issues section doesn't exist that I could find.

Issue:
When running system with (1) 6 inch gate open, the motor rpm drops until the start capacitor kicks in and rebounds in a cyclic pattern. I shut the unit down after realizing what was going on - probably two kicks of the starting cap. After letting the motor cool for an hour, I added 2 4 inch hoses and a splitter to the same gate, and attached a ammeter. The motor pulls 30 amps in this configuration. At idle (all gates closed) motor pulls 10 amps. Motor is rated at approx 20 amps full load.

Overview:
I have a new CV1700 (with 16" impeller) system I have completed installing as of last week. I took several days to make sure everything has been installed per the included manual. Lower drum is sealed up 100% with silicone, and gasket at the lid. Piping is all 6 inch sewer pipe - about 60' in total for the entire system and sealed with duct tape. 6 installed gates are Clear Vue brand.

Trouble shooting performed:
Upon experiencing the issue above I measured the motor voltage and amps to be normal at idle. The motor is wired 10ga copper romex straight to the panel 40ft away with a 30 amp breaker. Volts measured 240 at idle, 10A. When loaded with (1) 6 inch gate w/ (2) 10' 4"hoses - 240V, 30A.

Impeller is spinning CCW viewed from below. (Correct for this machine)

Smoke test shows zero leaks anywhere including piping with gates shut. I checked the drum at least 3 times and it is fully sealed to the 9's. I checked this the most since I read it is the most common issue with new installs. I do also suspect my issue is much more dramatic than what a minor leak can cause.

I pulled the capacitor covers on the motor and measured resistance on the caps. Both the running and start cap start at 0 ohm and run towards infinity gradually. (the best I can check with my volt meter. Seems like they are okay (and they should be on a new motor.

I pulled the cover off the terminal box on the motor and confirmed the following connections:
-T8,T4, HOT Line 2 - tightly connected
-P1 (unlabeled wire from heater), Hot L1 - tightly connected
-P3, T1, T5 - tightly connected
(All wiring is SAT)

Conclusions:
My intuition tells me the motor is acting like a 2ish horse motor and not a 5 if everyone else is having the experience that I read online (being able to run multiple gates at once without overload).

I am all out of things to troubleshoot at this time, and feeling a bit defeated here. I have heard great things about this product so I am not giving up yet.

If I had the motor schematic, I would measure the winding resistance. I wonder if the motor has a open winding.



Thanks for reading!! - Jeff
 
Hi Baba,

I should have updated this thread after speaking with Clear Vue support, but first I will respond to your comment regarding impeller rotation. The Impeller direction for the machine I have is CCW viewed from below and it has been confirmed to be sat. Clear Vue tech support was able to also confirm via video sent late last week.

I was able to get in touch with Paul at Clear Vue, and provided some details as well as video footage. Paul did not have motor schematic for me to check windings on the motor, but the suspected cause is still a defective motor. Probably a very rare issue, but this one is acting so weird its hard to imagine it could be anything else at this point. The motor is under warranty and Clear Vue team has been excellent to work with despite my unfortunate situation. I will report back once I have a replacement motor installed. I scheduled some strong help later in the week to pull the unit down.

Cheers!

Jeff
 
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