How long should evap cooler motors last?

Cheap is as cheap does. When I had a cooler, it was stainless steel. Did you drain, dry, and cover it during the off-season? ...Jim Thompson

On a sunny day (Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:37:20 -0700) it happened Joerg wrote in :

If your name is Joerg, yes I think so.

The _motor_ is stainless steel? I seriously doubt that. But anyhow, I didn't have much of a choice given that there has to be a remaining path for walking left where the coolr is. Only the Champion fit.

What I do know is that similar type motors on the Lennox system that completely lives outdoors last >15 years. This one lasted three.

Sure. And I cleaned it thoroughly. Plus made a nice custom wood cover for the inside grille because it hadn't dawned on the designers of these coolers that people may prefer there not to be cold coming in during winter.

In fact, it is better that way because if you only cover the outside then moisture from inside will condensate on the cold cooler parts -> rust.

Sounds like you had a bearing/cage mount rust to the point of jamming, which then burned out the motor.

I presume the motor was attached with the usual adjustment bracket for tightening the belt. Just take that and the belt inside during Winter.

That's a standard duct part at Home Despot. At the old place, during Winter, I simply reached inside a closet and dropped the slide into a slot. (Sheet metal was my fun shop course during Junior High School :-)

...Jim Thompson

The cage and bearings are ok. The motor has the shaft come out both sides and each has a squirrel cage. One cage pulled off the ease, the other one is solidly rusted onto the shaft.

What happened was that the motor windings burned up, very visibly. Some of it wafted through the house in vaporized form. The motor itself still spins easily.

Very cumbersome to do with this one. And no belt. Took me almost half an hour plus some suppressed cuss words to get it out of there.

Not on these coolers. They have a grille with integrated control knob sticking inside by about a couple of inches. Sort of like a hotel room A/C, just not as bulky on the inside.

Cheap, cheap >:-} ...Jim Thompson

winter.

As I said, there wasn't anything else this compact and >2500cfm. Except one Autralian unit but all from plastic and the evap media was some weird stuff where I was not able to find a spare part supply (which I always scope out before buying anything).

What brand was your cooler?

winter.

Trying to remember now, after 20+ years, I think it was this one...

But it was huge, 6500CFM >:-}

You know me, I'm undeterred by anything... I cut away block on the side of the house, inserted a steel beam to keep it from collapsing, added ductwork under a closet into the furnace "room", with a duct "slide", in or out, appropriate to the season.

Had a steel stand custom-size-welded to align it with house, did the electric myself, etc... >:-}

Your post reminds me, there's some bleed-off (?) kit that "wastes" a percentage of the circulating water to minimize scale build-up. Did you have that? ...Jim Thompson

winter.

Their brands appear to not be all that different from ours, regular coated stainless steel:

Has 10 year warranty against rust-through, ours has 8 years. Oh well ...

I sure wish I could install one of those.

The only place where that would have been possible here is already occupied by a huge Lennox heating plus A/C combo. Which is only used for emergencies but needs to remain there. We are on a rocky slope so things ain't as easy as in them flatlands.

I did not install a bleed kit because the water is not very mineral-rich out here. Also, I am quite meticulous when it comes to maintenance. About every three weeks depending on usage I open the unit and clean it out. I ran a wastewater pipe for it so that the procedure will not leave a wet mess. The aspen pads remain so clean that they are good for two seasons. Same for the water, it's always clean.

I have seen folks who let a major sludge deposit build up in their cooler, algae floating around and all that. Yuck. That would be a recipe for legionaire's disease.

winter.

Scary stuff, Legionnaire's. Apparently quite prevalent, according to my daughter who runs the City of Phoenix Water Labs. She has some fancy name for it >:-} It occurs a lot but, fortunately, the really virulent form is rare. ...Jim Thompson

Which indicates that there was condensing moisture.

Assuming you mean the stator windings, then the most likely scenario is the moisture has "soaked" into the windings. Operating the motor caused partial discharges, destroying the insulating varnish of the windings to the point where you get a full-blown short circuit.

As to the question whether this is normal, no of course not. Perhaps the motor winding weren't vacuum impregnated. Low quality of the insulation/poor workmanship is another likely cause. An educated guess would be that the motor is of Chinese origin :-(

Klaus

This is why I don't really understand how people can have roof units. None of the owners I know ever goes up there until season is over. Especially once age-relative aches set in and they don't feel comfortable on a ladder anymore. When I saw the inside of one roof unit I almost threw up. Mold everywhere.

I started out on the roof, but the heat was nasty during service. Then I had the roof foamed (flat Arizona ranch-style roof), so snow blind ;-)

So I moved it to the side of the house. ...Jim Thompson

Not condensing but there is always moisture in the air path of an evaporative cooler, by the nature of its operation. They are supposed to at least plate stuff accordingly.

Possible. The enameled wire is totally in the open. Or was because now it's all a charcoaled mess.

As they all are, but they want around $100 for a new one, of course. If I can find one in stock, that is.

From my window at a hotel in Puerto Rico I saw a major advantage of roof-mounted units: The maintenance guys would climb up there with their tool bags to "check on something", crawl underneath a unit and then doze off for a couple of hours (probably while on the clock ...).

You should have put a little umbrella up there, a lawn chair, plus a nice assortment of beverages :-)

that is meticulous..but consider the bleed kit anyway

without a bleed kit, every molecule of "mineral" that enters with the water, remains in the cooler, it has no way to escape. The water of course evaporates.

with a bleed kit, the concentration of minerals entering and leaving reaches an equilibrium depending upon how much water is bled vs how much evaporates. You may find you can defer the maintenance a bit longer.

use the bleed water for the plants etc

Mark

Heat is bad for these things. Don't use it in hot weather.

Hot weather is exactly what they are made for :-)

Bwahahahahahaha! Let's all hear it for free Marijuana for all >:-} ...Jim Thompson