[DeTomaso] NPC - electric motors

[Larry - Ohio Time Corp]

Hi Will,

You test AC amps with a clamp on amp meter. (Harbor Freight, Sears or
rental)

http://www.professionalequipment.com/electric-meters/

You need to clamp it on a single wire (hot). You may need to make a test
line with 3 individual wires (Hot, Nut, Gr) just like a short extension
cord.

You did not say you were using a GFI (ground fault interrupt) breaker, you
should be around water. They can become very picky about things after a
storm and trip faster. I had all mine go bad in the house with a lightning
strike to a tree 100 feet from the house.

You should add up the total draw (should be listed on the items) for
everything on the breaker to see how close you are to the max draw. Is it 15
or 20 amp breaker? I bet you are close to 15 amps.

I would not think the motor would be damaged by running on low power during
the outage. Make sure the pump is clean and turning free. Clean the filters
too.

Call me if you need more help. 800.255.6446

Larry (do your fish sing like on TV?) - Cleveland


-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Will Kooiman
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 12:56 AM
To: Pantera List
Subject: [DeTomaso] NPC - electric motors

No Pantera content, but I hope you guys can help - especially the electrical
engineers.

 

When the hurricane hit the Houston area last September, we were without
electricity for about a week.  Our neighbor had a generator, so we used it
to keep our aquarium alive.

 

About a week after electricity came back, we started popping breakers - just
the breaker with the aquarium pump.

 

At first, it would only pop when the lights and chiller were both on.  After
a while, it would pop if I plugged it in with anything else running.  We ran
it for quite a while with an extension chord to an outlet on another
breaker.  Right now, we're using the protein skimmer pump for circulation.
It doesn't pop breakers, but it doesn't really circulate the water enough.

 

Is there a chance that the generator sent dirty electricity to the pump and
burned it up?  It still works, but it seems to be pulling a lot more
current.  How do you measure household current?

 

This is a large tank - about 450 gallons.  The main circulation pump is not
small (too lazy to look at 1am).  I don't want to buy a $300 pump if I don't
need it.

 

NPC, but at least I didn't start another cooling or aerodynamics thread.

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