My wife had a ceramic shop which we closed the doors due to the decline of business. We figured downsizing it to the acreage she be able to keep herslf occupied.
Problem is the clay mixer motor went. It was over 20 years old. Got another motor with thesame spec as the old. It worked once and the next time just gets hot and blows a breaker. So got a 3rd motor same specs again. Got it all hooked up and it gets hot in 5 minutes and trips its reset. Let cool for an hour and does it again. The clay is liquid and very soupy.
Now is my plug in not high enough for these motors.? Do I need to change wire or a breaker.? Or is this motor just not high enough. ? Or did we just get a couple of lemons.?

The specs on the motor is
HP 3/4 HZ 60
Volts 115/230 PH 1
RPM 1725 Code L
A 11.0/5.5 SF 1.0
AMB 40 C FR 56

Insulation Class B Time Rating Cont.
These motors are for Farm Machinery of feeders, augers and conveyors.

I just don't beleive the motors are crap. Just are we unlucky with them or is the eletrica to them not right. I do not recall her shop wiring what it was. But I would thin k the motors with same specs would work. The plug in that it is hooked up to is not being used anywhere else.

So can a eletrician guy help me out.
Otherwise we will loose about $300 in clay and business she is about to make. We cannot afford another motor.

 

Not an electrician but I have worked around them and I have electrocuted myself a few times.........................May not be the motors at all, sounds like the 20yr old gearbox it is turning may be toast, thus burning up the motors. Used to see this a lot in industrial maint. settings.

 

The motors have like a paint mixer blades attached to them. They stir the clay. No gear boxes. Just a straight shaft with large piant mix blades on to help agitate the clay to mix.
I should also say the breaker is a 15 Amp. Is this too small or put on a larger one. Would that require a change in wiring. ?

 

What voltage are you wiring the motor for, and what voltage are you feeding the motor? If they are mismatched, over heating is inevitable

 

I would go back to that original motor and re-verify the specs.......Something is not right.
You could simply try replacing that old breaker with a brand new one of the same amp. and see if that helps, sometimes old ones trip really early.............Again, not the advise of a electrician......just one of the guys who came in and cleaned up the mess left by the "electrocutionists"

 

Make sure that the taps on the motor are wired correctly. I have seen this many times where a customer changes a motor out and the taps are not correct.

If the specs on the motor are exactly the same then you should be all set there.

If the motor is wired for 120V it is pulling 11 Amps. This is very close to the threshold on a 15A breaker. You can change the breaker out to new 15 to see if that helps.

Ideally the motor should have a seperate 20A circuit to feed it or wired for 220V on a 15A circuit.

If you need I can pm you my phone number. I have been lic in the state of MA for close to 20 years.

Good Luck

 

Remember, the new motor can be wired for 120 or 240. Verify the incoming voltage, and wire the motor accordingly. The wiring diagrams are under the cover, and it is just a matter of moving a jumper wire or two. A motor set up incorrectly will probably run for a while, but it will burn up the windings inside fairly quickly, and not run again.

Man, Jim. You beat me to it!

 

Also check the receptacle that you have been plugging the motor into and see that the wire connections are tight.
Seems odd that 3 motors would be bad....

 

Check your motor wiring. Those specs look like the motor can be wire to run on 115vac or 220 vac. This is setup with the wiring in the motor termination box. if you are putting 115vac to a motor setup to run on 22 or vice versu you will burn them up. Normally there is a plate on the motor that shows what wires are connected which way to run what voltage. Also get a meter and measure the voltage on the outlet side of the breaker, breakers can go bad and not allow enough power to the motor, this would cause a lot of heat at the breaker and a potential fire.

 

Problem solved.
Put a new breaker in. A double 15 amp and 12Gauge wire was strung to a new plug in box. The motor is working fine and doing what it is suspose to do.
The other breaker and wiring were too weak for providing the power needed to run the motors.
Thanks for your advice guys.

 

Glad to hear that it all set!!

 

Just curious, you said the motor was a 1725 rpm 3/4 hp with no gear reduction?
That motor is trying to mix clay at 1725 rpms?............I dont want to be near it when running!.......Cant believe any motor is going to last too long at that duty......Hope everything continues well.

 

The old motor lasted more than 20 years. My wife bought the mixer from someone else who had been using the motor and my wife use it for another 16 years since til this spring when it started to quit.
The replacement motors were the same specs as the old original motor. Tonight it has worked quit well. The clay is well mixed now.